Where to go for a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies

Ph.D. Programs in the United States with Programs in Cultural Studies

Most Ph.D. programs in the Humanities will allow and encourage cultural studies approaches, and will be of interest to students wanting to pursue their studies in this field. Our students have gone on to do PhD work at the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, the University of California at Berkeley, and others. The following list is of schools and programs that specifically designate themselves as having a focus on cultural studies. We offer it as a good place to start an investigation into possible Ph.D. programs.

See also Gil Rodman's more comprehensive listing, which also includes undergraduate programs, and programs outside the United States, at http://www.cas.usf.edu/communication/rodman/cultstud/programs.html.

Claremont Graduate School , Program in Cultural Studies

Claremont University's Cultural Studies Department was established in 1995. It is a graduate-only program that grants M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in cultural studies. The interdisciplinary curriculum trains students to research and analyze the nature, origins, production, distribution, and persistence of contemporary and past cultures. Students study cultural change and continuity, the operation of contemporary cultural forms, the construction of knowledge, the emergence and functioning of power relationships, and the shaping of cultural identities and their interactions with other cultural phenomena.

New York University , Program in American Studies

The Program in American Studies offers courses of study leading to the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. It is designed to prepare students for advanced work and teaching in American Studies. Interdepartmental by definition, the student's course of study is arranged by the Director and the Director of Graduate Studies and involves seminars offered in the program and selected courses in the Departments and Programs of Africana Studies, Anthropology, Cinema Studies, Comparative Literature, English, Fine Arts, History, Journalism and Mass Communications, Liberal Studies, Music, Performance Studies, Philosophy, Politics, and Sociology. The program's committee is made up of faculty from many of these departments. The program interprets "American" in a broad sense to include assessments of the historical role of the United States in the Americas and, more generally, in world affairs. Inasmuch as the program has a regional focus, special attention is given to studies in urbanism and to New York in particular, a global city that comprises many world cultures.

University of Arizona , Department of Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies

Established in 1987, the Graduate Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory (CPLT) quickly achieved considerable strength, attracting many of the best scholars and teachers in the College of Humanities and elsewhere, as well as excellent students, many of whom are from other countries or are members of under-represented groups in the United States. The focus of the program, however, shifted to literary and cultural studies, and the program was officially reorganized in 1992 to the Graduate Program in Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies (CCLS) to reflect this development. The program encourages students to explore similarities and differences within and among national cultures and literatures, as well as in the work of individual authors. Such studies focus on the production, circulation, and interpretation of meaning and value in a variety of discursive formations from literature and art to cultural performances and political economies. It confers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

University of California/Davis, Graduate Program in Cultural Studies

The Graduate Group in Cultural Studies at UC Davis emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to research that includes intersectional analyses of class, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, nation, transnationalism, postcolonialism, and related areas of inquiry. The UC Davis program cuts across the humanities, social sciences, and agricultural and environmental studies and draws faculty from a wide range of disciplines and interests. Students may pursue research in the following emphasis areas: 1) gender and masculinity, 2) sexualities, 3) comparative race studies, 4) media and popular cultural representation, 5) science and society, 6) transnational and global studies, 7) religions and communities, and 8) rhetoric and critical theory. Or, with the close guidance and supervision of a faculty committee, students may create unique emphasis areas. M.A., Ph.D.

University of California/San Diego , Department of Literature

The Cultural Studies Section offers graduate students the opportunity to study "culture" from a materialist perspective within the comparative context of several traditions of language and literature. A Cultural Studies project may locate its inquiry within a single national and historical context (e.g., nineteenth-century U.S. culture), or it may consider the forms and practices generated by the encounter between two or more cultural entities. Culture, broadly defined, is approached as a set of practices that includes literary, aesthetic, social, juridical, political, and "popular" forms and articulations, always grounded in historical context. Offers Ph.D.

University of California/Santa Cruz , History of Consciousness Program

History of consciousness is an interdisciplinary graduate program centered in the humanities with links to the social sciences and arts. It is concerned with forms of human expression and social action as they are manifested in specific historical, cultural, and political contexts. The program stresses flexibility and originality. Interest is focused on problems rather than disciplines. Although students are prepared to teach in particular fields, the emphasis is on questions that traverse a number of different ones. Over its 30 years of existence, history of consciousness has won increasing recognition as a leader of interdisciplinary scholarship. Program graduates are prolific scholars at prominent universities, and recent dissertations are regularly published by major academic presses. Graduates currently find employment in a wide range of disciplines, including: literature, women's studies, science studies, anthropology, sociology, American studies, cultural studies, ethnic studies, communications, and philosophy. Offers Ph.D.

