To Receive Well-It's Critical

This essay explores a non-negationist approach to the "critical" by recounting cultural studies's recent articulation of intellectual work to social movement practice. The academicization of cultural studies is evaluated not as cooptation of criticality, but as subsumption, which creates new platforms for action. Ultimately, Cultural Studies would benefit from its own "reception study" in which its powers to be affected could be enhanced to reconnect it with ongoing popular struggles.