2009-2010 University Catalog
Cultural Studies
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■ Cultural Studies
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 thus 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. CULT 320 - Globalization and Culture is a core requirement for global affairs majors.
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 gender, sexuality, and body studies; visual culture and media studies; political economy and globalization; and race, ethnicity, and nation.
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 established a number of related master’s degrees. Students are encouraged to apply to one of these programs. See Graduate Programs in the English, History and Art History, Modern and Classical Languages, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Sociology and Anthropology sections of this chapter. These programs cumulate in a capstone seminar, CULT 802.
Students may, if they wish, apply simultaneously to one of these master’s degrees and the doctoral program simultaneously so that 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 on a conditional basis. Admission is contigent on their performance in the master’s degree program, particularly in CULT 802.
Doctoral Degree
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