FAS - Cultural Studies
The Program for Cultural Studies is an interdisciplinary program concerned with the dynamics of culture on a global scale. It provides an institutional forum for responding to the increasing need to comprehend the role and formation of culture beyond national boundaries and disciplinary divisions. Starting from the early 1960s, centers, programs, and journals have attempted to address new questions imposed by changing relations and communications among nations since World War II. In the 1980s, programs and institutions in cultural studies began to be formally established in this country. The Program for Cultural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh was created in the mid-1980s; it incorporates faculty from most departments in the humanities and the social sciences, and from some professional schools in the University. The program attracts students at the University of Pittsburgh who wish to work beyond the confines of the existing departmental structures.
The program addresses debates concerning the theory of texts and their production; the relationship between culture and politics; the formation of disciplines and institutions; and the nature of cultural antagonisms and crises. It features a variety of recent methodologies of historical and textual interpretation, and offers students opportunities to work with faculty and other students from the following departments, programs, and schools: Anthropology, Classics, Communication, East Asian Languages and Literatures, English, Film Studies, French and Italian Languages and Literatures, Germanic Languages and Literatures, Hispanic Languages and Literatures, History, History and Philosophy of Science, History of Art and Architecture, Law, Medicine, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Public and International Affairs, Religious Studies, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Sociology, and Theatre Arts.
Each term the program offers a series of core and designated courses open to any interested graduate student. In order to fulfill its interdisciplinary commitment, the program presents a common seminar to encourage ongoing interaction between students and faculty; courses team-taught by scholars from various departments throughout the University; one- or two-day colloquia, workshops, or seminars with faculty both inside and outside the University; a series of lectures by well-known scholars, followed by seminars for students with the speaker. Invited speakers have included Stanley Aronowitz, Homi Bhabha, Peter Brooks, Jacques Derrida, Stuart Hall, Fredric Jameson, Richard Rorty, and Alan Sokal.
The program offers programs leading to a master's degree certificate or a doctoral certificate in Cultural Studies.
Contact Information
- Main Office: 1301 Cathedral of Learning
- Phone: (412) 624-7232
- Fax: (412) 624-4575
- E-mail: cultural@pitt.edu
- Web site: http://www.pitt.edu/~cultural
Director: Nancy Condee
Affiliated Faculty: ANDRADE (English), ARAC (English), BAKER (History), BEVERLY (Hispanic Languages and Literatures), BOONE (English), BOVä (English), BRUSH (Sociology), CARR (English), CITTON (French and Italian Languages and Literatures), CLARK (Communication), CLARKE (English), CLOTHEY (Religious Studies), COLIN (Germanic Languages and Literatures), CONDEE (Slavic Languages and Literatures), DRESCHER (History), EDWARDS (Religious Studies), ENGSTROM (Philosophy), FARARO (Sociology), FAVORINI (Theatre Arts), FEUER (English), FISCHER (English), FUSFIELD (Communication), GAUTHIER (Philosophy), GILL (Classics), GOSCILO (Slavic Languages and Literatures), GR–NBAUM (Philosophy), HAKE (Germanic Languages and Literatures), HALL (History), HARRIS (History of Art and Architecture), HARRIS (Slavic Languages and Literatures), HASHIMOTO (Sociology), HAYDEN (Anthropology), HIBBITTS (Law), JONES (Classics), JUDY (English), KANE (Religious Studies), KNAPP (English), KRIPS (Communication), KRIPS (English), LANDY (English), LENNOX (History and Philosophy of Science), LEWIS (Medicine), LIVEZEANU (History), LOONEY (French and Italian Languages and Literatures), LU (East Asian Languages and Literatures), LYNE (Communication), MacCABE (English), MACHAMER (History and Philosophy of Science), MARKOFF (Sociology), MARTIN (Hispanic Languages and Literatures), MASSEY (Philosophy), McCLOSKEY (History of Art and Architecture), McCONACHIE (Theatre Arts), McGUIRE (History and Philosophy of Science), MORA~NA (Hispanic Languages and Literatures), MORENO (Sociology), MUENZER (Germanic Languages and Literatures), NORTON (History and Philosophy of Science), NOVY (English), NUTINI (Anthropology), ORBACH (Religious Studies), PADUNOV (Slavic Languages and Literatures), PETERS (Political Science), POULAKOS (Communication), PURI (English), RAWSKI (History), RIMER (East Asian Languages and Literatures), RINGER (History), RUSSELL (French and Italian Languages and Literatures), SAVAGE (History of Art and Architecture), SAVOIA (French and Italian Languages and Literatures), SCHEUERMAN (Political Science), SEITZ (English), SHEON (History of Art and Architecture), SMETHURST (Classics), STABILE (Communication), STRATHERN (Anthropology), THOMPSON (Philosophy), TOBIAS (English), TWYNING (English), VENARDE (History), VON DIRKE (Germanic Languages and Literatures), WATTS (French and Italian Languages and Literatures), WEINTRAUB (Music), WEIS (History of Art and Architecture), YOUNG (Public and International Affairs)
Publications
Cultural Studies faculty edit journals of international renown, including boundary 2 and Critical Quarterly, leading publications in the study of culture.
