Welcome
The Graduate Group in Cultural Studies at UC Davis offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of culture and society that highlights how sexuality, race, ability, citizenship, gender, nationality, class and language organize embodied identities, social relations and cultural objects. Our program, one of the few advanced degrees in Cultural Studies in the United States, emphasizes the linked analyses of these factors in relation to local community formations, transnationalism, (post)(neo)colonialism, and globalization. Drawing on faculty from a wide range of disciplines and intellectual interests, the program cuts across the humanities, social sciences, the law school, and agricultural and environmental studies.
With the close guidance and supervision of a faculty committee, students in the program pursue interdisciplinary research in areas including studies of comparative and critical race, ecocriticism, fashion, queer theory, media and popular cultural representation, science and technology, Marxist theory, travel and tourism, food, physical and cognitive abilities, cultural geography, transnational culture and politics, globalization, religion, rhetoric, performance, critical theory, and disability studies. Students also take courses in disciplinary areas including Anthropology, English, Comparative Literature, History, and Sociology among others. Many of our students are enrolled in designated emphases programs in African American and African Studies, Critical Theory, Feminist Theory and Research, Studies in Performance and Practice,and Social Theory and Comparative History. Although both the Ph.D. and MA are offered, the majority of students are admitted to the Ph.D. program.