GRADUATE PROGRAM IN CULTURE AND THEORY
(949) 824-0578
Glen
Mimura, Director
Participating Faculty
Jonathan Alexander, Ph.D. Louisiana State University, Campus Writing Director and Associate Professor of English (writing studies, sexuality studies, queer theory, new media studies)
Dina Al-Kassim, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature (gender and queer theory, global modernisms in Africa, Middle East and Europe, postcolonial critique, Arabic, anglophone and francopohone literature)
Tom Boellstorff, Ph.D. Stanford University, Associate Professor of Anthropology (virtual worlds, sexuality, postcoloniality, HIV/AIDS, mass media and popular culture, language and culture, Indonesia, Southeast Asia)
Chungmoo Choi, Ph.D. Indiana University, Associate Professor of Korean Culture (modern Korea, postcolonial and colonial discourse, popular culture, anthropology)
Bridget R. Cooks, Ph.D. University of Rochester, Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Art History (African American art and culture, Black visual culture, museum criticism, film, feminist theory and postcolonial theory)
Sohail Daulatzai, Ph.D. University of Southern California, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies (Black internationalism, Muslim diasporas, race, cultural studies, postcolonial theory, cultural politics of popular culture-cinema, hip-hop and sports)
Lara Deeb, Ph.D. Emory University, Associate Professor of Women's Studies (gender, modernity, religion, public sphere, time/temporality, memorialization, interfaith intimacies, transnational feminist analyses, Islam, Middle East Studies, Arab American Studies)
David Theo Goldberg, Ph.D. City University of New York Graduate School and Center, Director of the UC Humanities Research Institute and Professor of Comparative Literature and of Criminology, Law and Society (race, racism, race and the law, political theory, South Africa)
Inderpal Grewal, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Professor of Women's Studies (feminist theories of internationalism and transnationalism, cultural studies, human rights, citizenship and mobility, South Asia and its diasporas)
Jonathan M. Hall, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and of Film and Media Studies (Japanese literary, cultural, and cinematic history; critical theories of East Asia; East Asian cinema; psychoanalytic and queer theory)
Douglas M. Haynes, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Director of the ADVANCE Program for Faculty Equity and Diversity and Associate Professor of History (social and cultural history of modern Britain, social history of modern medicine)
Winston A. James, Ph.D. London School of Economics and Political Science, Professor of History (Caribbean, African American, and African diaspora)
Adriana M. Johnson, Ph.D. Duke University, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature (Latin American literature, nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin America, cultural and postcolonial studies)
Victoria E. Johnson, Ph.D. University of Southern California, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies (critical/cultural history of U.S. TV and film, critical race theory, sound and music in film/TV, branding and identity)
Laura H. Y. Kang, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Department Chair of Women's Studies and Associate Professor of Women's Studies and Comparative Literature (feminist epistemologies and theories, cultural studies, ethnic studies)
Ketu H. Katrak, Ph.D. Bryn Mawr College, Professor of Humanities and Comparative Literature (diaspora studies, postcolonial literature, South Asian American cultural expressions)
Rodrigo Lazo, Ph.D. University of Maryland, Associate Dean of Humanities Undergraduate Study and Associate Professor of English (Latino studies, American ethnic and minority literature, Cuba and Cuban American studies)
Mark A. LeVine, Ph.D. New York University, Professor of History (modern Middle Eastern history, Islamic studies, histories of empire and globalization)
Catherine Lord, M.F.A. State University of New York, Buffalo (Visual Studies Workshop), Professor of Studio Art (feminism, queer visuality and theory, photography, creative nonfiction, postcolonial studies, new genres)
Steven Mailloux, Ph.D. University of Southern California, UCI Chancellor's Professor of Rhetoric and Asian American Studies (rhetoric, critical theory, American literature, law and literature)
Glen Mimura, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Director of the Graduate Program in Culture and Theory and Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies (minority, diasporic, and third cinemas; media, nationalism, and globalization; race, sexuality and popular culture)
Yong Soon Min, M.F.A. University of California, Berkeley, Professor of Studio Art (intermedia, migration, cultural studies)
Michael J. Montoya, Ph.D. Stanford University, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Chicano/Latino Studies (social inequality and health; race and ethnicity; social and cultural studies of science, technology, and medicine; the participation of ethnic populations in biomedical research; the U.S./Mexican border, critical bioethics)
Kavita Philip, Ph.D. Cornell University, Associate Professor of Women's Studies (science and technology studies, South Asian studies, political ecology, critical studies of race, gender, colonialism, new media, and globalization)
