Curriculum | Course Descriptions

The course of study consists of 48 credit hours beyond the M.A., distributed as follows:

  • Core Courses (9 Credits):
  • 802 Histories of Cultural Studies and
  • 806 Seminar in Cultural Studies Research Methods and
  • 808 Student/Faculty Colloquium (3 semesters, one credit P/NP per semester)
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  • Theory Courses (3 Credits):
  • 810 Culture and Political Economy or
  • 814 Gender and Sexuality or
  • 820 After Colonialism: Race, Ethnicity, and Nation
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  • Methods Courses (3 credits):
  • Students take one disciplinary course in a method in which they are not already trained: e.g., semiotics to poststructuralism; critical ethnography; historiography.
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  • Topics Courses (3 Credits):
  • 812 Visual and Performance Culture or
  • 816 Science/Technology or
  • 818 Social Institutions
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  • Fields of Specialization (18 credits):
  • Students concentrate their study in two fields and produce two statements of field as a demonstration of mastery in these areas. (A field statement is a review of the major issues, problems, and texts in an area of scholarship accompanied by an extensive bibliography of the relevant texts, in the form of the Annual Reviews series). Field specializations involve a minimum of 9 credit hours study in each field (18 credit hours total). At least 3 of those 9 credit hours take the form of a Directed Readings course (CULT 870) to produce each field statement. (Successful field statements, accompanied by an oral examination, serve in lieu of written examinations to demonstrate professional competence in a field.)
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  • Dissertation Research (12 credits):
  • 998 Dissertation Proposal
  • 999 Dissertation Research