HELP 2011-2012 University Catalog ■ Cultural Studies Print-Friendly Page

Phone: 703-993-2851
Web: culturalstudies.gmu.edu

Faculty

Albanese, Amireh, Best, Bickford, Bockman, Burr, Censer, Chang, Copelman, Deshmukh, Foster, Froman, Fuchs, Gibson, Gilbert, Greet, Guagnano, Gusterson, Hanrahan, Hodges, Holt, Jacobs, Jann, Johnsen-Neshati, Kaplan, Kaposy, Karush, Kaufmann, Lancaster (director), Landsberg, Leeman, Lont,  Mandaville, Matz, Miller, O’Connor, O’Malley, Palkovich, Rabin, Ricouart, Rosenblum, Sample, Scarlata, Seligman, Shutika, P. Smith, S. Smith, Sockett, Todd, Travis, Yadav, Yocom, Zagarri

Course Work

The Cultural Studies Program offers all course work designated CULT in the Courses  chapter of this catalog.

Cultural Studies at Mason

The Cultural Studies Program is distinctive in several respects. While similar programs at other universities are based in a department, the program at Mason has a truely interdisciplinary foundation, drawing on faculty members from 14 different departments across the university. The program explicitly links the social sciences and the humanities by combining their methods of  interpretation to explore the production, distribution, and consumption of cultural objects in their social contexts. With particular focus on theory and method in crafting this linkage, the program addresses contemporary issues of nationality, class, race, and gender and opens the scope of scholarly inquiry to all forms of culture, past and present.

Undergraduate Programs

Cultural studies does not have an undergraduate program, but supports the interdisciplinary undergraduate program in global affairs.  

Graduate Programs

The doctoral program in cultural studies trains students for scholarship and teaching. The core curriculum includes an introduction to cultural studies and a methods course, as well as courses on political economy, gender and sexuality, critical race studies, science and technology, social institutions, and visual and performance culture.

All students develop field specializations in two areas of cultural studies. The particular strengths of the program are visual culture, media, and new media studies; political economy and globalization; gender and sexuality studies.

Funding

The program offers teaching assistantships and fellowships, which are awarded on a competitive basis. Other sources of funding such as grants, loans, and employment on campus are also available. Students awarded assistantships must register for a minimum of six credits a semester and show satisfactory progress toward their degree.

Related Master’s Degrees

Applicants to the doctoral degree in cultural studies must already hold a master’s degree. For students interested in cultural studies who do not meet this requirement, the university has a number of related master’s degrees. Students are encouraged to apply to one of these programs. Consult the relevant degrees in anthropology, English, history, foreign languages, philosophy, and sociology. Students in these master’s programs who wish to pursue the doctoral program conculde their master’s degrees with a cultural studies seminar CULT 802.

Students may apply simultaneously to one of these master’s degrees and the doctoral program in cultural studies simultaneously. If they do so, the cultural studies faculty may review their academic promise and suitabilty for the program. Students who wish to apply to two degree programs at the same time need to submit two separate applications. Especially strong candidates with bachelor’s degrees may be admitted into the doctoral program provisionally. Admission to the doctoral program will be contigent on their performance in the master’s degree program, particularly on their performance in CULT 802.

Programs

• Cultural Studies, PhD

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