R. Radhakrishnan, Ph.D. State University of New York, Binghamton, Professor of English and Comparative Literature (critical theory, postcoloniality, nationalisms and diasporas, poststructuralism, postmodernism, democracy and minority discourse, cultural studies, globalization and transnationalism)
Kaushik Sunder Rajan, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Associate Professor of Anthropology (biotechnology, capitalism, comparative ethnography, genomics, globalization, nation-state, political economy, postcolonialism, science and technology studies, subjectivity; India)
Connie Samaras, M.F.A. Eastern Michigan University, Professor of Studio Art and Women's Studies (photography, contemporary visual art, gender studies, culture and technology)
Gabriele Schwab, Ph.D. University of Konstanz, UCI Chancellor's Professor of Comparative Literature (modern literature, critical theory, psychoanalysis, comparative literature)
Jared Sexton, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Associate Professor of African American Studies and of Film and Media Studies (race and sexuality, policing and imprisonment, contemporary U.S. cinema and political culture, multiracial coalition, critical theory)
John H. Smith, Ph.D. Princeton University, Department Chair and Professor of German, and Professor of Comparative Literature (eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature and intellectual history, literary theory)
Jennifer Terry, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Associate Professor of Women's Studies and Comparative Literature (cultural studies, social theory; science and technology studies, formations of gender and sexuality; critical approaches to modernity; American studies in transnational perspective)
Deborah Vargas, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Assistant Professor of Chicano/Latino Studies (Chicana/Latina cultural production; cultural studies; queer studies; women of color feminisms, popular culture and music)
Roxanne Varzi, Ph.D. Columbia University, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and of Film and Media Studies (Islam, visual anthropology, anthropology of war, media, youth culture, religion and public space; Iran)
Linda Trinh Võ, Ph.D. University of California, San Diego, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Asian American Studies (Asian American communities, Asian American women, immigration and race relations, social inequalities, urban studies)
Mei Zhan, Ph.D. Stanford University, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies (medical anthropology, cultural and social studies of science, globalization, transnationalism, gender; China and United States)
Affiliated Faculty
Ackbar Abbas, Department Chair and Professor of Comparative Literature, and Professor of Film and Media Studies
Luis F. Avilés, Associate Professor of Spanish
Etienne Balibar, Professor of French and Comparative Literature
Victoria Bernal, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Sharon B. Block, Associate Professor of History
Vinayak Chaturvedi, Associate Professor of History
Susan Bibler Coutin, Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Society
Beatriz da Costa, Associate Professor of Studio Art, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Informatics
Julia Elyacher, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Raúl Fernández, Director of the UC-Cuba Academic Initiative and Professor of Chicano/Latino Studies and Social Sciences
Gilbert Gonzalez, Professor of Social Sciences and Chicano/Latino Studies
James D. Herbert, Professor of Art History
Susan Jarratt, Professor of Comparative Literature, Education, and Women's Studies
Arlene Keizer, Associate Professor of English
Claire Jean Kim, Associate Professor of Asian American Studies and Political Science
Sanjay Krishnan, Associate Professor of English
Felicidad "Bliss" Cua Lim, Acting Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies
William M. Maurer, Department Chair and Professor of Anthropology
Gonzalo Navajas, Professor of Spanish
Jane O. Newman, Director of European Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature
Kristin Peterson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Nasrin Rahimieh, Director of the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture, Acting Professor of Comparative Literature and Women's Studies, and Maseeh Chair in Persian Studies and Culture
Janelle Reinelt, Professor Emerita of Drama
Belinda Robnett, Associate Professor of Sociology
Fatimah Tobing Rony, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies
Annette Schlichter, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature
Ulrike Strasser, Associate Professor of History
Heidi Tinsman, Associate Professor of History
Rudolpho D. Torres, Professor of Planning, Policy, and Design
Jonathan M. Wiener, Professor of History
The Ph.D. program in Culture and Theory provides a strong theoretical and critical approach to race, gender, and sexuality studies. It combines the established strengths in critical theory at UCI with its core supporting interdisciplinary units in African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies, and Women's Studies, as well as the Critical Theory Emphasis. Interdisciplinary in nature, the program uses a problem-oriented approach to issues of race, gender, and sexuality in diasporic, transnational, and postcolonial contexts, as they are engaged broadly in the humanities, social sciences, and arts.
