in person
MA in Cultural Studies
Cultural Studies students are taught to use critical theory to understand cultural practices and activist politics in a variety of intellectual and practical settings. As a student in one of the oldest Cultural Studies programs nationwide, you’ll study with faculty-scholars active in such fields as American and hemispheric literary studies, African American and Black Diaspora studies, feminist and queer studies, comparative Latina/o studies, European history, media studies, and museum studies. Your study includes training in field- and text-based research, ethnography, textual analysis of film and media, archival studies, digital and visual research methods, curatorial methods, and oral history, spanning the humanities and allowing you to tailor your academic experience. The MA program offers ideal circumstances for collaborating with colleagues in other CGU departments and schools as well as with other member colleges in the Claremont University Consortium. Our graduates gain expertise that lets them navigate political, cultural, and economic terrain using sophisticated discourse, inquiry, and research techniques.
40 units
required units
MA in Cultural Studies
degree awarded
In Person
modality
Spring, Fall
program start
2 years | full time*
estimated completion time
The American Studies concentration takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of United States culture, society, civilization, and identity through the curricular lenses of history, literature, critical theory, and more.
The Early Modern Studies concentration undertakes interdisciplinary examination of history, culture, politics, and society within the transitional and transformative period that stretched between Medieval and modern societies, marked especially by the advent of print, Christian confessional war, and the rise of the modern state.
A comparative analysis of culture in the Americas, the concentration in Hemispheric & Transnational Studies explores how scholarship on the Atlantic, borderlands, and diaspora have reshaped U.S. American Studies, Caribbean Studies, and Latin American Studies, emphasizing the topics of empire, race, religion, and revolution.
Situated at the bustling intersection of cultural studies, new media, critical theory, and popular culture, the burgeoning field of Media Studies examines the creative and critical practices of media consumers, producers, artists, and scholars, focusing on questions of representation, power, technology, politics, and economy.
The Museum Studies concentration investigates the history and political role of museums in society, the interpretation and display of a wide variety of cultural productions, and topics of special concern to museums as cultural organizations, using a multidisciplinary, practice-based approach to understand the historical development of this evolving field.
University of Minnesota
Doctoral Student, American Studies
University of California, Davis
Doctoral Student, Cultural Studies
University of California, Irvine
Academic Counselor
The Nature Conservancy, Los Angeles
External Affairs Manager
Share Your Voice Foundation
Co-founder, Educational Program Director
Public Engagement at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Curatorial Assistant
Visual and Performing Arts Education Program at UCLA
Associate Director
Pitzer College
Professor, Department of Media Studies
California State University, Los Angeles
Professor, Departments of Liberal Studies and Communication Studies
Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies
Research Interests
Consumer culture, social media, algorithms and data science, infrastructures and urban public space
Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies
Research Interests
Black studies, urban geography, policing and carceral studies, abolition studies, cultural studies, indigenous studies, racial capitalism.
Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and History
Chair, Cultural Studies (Fall 2022)
Research Interests
Modern Spain, 19th- and 20th-century Europe, Genocide and racial thought, Museums and commemoration, Memory
Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and English
Chair, Cultural Studies Department
Research Interests
Hemispheric Americas studies, Latino/a/x studies, Black diaspora studies, American literature and culture
Visiting Associate Professor of Cultural Studies
Philosophy Teachout Coordinator
Research Interests
Aesthetics, Africana Intellectual Thought, Critical Theory, Continental Philosophy
Associate Professor of Cultural Studies
Research Interests
Cultural studies, Media studies, Feminist and queer theory, Asian American studies
Pitzer College
Research Interests
Spectatorship, Fandom, Branding, Technology, Architecture, Moving image media art, Reality television
Scripps College
Research Interests
African diaspora with specialization in its literature
Scripps College
Research Interests
Feminist and queer of color approaches to media representations of public health issues
Pitzer College
Research Interests
The appropriation of Wunderkammer tactics in contemporary curatorial practice
Pitzer College
Research Interests
Cultural ecology, Ecological design, Ecology of expressive culture, Aboriginal Australias
Pomona College
Research Interests
Cultural studies, Contemporary art controversies, Film theory, Psychoanalytic theory
Pomona College
Research Interests
The intersections of biblical interpretation and political philosophies, with their multiple impacts on political subjectivity, gender, sexuality, U.S. national sovereignty, and biopolitics
Course Requirements
Research Tools Requirement
Research Paper
Special Program
In addition to earning an MA in Cultural Studies, you can complete a certificate program in Africana Studies or Women’s & Gender Studies.
Item | Description |
---|---|
Application Fee | $80 |
Official Transcripts | Yes |
Letters of Recommendation | 3 |
Statement of Purpose | Yes |
Resume | Yes |
Standardized Test Scores | Optional |
Other Requirements | Writing sample, English proficiency exam |
CGU operates on a priority deadline cycle and applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit complete applications by the priority dates in order to assure maximum consideration for both admission and fellowships.
Spring 2024
Priority Deadline – November 1, 2023
Final Deadline (International) – November 15, 2023
Final Deadline (Domestic) – December 1, 2023
Classes begin – January 16, 2024
Fall 2024
Priority Deadline – February 1, 2024
Final Deadline (International) – July 5, 2024
Final Deadline (Domestic) – August 1, 2024
Classes begin – August 26, 2024
Program | 40 units |
Tuition per unit* | $2,020 |
*Based on 2023-2024 tuition rates.
$245 Student Fee |
$150 Technology Fee |
International Student Services Fee*: $661 fall semester, $776 spring semester **Applies to all international students (F-1 visa only) who are registered in coursework, doctoral study, or continuous registration. The fee is assessed each fall and spring semester for annual ISO accident and sickness plans and administrative fees. Subject to change. |
For estimates of room & board, books, etc., please download CGU’s Cost of Attendance 2022-2023 .