GRADUATE PROGRAM IN CULTURE AND THEORY

Inderpal Grewal, Director

Courses

Participating Faculty

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 African American Studies and 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, Assistant 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, Director of the Graduate Program in Culture and Theory and 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, Director of African American Studies and 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, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies and of African American 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, Associate Professor of Women's Studies, Comparative Literature, and English (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 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, 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 Asian American Studies, 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, Assistant 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, Assistant 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, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Women's Studies and Associate Professor of 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 (Islam, visual anthropology, anthropology of war, media, youth culture, religion and public space; Iran)

Linda Trinh Võ, Ph.D. University of California, San Diego, UCI Chancellor's Fellow and 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 (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, Assistant Professor of Studio Art and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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, Assistant Professor of English

Felicidad "Bliss" Cua Lim, 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, UCI Chancellor's Fellow Associate Professor of History

Rudolpho D. Torres, Professor of Planning, Policy, and Design

Jonathan M. Wiener, Professor of History

Graduate Program

The Ph.D. degree in Culture and Theory provides a strong theoretical and critical approach to race, gender, and sexuality studies. Using the strengths of critical theory at UCI and drawing upon faculty from the interdisciplinary programs and departments in Women's Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies, African American Studies, and Critical Theory, this interdisciplinary degree program uses a problem-oriented rather than a disciplinary approach to issues of race, gender, and sexuality in relation to diasporas, transnational, and postcolonial contexts, all of which are broadly based in the humanities, social sciences, and arts. It has the distinct mission of setting into systematic dialogue critical theory and cultural studies, through gender, race, and sexuality studies.

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 two official transcripts, a statement of purpose, three letters of recommendation, aptitude scores from the Graduate Record Examination, and a sample of written work. In addition, an interview may be required. Students are admitted for fall quarter only, and the deadline for applicants is January 15.

To be admitted formally into the doctoral program, students must satisfactorily pass an evaluation at the end of their first year of study; this includes students who entered with an M.A. from another institution.

NOTE: Ph.D. students will receive the M.A. degree after the satisfactory completion of specified requirements, as a step toward the Ph.D. Those students who complete the M.A., but whose committees assess their work as not meeting the standard for the Ph.D., will receive a terminal M.A. degree. Students who enter the program with an M.A. from another institution may receive full or partial credit for the M.A, depending on the assessment of the Executive Committee at the time the student is admitted or on the assessment of the student's faculty advisor and committee during the student's first year. Students who receive full credit for the M.A. will be exempt from writing the master's paper.

REQUIREMENTS

A.   Culture and Theory 200A, B, C. Basic to the curriculum, this three-quarter core sequence serves to lay 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 participating programs and departments, including 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 an Interdisciplinary Program (IDP). In the latter case, students will take the dedicated core courses of a graduate emphasis as well as departmental courses approved for the emphasis. Students could also choose to work on a coherent area of focused study devised with their advisor. The focused area of study courses address a particular field in which these theories have been applied, as well as a focus on groups, nations, and regions, such as 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 a master's paper, with the guidance of their faculty advisor.

F.   Students must TA in a Humanities or Social Sciences department or an Interdisciplinary 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: During their second year, students work with their faculty advisor to expand and develop a seminar paper into a master's paper. 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.

Qualifying Examination: Students work with a committee to draw up reading lists and head notes on four topics, three of them relating to the major areas of study outlined in the 200A, B, C core course, and one of them relating to the area of disciplinary or focused study as it pertains to Culture and Theory.

Students then write responses to two-four exam questions and take an oral exam. The exam committee will include two members from the student's discipline of concentration or focused area of study, of which one will be outside the Culture and Theory program, and three members from within the program, chosen with careful attention to match the student's fields of interest with the expertise of the faculty members.

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 specialization from a focused area of study, chosen in consultation with the graduate advisor and executive committee. Students will draw up their dissertation committee, which must consist of at least two members 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.

Courses in Culture and Theory