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College of Arts & Sciences

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