If cultural studies is in crisis, the answer to it is not to be found in some theoretical or methodological claims proper to the field (for instance, concerning the specificity of its object, culture), but in its two ‘transversal’ qualities: on the one hand its political commitment, on the other hand its interdisciplinarity. Discussing two attacks launched against inderdisciplinarity (S. Fish and R. Krauss), this article attempts to reconcile a new cultural studies agenda (language, technology, history, law) and a permanent reflection on the very sense of the whole enterprise (and this is where cultural studies and philosophy meet).