This talk examines how contemporary cultural studies is shaped by institutional and political pressures while confronting demands for engaged public pedagogies. Focusing on the racialisation of settler colonial Asian identities and insights from critical whiteness theory, Dr. Teo explores how universities produce and regulate knowledge about race. Further, by considering how Asian racialisation has been alternately hypervisible and marginalised within Western academic discourse, the talk interrogates how institutional norms reproduce racial hierarchies prejudicial to this racialised group through curriculum design, hiring and promotion practices, and standards of “neutral” scholarship. He also considers tensions between academic insularity and public scholarship, asking whether cultural studies can contribute meaningfully to debates on race despite institutional constraints.