It is sponsored by the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University.

The journal also acts as a forum for discourse on occasions where cultural, social, and political differences emerge as public eruptions.

[1] From 2015 to 2019, Public Culture was edited by Shamus Khan, Professor of Sociology at Columbia University.

Since 2020, the journal is edited by Arjun Appadurai and Erica Robles-Anderson, Professors of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University.

In 2013, the same body named Public Culture co-winner of the Phoenix Award for Significant Editorial Achievement,[4] recognizing the journal's revitalization and transformation with a "marked emphasis on accessibility and broader relevance.