MA in Cultural Studies
Cultural Studies
Welcome to the Cultural Studies Department
Cultural Studies situates culture as a site of power struggles between competing systems of representations and the ways of life that they support. Our methods of study are critical: not only exposing the ideological dimension of culture but also exploring its radical political potential.
Our faculty members specialize in feminist and queer studies, critical race theory, film and media studies, museum studies, Latino/a studies, Africana studies, Asian Pacific Islander studies, and more. The CGU Cultural Studies Department is distinguished by offering both an MA and PhD in Cultural Studies. The department offers several concentrations, including Media Studies and Museum Studies, which are unique for their combination of a strong emphasis on cultural theory and hands-on practical experience. Students in the program can also choose to specialize in such transdisciplinary concentrations as American Studies, Early Modern Studies, or Hemispheric & Transnational Studies.
Instruction in Cultural Studies is carried on in seminars. Classes are small and each student’s program individually designed. Students have considerable input in the design of their courses of study, including choice of concentrations and minor fields.
Because many students enter the program from other disciplines, the department offers a variety of introductory courses in addition to advanced-level courses. Students are required to take courses in research methodologies appropriate to their interests in Cultural Studies: possibilities include ethnographic field research methods, visual research methods, oral history, archival studies, digital humanities, and film or literary theory and analysis.
Cultural Studies Department, Claremont Graduate University
Chair: David Luis-Brown
831 N. Dartmouth Avenue • Claremont, CA 91711 • 909-621-8612 • Fax 909-607-9587
David Luis-Brown
Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and English
Chair, Cultural Studies Department
The 2021 Bradshaw Conference:
Futurity and Future Publics – A Quarter Century of Cultural Studies at Claremont Graduate University
Programs
PhD in Cultural Studies
Core Faculty
Joshua Goode
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
David Luis-Brown
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
Darrell Moore
Visiting Associate Professor of Cultural Studies
Philosophy Teachout Coordinator
Research Interests
Aesthetics, Africana Intellectual Thought, Critical Theory, Continental Philosophy
Eve Oishi
Associate Professor of Cultural Studies
Research Interests
Cultural studies, Media studies, Feminist and queer theory, Asian American studies
Linda Perkins
University Professor
Director, Applied Gender Studies
Research Interests
Women and African-American higher education, history and contemporary issues on women in higher education, especially Black women, global gender issues.
Extended Faculty
Elizabeth Affuso
Pitzer College
Research Interests
Spectatorship, Fandom, Branding, Technology, Architecture, Moving image media art, Reality television
Myriam Chancy
Scripps College
Research Interests
African diaspora with specialization in its literature
Jih-Fei Cheng
Scripps College
Research Interests
Feminist and queer of color approaches to media representations of public health issues
Ciara Ennis
Pitzer College
Research Interests
The appropriation of Wunderkammer tactics in contemporary curatorial practice
Paul Faulstich
Pitzer College
Research Interests
Cultural ecology, Ecological design, Ecology of expressive culture, Aboriginal Australias
Jennifer Friedlander
Pomona College
Research Interests
Cultural studies, Contemporary art controversies, Film theory, Psychoanalytic theory
Erin Runions
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
Current Graduate Students
Dissertations in Progress
Samine Joudat
PhD Candidate
Dissertation Title
The Specter of Representation: Computational Images and Algorithmic Capitalism
Graduate Students
Laura Black
PhD Student
Research Interests
Museum Architecture and Exhibition Design, Curatorial Theory, Aesthetics, Museological Ethics, Contemporary Art
Natalia Brazao-Cartas
PhD Student
Research Interests
Cultural Tourism, Heritage and Memory, the Sociology of Leisure, Latino/a/x Studies, Hemispheric Americas Studies, Comparative Public History
Gina Caliboso
PhD Student
Research Interests
