Students who specialize in an area of humanistic, social science and/or cultural studies (e.g. religion) are expected to conduct in-depth study within the context of culture and society. This will include themes and figures that represent the myriad disciplines that cultural studies comprises, including but not limited to religion, anthropology, communication, sociology and psychology. Instead of pursuing a separate master’s degree, students have the option to take 24 hours of approved graduate courses in several fields (anthropology, communication, economics, education, English, Hispanic studies, history, performance studies, political science, psychology, sociology and other areas with approval).
Students interested in pursuing this option must:
- Have their planned course of study approved by the Graduate Program Advisory Committee (GPAC) by the end of their third year.
- Form an interdisciplinary committee of advisors (including four members of the graduate faculty, at least one of whom is drawn from a department other than philosophy) by the end of their third year.
- Complete 24 hours of non-philosophy graduate courses, with a grade of B or better, from an approved list (see next section), of which no more than four courses (12 hours) are in the same academic department and no more than two courses are at the 400 (upper undergraduate) level.
- Complete a 20-page (minimum) publishable paper (as determined by the faculty committee) that incorporates aspects of the student’s interdisciplinary studies (students may take three hours of research in order to complete this requirement).
The non-philosophy graduate courses that can count toward fulfillment of the Cultural Studies Option are listed below. In addition, Special Topics (689) and Directed Studies (685) courses in other departments can be approved on a case-by-case basis by the student’s interdisciplinary advisory committee. The GPAC will update the following list as course offerings at Texas A&M University change. If a student believes that another course would be appropriate given his or her special interests with respect to the Cultural Studies Option, they should seek approval from their interdisciplinary committee.
Religious Studies
RELS 489 taken for graduate credit
RELS 392/ENGL 392 Studies in Literature, Religion and Culture
RELS 485 taken for graduate credit
RELS 425/HIST 425 The Sacred and Profane in History
RELS 464/PHIL 464 Modern Jewish Thought and Philosophy
RELS 403/ANTH 403 Anthropology in Religion
RELS 480/COMM 480 Religious Communication
Psychology
PSYC 620 Theories of Social Psychology
PSYC 621 Seminar in Social Psychology
PSYC 622 Affective Science
PSYC 660 Self and Identity
PSYC 690 Cognoscenti: Professional Issues in Cognitive Psychology
PSYC 685 Graduate Directed Study
PSYC 689 Special Topics
Anthropology
ANTH 602 Archaeological Methods and Theory
ANTH 609 Culture and Evolution
ANTH 623 Folk Narrative
ANTH 622 Folklore Forms and Methods
ANTH 630 Human Evolutionary Ecology
ANTH 635 Violence and Warfare
ANTH 641 Applied Anthropology
ANTH 658 Quantitative Ethnographic Methods
ANTH 685 Graduate Directed Study
ANTH 689 Special Topics
Communication
COMM 620 Communication Theory
COMM 628 Political Communication
COMM 653 Rhetoric and Public Culture
Sociology
SOCI 605 Social Movements
SOCI 615 Contemporary Sociological Theory
SOCI 618 Sociology of Education
SOCI 621 Social Psychology
SOCI 651 Sociology of Culture
SOCI 685
SOCI 689
Women and Gender Studies
WGST 603/SOCI 603 The Contemporary Family
WGST 610/SOCI 610 Reproduction, Birth, and Power
WGST 634/EHRD 634 Introduction to Gender and Education
WGST 639/ANTH 639 Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in Archaeological Research
WGST 645 Queer Theory
WGST 649/EHRD 649 Feminist Pedagogy
WGST 650/EHRD 650 Gender and International Education
WGST 652/COMM 656 Feminism and Rhetoric
WGST 657 Race, Gender, Science and Technology
WGST 661/SOCI 661 Sociology of Gender
WGST 680/ENGL 680 Theories of Gender
WGST 685 Directed Studies
WGST 689 Special Topics in...
WGST 694/FILM 694 Gender and Genre
Other courses not cross-listed with WGST:
COMM 634 Communication and Gender
COMM 652 Rhetoric of Social Movements
ENGL 645 Topics in Gender, Literature, and Culture
HISP 645 Hispanic Women Writers
HIST 666 History of Technology
HIST 674 Readings in Chicano-Latino History
LAW 639 Employment Law
LAW 646 Family Law
LAW 652 Gender and Law
PERF 606 Performing Gender and Sexuality Through Music
PERF 682 American Theater: Gender on the U.S. Stage
POLS 673 Seminar in Gender and Politics in Comparative Perspective
PSYC 633 Gender and Minority Issues in Clinical Psychology