Doctor of Philosophy in Cultural Studies - Study of Religion

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 DE in the Study of Religion provides graduate students with an interdisciplinary understanding of how religion in general has been conceptualized and studied historically and how these understandings continue to inform basic categories of thought, behavior and identity across the world and especially in the West. Rather than approaching religion as a fixed entity that informs change in other more dynamic fields (e.g. literature, culture, society, behavior), this program helps students think about the study of religion as historically variable, contextualized, and itself constitutive of the subject of inquiry.

(Un)Official Transcripts
The Statement of Purpose is limited to 4000 characters (including spaces). Graduate Studies at the University of California at Davis requires a 4000 character Personal History Statement. Writing Sample. Research Interests, Letters of Recommendation, Only the general GRE Examination is required.
UC Davis Graduate Studies requires a minimum GPA of 3.0.
TOEFL iBT - Minimum Score: 80
IELTS - Minimum Score 7.0 on a 9-point scale