The Ph.D. program in Culture and Theory is designed to take full advantage of the combined expertise of the nationally and internationally prominent faculty at UCI whose work exemplifies the best in contemporary, critical, interdisciplinary studies in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts.
ADMISSION
Applicants must have earned a bachelor's, master's, or equivalent degree in any discipline in the humanities, arts, or social sciences.
Applicants submit official transcripts, statement of purpose, personal history (U.S. citizens and permanent residents only), three letters of recommendation, aptitude scores from the Graduate Record Examination, and a sample of written work. In addition, an interview may be required. Incoming students are admitted for fall quarter only, and the deadline for applications is January 5.
COURSE CREDIT
Students who enter the program with a Master's degree from another institution may receive credit for prior graduate work, depending on the assessment of the Executive Committee after the student is admitted and before the beginning of the student's second year. The procedure for formally requesting course credit is detailed in the Program Handbook.
REQUIREMENTS
A. Culture and Theory 200A, B, C. Basic to the curriculum, this three-quarter core sequence provides a solid foundation in critical and cultural theories, their philosophical genealogies and institutional histories, and interdisciplinary methodologies. The core sequence also provides the space for an intellectual coherence and cohort building for Culture and Theory graduate students who will be taking most of their other courses in supporting departments and programs.
B. Seven additional theoretical courses drawn from sets of offerings in the core supporting interdisciplinary units, the Critical Theory Emphasis, and other course offerings by core and affiliated faculty, which may include Humanities 260 and 270. One of these courses must be focused on research methods. Working closely with a faculty advisor and committee, students set up a coherent course of study related to one or more of the areas explored in the core courses. Typically the seven courses will revolve around a set of theoretical problems, e.g., feminist theory and practice, critical race studies, sexualities, postcolonialism, transnational circuits, globalization, theorizing the political, philosophical debates on ethics, the intersections of visuality and textuality, to name a few.
The theoretical problem courses are centered on the philosophical and theoretical approaches that form the basis of much work in critical, cultural, and social theory regarding race, gender, and sexuality studies.
C. Six courses on a focused area of study. This might include concentrations within and across a department, within the Critical Theory emphasis, or in one of the core supporting interdisciplinary units. In the latter case, students will take the dedicated core courses of a Graduate Emphasis. Students could also choose to work on a coherent area of focused study devised with their advisor. The courses in a focused area of study address a particular field in which various forms of critical theory have been applied, as well as a focus on groups, nations, and regions: examples include globalization, racism and the welfare state, diasporas of particular kinds, human rights, anti-colonial resistance movements in particular regions, Muslim women and questions of the veil, the Harlem Renaissance, Asian American feminism, modernity and race.
D. Culture and Theory 210. Students take this one-unit course every quarter during their first year. As part of these courses, students are required to attend seminars and colloquia (to be decided in consultation with the graduate advisor) on campus.
E. Culture and Theory 280. In this independent study course taken during their second year, students expand and develop a seminar paper into the Master's paper, with the guidance of their faculty advisor.
F. Students must TA in a Humanities or Social Sciences department or program for a minimum of three quarters. They are also required to take the teaching seminar and workshops associated with the course in which they teach.
G. Culture and Theory 290. Students take this one-unit research and prospectus seminar in their third and fourth years to enable systematic progress toward their dissertation.
Master's Paper and M.A. Degree: During their second year, students work with their faculty advisor to expand and develop a seminar paper into a Master's paper. A Master's paper expands a seminar paper to a version that is of near-publishable quality. Upon completion of the paper, the faculty advisor and two other core faculty members will participate in an assessment of student's work to date.
Ph.D. students will receive the M.A. degree after the satisfactory completion of the three core courses, seven theoretical problem courses, six courses on a focused area of study, and the Master's paper. Those students who complete the M.A. requirements, but whose committees assess their work as not meeting the standards for the Ph.D., will receive a terminal M.A. degree.