University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign , Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory

The Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory is an interdisciplinary program developed within both the Graduate College and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Drawing upon the expertise and resources of nineteen humanities and social science departments, the Unit promotes a broad range of teaching, research, and related scholarly activities. Through designated courses, the ongoing work of the Faculty Criticism Seminar, regular exchanges of work in progress, a monthly colloquium, and visits to campus of distinguished scholars from other institutions, the Unit provides both students and faculty with an interdisciplinary vantage point for their own teaching and research. To graduate students enrolled in M.A. or Ph.D. programs in participating departments, the Unit also offers a formal program leading to advanced certification in criticism and interpretive theory.

University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Department of Communication

Because learning techniques (whether personal or technical) does no more than prepare one to perpetuate the social structures for which those skills are appropriate, a scholarly approach to communication must enable students to analyze the relationships between social structures and communication practice. The study of this process includes historical-critical, descriptive, interpretive, and comparative analyses. Major concerns of the discipline include the organization and function of media systems, the process of interpersonal, public, and mass communications, the relationships between communication systems and social institutions, and the history of communication and communication theory. Offers Ph.D.

University of Minnesota (USA), Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature

Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature (CSCL) offers interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies of how varying modes of discourse (e.g., art, architecture, literature, music, philosophy, religion) are both rooted in and active within history, society, and culture. The objective is an improved understanding of the complex interrelation of ideas, values, social patterns, and material realities, with attention to the subtleties inherent within different styles of thought, genres of expression, cultural contexts, and historic moments. The Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature offers two graduate school programs: Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society and Comparative Literature.

University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill , University Program in Cultural Studies

As universities are facing new pressures and scholars are facing the complexities of a changing world, the field of cultural studies has gained both importance and visibility. No model has emerged as the dominant organization of cultural studies as either a research or pedagogical practice. The University Program in Cultural Studies is an interdisciplinary program with both curricular and scholarly resources and responsibilities at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its goal is to encourage interdisciplinary research and education in cultural studies and to help produce a viable and flexible model for cultural studies and its role in the contemporary university by working closely with other and interdisciplinary programs. In addition to sponsoring an ongoing lecture series and annual conferences, the UPCS awards a B.A. and a graduate certificate in cultural studies.

University of Rochester , Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies

An innovative graduate program with a unique emphasis on visual and cultural studies, Rochester's Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies provides students with an opportunity to study critically and analyze culture from a social-historical perspective. The Program stresses the close interpretation of artistic production within historical and cultural frameworks. The Visual and Cultural Studies Program, housed in the Department of Art and Art History, offers students the chance to earn a master's or doctoral degree by doing intensive work simultaneously in several of Rochester's humanities departments. Because the primary faculty work in art and art history, film studies, and comparative literature, students are able to relate recent developments in literary and cultural theory to visual works, and to investigate the interrelationships between visual texts and critical theory. Students may also take courses in such departments as anthropology, history, music, and philosophy.

University of South Florida/Tampa , Department of Communication

The graduate programs in Communication at the University of South Florida focus on interpretive, critical, and qualitative approaches to the study of human communication. With this approach to research and teaching, we hope to help to create humane understanding, peaceful intervention, and applied solutions to pressing problems of individual and social life. While few faculty wish to be limited to a specific "area" of research, they represent scholarship that is conducted among the general areas of interpersonal and family relationships, organizational communication, health communication, rhetoric and social influence, cultural studies, performance studies, communication theory and systems, and issues of cultural diversity. (M.A., Ph.D.)

University of Tennessee , Cultural Studies in Education Unit

Cultural Studies in Education is a graduate unit that derives its intellectual identity and orientation from disciplines such as anthropology, history, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. The Unit offers concentrations at the master's degree level in Urban/Multicultural Education (Track II), Sociocultural Foundations of Sport, Social Foundations of Education, and Motor Behavior/Sport Psychology. The Ph.D. is also offered in all of these areas except Urban/Multicultural Education. Pending approval of the Graduate Council, M.S. and Ph.D. Concentrations will be added which are based more heavily on social theory and a blending of educational and sport studies.

University of Texas at Austin , Paredes Center for Cultural Studies

At the Paredes Center for Cultural Studies, students can pursue the Graduate Concentration in Folklore and Public Culture, within the Department of Anthropology, or a Doctoral Portfolio in Cultural Studies administered by the Américo Paredes Center for Cultural Studies (formerly the Center for Intercultural Studies in Folklore and Ethnomusicology), an interdisciplinary center devoted to the production and dissemination of cultural studies scholarship and research. Associated with the Department of Anthropology, the Center includes affiliated faculty from such diverse fields as English, ethnomusicology, Asian studies, history, Mexican American Studies, communications, Radio-Television-Film, and theatre and drama. Text, Practice, Performance, the center's journal, provides a space for the publication of the work of UT graduate students, an additional locus for interdisplinary exchange, and an opportunity for students to edit and bring to press journal volumes.