Admissions
Students who wish to apply to the certificate program must be enrolled in a graduate or professional program at the University of Pittsburgh and must be in good academic standing.
The master's certificate in Cultural Studies is granted only after the completion of all degree requirements for the MA (or corresponding degree) in the student's home department, school, or program. The doctoral certificate can be awarded only after the student has been admitted to candidacy for the PhD (or corresponding degree). A student may earn either a master's certificate or a doctoral certificate, but not both.
Financial Assistance
One-year fellowships are awarded annually to outstanding resident students.
Requirements for the Master's Certificate
The following are course requirements for the master's certificate in cultural studies:
Common Seminar
One core course from group A or B (see Courses below)
One designated Cultural Studies course in the student's home department or school
One designated Cultural Studies course outside the student's home department or a course from group C
Requirements for the Doctoral Certificate
The following are course requirements for the doctoral certificate in cultural studies:
Common Seminar
Three core courses (one from each group)
One designated Cultural Studies course in the student's home department or school
One designated Cultural Studies course outside the student's home department
Students from departments without foreign language requirements are expected to demonstrate the ability to use primary and secondary texts in one language other than English. Courses are regularly offered in the language departments toward the achievement of this level of reading proficiency.
Course Listings
General descriptions of the courses offered within the Cultural Studies Program are detailed below.
Common Seminar
This course, offered annually, is designed to give students the opportunity to interact with faculty and other students from Cultural Studies and other departments, programs, and schools. Recent Common Seminars have been: Evidence and Argument in the Human Sciences; Myth, Ideology, and Science; and Identity.
Core Courses
Core courses in cultural studies are broken into three groups: text and theory; disciplines and intellectual movements; and cultural antagonisms and cultural crises.
(Group A) Text and Theory
Courses in this group provide training in the study of textual practices and literary theories. They review contemporary critical approaches, identify the rhetorical elements in a variety of textual practices (including film), examine the work of recent criticism and theory, and evaluate the reception of texts and their ideological implications. Included in this group are such courses as:
- COMMRC 2229 Media and Global Cultures
- RELGST 2830 Cultural Critics
(Group B) Disciplines and Intellectual Movements
Courses in this group focus on the relationship between the cultural, the social, and the political; the relationship between interpretation and explanation; the history of intellectual movements beyond national borders; the formation of fields of knowledge, disciplines, and genres; and the historical conditions in which disciplines are institutionalized, as well as the intellectual modes of their assessment. Included in this group are such courses as:
- SOC 2302 Sociology of Religion
- HPS 2690 History and Philosophy of Psychology
(Group C) Cultural Antagonisms and Cultural Crises
Courses in this group explore, compare, and contrast the nature and consequences of historical moments and intellectual debates particularly rife with cultural and social upheavals. Such crucial confrontations may be geographical (north-south, east-west); they may involve issues of individuality versus collectivity (revolutions, nationalism, ethnicity); or they may explore distinct cultural oppositions (pop culture and high culture, scientific models of knowledge and humanistic models of knowledge). These courses have included:
- PHIL 2650 Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
- ENGLIT 3104 Made in U.S.A.: America in French Culture
Designated Courses
Each term the program cross-lists several designated courses offered in various departments, programs, and schools. Included in this group have been such courses as:
- ENGLIT 2021 History and Spectacle
- HPS 2663 Perception
- HPS 2685 Science and Its Rhetoric
- GER 2702 Double Outcasts
- RELGST 2745 Ritual Process
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