ABSTRACT
From 1978-1984, when I was associated with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, completing first an MA and then a PhD, were years of seemingly inexhaustible intellectual energy, passionate commitment and political vision. Pessimism of the intellect, a response to a rapidly increasing state authoritarianism, the brutal effects of everyday racism and gender inequality, and what appeared to be the continual defeat of left and progressive agendas, was countered by an optimism of the will exercised in intellectual activity in the service of social, political and economic transformation.
