To identify a set of defining traits and goals of the cultural studies field is the task of this intervention. It begins by investigating how leading actors in this field today define it: the Association for Cultural Studies and the journals Cultural Studies, the European Journal of Cultural Studies, the International Journal of Cultural Studies, and the Inter- Asian Cultural Studies. Three main tropes are identified: diversity, contextualisation and critique. Each of them have partly succeeded but other aims remain unfulfilled. Two central tasks are formulated. First, cultural studies needs a reinforced critical reflexivity to explain what it is and why it is needed as a driving force for interactive diversity, contextualising meaning making and communicative critique. Second, the field needs to be on high alert, stepping forward and responding fast and loud to the current totalitarian threats against sustainable and resilient academic knowledge production.