Program Overview

Cultural Studies is an emphatically interdisciplinary area of inquiry that intersects the humanities, science studies, the social sciences and the arts. Its researchers theorize the forces that shape the lived reality of people in the 21st century. Drawing on a range of practices, researchers investigate values, beliefs and belongings, cultural processes and cultural objects, economic and social relations, institutions and identities. What distinguishes Cultural Studies from other approaches to the study of culture is its recognition that no single disciplinary approach can get at the complexity of cultural forms and its emphasis on power, social justice and social change. As one of the only Cultural Studies program in Canada with a project option, Cultural Studies at Queen’s (CSQ) is a unique program that integrates the range of theoretical approaches used within Cultural Studies, and that fosters scholarship in both historical and contemporary fields of research.

Opportunities

Cultural Studies offers opportunities to break down conventional divisions between academia and activism, between theoretical critique and cultural production. Necessarily self-reflexive, Cultural Studies draws on a range of methods and critical theories. Comprising 89 distinguished faculty from 22 disciplines to offer an innovative program at the M.A. and Ph.D. levels, CSQ is committed to a diversity of students and faculty and to the global expertise that they bring to the cultural and academic fields.

Method of Completion

Ph.D.: 4 full-term courses in the first year, including two required core courses; plus CUST-802, a qualifying exam; thesis proposal exam; thesis or project

Career paths - employment opportunities

Professional work in fields related to the study of culture, including work in the media, non-profit agencies, museums, galleries, publishing houses and social policy agencies. The objective of the Ph.D. program is also to prepare candidates for careers in teaching and research. Our graduates will have acquired a broad knowledge of research in their area of study and will have the ability to design and teach courses in that area.