Why and how do contemporary questions of culture so readily become highly charged questions of identity? The question of cultural identity lies at the heart of current debates in cultural studies and social theory. At issue is whether those identities which defined the social and cultural world of modern societies for so long - distinctive identities of gender, sexuality, race, class and nationality - are in decline, giving rise to new forms of identification and fragmenting the modern individual as a unified subject. Questions of Cultural Identity offers a wide-ranging exploration of this issue. Stuart Hall firstly outlines the reasons why the question of identity is so compelling and yet so problematic. The cast of outstanding contributors then interrogate different dimensions of the crisis of identity; in so doing, they provide both theoretical and substantive insights into different approaches to understanding identity.

斯图亚特·霍尔(Stuart Hall，1932— )，当代文化研究之父、英国社会学教授、文化理论家、媒体理论家、文化研究批评家、思想家。1951年他以罗氏奖学金到英国牛津大学学习并取得文学硕士学位。20世纪50年代始霍尔参与创办两份重要左派刊物《大学和左派评论》及《新左派评论》；1964—1979年应霍加特邀请任英国伯明翰大学“当代文化研究中心”(Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies，简称CCCS)代理主任及主任。

霍尔的主要论著有：《电视话语中的编码和译码》(1973)，《文化研究：两种范式》(1980)，《文化、传媒、语言》(1980)，《“意识形态”的再发现：媒介研究中被压抑者的回归》(1982)，《意识形态与传播理论》(1989)，《文化身份与族裔散居》，《文化、传媒与“意识形态”效果》，《结构“大众”笔记》等。

保罗·杜盖伊(Paul du Gay)，英国华威大学教授，主要著作有《做文化研究：索尼随身听的故事》等。