Doctor of Philosophy in Cultural Studies - Environmental Humanities

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. 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, and critical theory. Although both the Ph.D. and M.A. are offered, applications are only accepted for the Ph.D. program, and the M.A. is available as a terminal degree in route to the Ph.D.

The Designated Emphasis in Environmental Humanities allows UC Davis graduate students from affiliated departments to concentrate their studies on questions related to the environment as a philosophical concept, a historical and cultural category, a venue for ethical and political struggle, the material context of social reproduction, and the terrain of all creative work. Using tools adapted from the humanities and humanistic social sciences, affiliated faculty lead graduate students in the study of the relationships between and among humans and animals, societies and ecosystems, global economies and the Earth system.