Qualifying Examination: Students work with a committee comprised of five faculty members, including one outside member, to draw up reading lists and head notes on four topics. Three of these topics should relate to the major areas of study outlined in the 200A, B, C core course sequence, and one should relate to the student's area of disciplinary or focused study. The examination itself will be comprised of a written and oral exam. A student shall advance to candidacy upon successful passing of the Qualifying Exam and fulfillment of the language requirement, normally at the end of the third year. For a more detailed explanation of the Qualifying Exam, the timeline for its preparation, and composition of its committee, consult the Program Handbook.
Language/Symbolic Systems Requirement: By the time they qualify for candidacy, students must demonstrate through course work or examination the ability to do research in two ancient or modern languages (other than English). Students may petition to have expertise in statistics, mathematics, or computer science replace one of these language requirements, if they have achieved appropriate proficiency and if the work can be shown to be clearly relevant to their field.
Dissertation: The dissertation topic should be drawn from a focused area of study, chosen in consultation with the dissertation advisor and other committee members. Students will draw up their dissertation committee, which must consist of at least three members, at least two of whom must be drawn from the core faculty in the program whose interests match the topic chosen for the thesis. The dissertation committee must also include an outside member who is not a core member of the Culture and Theory program. This committee member may be drawn from Humanities, Arts, or Social Sciences faculty at UCI, from other UC programs, or from an outside university. Students must also prepare a formal written prospectus to be approved by the dissertation committee. Dissertations must be approved by the student's dissertation committee and submitted to the executive committee.
Time to Degree: The normative time for advancement to candidacy is three years. The normative time for completion of the Ph.D. is six years, and the maximum time permitted is eight years.
200A Identity and Difference (4). Introduction to scholarship on social movements, institutions, and theories relating to the rise of identities based on race, gender, ethnicity, class, and sexuality.
200B Power and Resistance (4). Focusing on questions of power and resistance, examines theorists, mostly from the middle twentieth century to the twenty-first century, whose work has led to the study of revolutions and resistance movements and their centrality in cultural theory.
200C Movement and Displacement (4). Focusing on epistemologies of contemporary cultural theory, probes the genealogies of ideas of movement and settlement. Examines ways in which epistemologies of movement and displacement produce texts and contexts of knowledge formation.
210 Culture and Theory Colloquium (1). Provides exposure to research presentations made by UCI and visiting faculty. Enables cohort building, and opportunity to present papers, hear guest lecturers, attend faculty presentations, meet with instructor for discussion. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only. May be repeated for up to six units of credit.
280 Independent Study (4) F, W, S. Limited to students who have not yet received the M.A. degree. May be repeated for credit.
289 Topics in Culture and Theory (4) F, W, S. Seminars on various topics in Culture and Theory. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
290 Research and Prospectus Seminar (2) F, W, S. Bi-weekly seminar required for third- and/or fourth-year students. Students make presentations of dissertation prospectus for discussion. All graduate students welcome to attend and participate. Meant especially for students preparing for formal presentation of prospectus. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only. May be repeated for credit.
299 Dissertation Research (4 to 12) F, W, S. Dissertation research in Culture and Theory. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only. May be repeated for credit.
Supporting courses in participating programs and departments: In addition to the courses listed above, the following courses are open to Culture and Theory students:
Critical Theory:
Humanities 260A-B-C; 270
Asian American Studies: 200A, B; 201
Women's
Studies: 200A, B; 201; 210A; 260A
Chicano/Latino Studies: 212; 213;
217; 220E-F; 230; 289
Other departmental courses: These are already existing courses, most of the topics vary in nature, that are open to Culture and Theory graduate students when they are taught by Core or Affiliate faculty, and when they treat one of the fields covered in the core course sequence. Each quarter the Culture and Theory program office will compile a list of available, relevant departmental courses taught by Core and Affiliate Faculty. The course lists are arranged in a set of rubrics in order to make it easier for students to devise a coherent program of study in consultation with their advisors. Students are not, however, limited, to these rubrics and may devise a problem or areas of their own for the six-course "problem" requirement: Philosophical Foundations of Critical Theory; Critical Theory/Theory at the Border of Disciplines; Intersections of Gender/Race/Class Sexuality; Feminism; Critical Race Studies; Nation, Colonialism, Postcolonialism, Globalization; Reading, Visuality, Textuality; Theorizing the Aesthetic, the Ethical, the Political; Media/Mass, Popular and High Cultures; Disciplinary, Interdisciplinary Methodologies.