The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham in England, launched in 1964, highlights contested issues of knowledge production in relation to the disciplines in modern universities. It constitutes a fascinating example of the social formation of configurations of knowledge that can be subjected to historical analysis such as those conducted for example by Richard Selleck, Geoff Sherington and other recent historians of education. It enacted an explicit ideal of interdisciplinarity in its approach to research, teaching and social practices, unlike for example educational studies which in the same period generally held to a weaker model of multidisciplinarity. Archival documents and interviews with some of those who were participants or witnesses of its development shed light on CCCS's approach to interdisciplinarity in action. This generated significant works such as "Unpopular education: schooling and social democracy in England since 1944" and a collegial style of teaching and research, but also led to isolation, political vulnerability and its eventual closure in 2002.