Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)

Stuart Hall FBA
Born	Stuart Henry McPhail Hall (1932-02-03)3 February 1932 Kingston, Jamaica
Died	10 February 2014(2014-02-10) (aged 82) London, England
Nationality	British
Known for	Founding New Left Review
Spouse	Catherine Hall ​ (m. 1964)​
Children	2
Academic background
Alma mater	Merton College, Oxford
Influences	Louis Althusser[1] Roland Barthes[1] Umberto Eco[1] Michel Foucault[1] Antonio Gramsci[1] Richard Hoggart Karl Marx[1] Raymond Williams[1]
Academic work
Discipline	Cultural studies sociology
School or tradition	Birmingham school
Institutions	University of Birmingham Open University
Doctoral students	Paul Gilroy
Notable students	Gregor McLennan
Notable ideas	Encoding/decoding model of communication
Influenced	Les Back Rey Chow Ashley Dawson Michael Denning Brent Hayes Edwards Lawrence Grossberg Dick Hebdige Ralina Joseph Isaac Julien Roshini Kempadoo
Website	www.stuarthallfoundation.org

Stuart Henry McPhail Hall FBA (3 February 1932 – 10 February 2014) was a Jamaican-born British Marxist sociologist, cultural theorist, and political activist. Hall — along with Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams — was one of the founding figures of the school of thought known as British Cultural Studies or the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies.^[2]

In the 1950s Hall was a founder of the influential journal New Left Review. At Hoggart's invitation, he joined the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham in 1964. Hall took over from Hoggart as acting director of the CCCS in 1968, became its director in 1972, and remained there until 1979.^[3] While at the centre, Hall is credited with playing a role in expanding the scope of cultural studies to deal with race and gender, and with helping to incorporate new ideas derived from the work of French theorists such as Michel Foucault.^[4]

Hall left the centre in 1979 to become a professor of sociology^[5] at the Open University.^[6] He was President of the British Sociological Association from 1995 to 1997.^[5] He retired from the Open University in 1997^[7] and was professor emeritus there until his death.^[8] British newspaper The Observer called him "one of the country's leading cultural theorists".^[9] Hall was also involved in the Black Arts Movement. Movie directors such as John Akomfrah and Isaac Julien also see him as one of their heroes.^[10]

Hall was married to Catherine Hall, a feminist professor of modern British history at University College London, with whom he had two children.^[3] After his death, Stuart Hall was described as "one of the most influential intellectuals of the last sixty years".^[11] The Stuart Hall Foundation was established in 2015 by his family, friends and colleagues to "work collaboratively to forge creative partnerships in the spirit of Stuart Hall; thinking together and working towards a racially just and more equal future."^[12]