Filipino-American history, Ethnic Studies, Intersectional Studies, Higher Education, Women’s Studies, Social Media Impact Studies
Gongju Cha
PhD Student
Research Interests
Critical Theory, Cinema and Media Studies, Asian American Studies, and Human Rights
Lorise Diamond
PhD Student
Research Interests
Black feminism, multi modal rhetoric, intercultural communication; Critical Race and Queer Theory; Transnational partnerships, Social evolution
Adrienne Domasin
PhD Student
Research Interests
Game Studies, ransmedia Storytelling, Television Studies, Narrative Theory, All Things Post-Apocalyptic, Curation of Popular Culture Artifacts
Mackenzie Eastman
MA Student
Research Interests
Digital media, new media preservation, curatorial theory, arts activism, STEAM, education, equity & accessibility in the arts
Hannah Fradkin
MA Student
Research Interests
Lesbian visibility in archives, queer lived experience, inclusive history, repatriation
Kimani Francois
PhD Student (Interfield with Religion)
Research Interests
Christian Ethics, Womanist Theology & Ethics, Social Movements, Black Feminist Theory, Civil and Human Rights, and Clergy Leadership
Joe Garcia
MA Student
Research Interests
Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Holistic Education, Ecological Literacy & Design
Anne Geismann-Alene
PhD Student (Concentration in Museum Studies)
Research Interests
Japanese art history; Japan Fulbright PhD Dissertation Research Grant Fellow 2023-2024; Contemporary site-specific art & architecture, biennials & triennials: their role in community revitalization and impact on artistic, curatorial, museological and visual practice
Oscar Guerrero Alvarado
MA Student
Research Interests
Equity and Inclusion in the Museum Field
Kiandra Jimenez
PhD Student
Research Interests
Africana Studies, Womanist/Black Feminist Theory, Black Women’s Rhetoric Tradition, Latinx and Indigenous Studies, Transnational Feminism
Denise Johnson
PhD Student
Research Interests
Race, psychoanalysis, and photo history
Abstract Kouadio
MA Student
Research Interests
My research implies multiple reads and is informed by an interest in how “things” come to shape our experiences and worldview. I reinterpret the connections we build our personal myths on through the objects we observe, words that we read and hold on to. In addition, I seek to explore social identity paradigms through lyrical content in contemporary Hip-Hop songs.
Gene Luzala
PhD Student
Research Interests
Queer and Transgender people of color, Oral History, Queer and BIPOC History, Feminist and Queer theory, Critical Race Theory, and gender identity development
Moina Maaz
PhD Student
Research Interests
Researching the role of Muslim women as mothers, educators, students, influential social agents, and ambassadors of Islam in North America.
Shante Morgan
PhD Student
Research Interests
Intersection of race/ gender/ communication
Lee Painter-Kim
MA Student
Research Interests
Mixed race theory, trans politics, arts organizing
Juan Carlos Parrilla
PhD Student
Research Interests
Latinx Theater, Latinx and African American literature, The Theory of the Duende, Afrofuturism, Poetics of Space, Ancient Mesoamerican culture, Archaeology, Geographic Information Systems
Joseph Allen Ruanto-Ramirez
PhD Student, Concentration in American Studies
Research Interests
Global Indigenous Studies, Asian American Studies, Indigenous diasporas, posthumanism, Igorot and Igorot American identities
Dennis Sandoval
PhD Student
Research Interests
Afro-Latinx/Latino
Annamae Sax
PhD Student
Research Interests
LGBTQIA+ studies, Disability and Mad Studies, feminism and intersectionality, anti-racism, abolition and anarchy, performance, and body politics
Kelsie Shawver
PhD Student
Research Interests
Researching the role of Muslim women as mothers, educators, students, influential social agents, and ambassadors of Islam in North America.
Daniel Talamantes
PhD Student
Research Interests
Environmental Anthropology, Animal-Human Relations, Environmental History, Queer Theory, Diaspora, Ethnic Studies, California
Eric Thomas
PhD Student
Research Interests
Latin American and Latinx studies; Indigenous Studies; colonization and comparative race in the Americas; immigration studies; hemispheric cultural studies.
Ayoub Touti
PhD Student
Research Interests
Race, Sexuality, Gender and Socioeconomic dynamics in the Arts specifically Cinema, Television, Literature and Theater
Arline Votruba
PhD Student
Research Interests
Reproductive justice, feminist movement, gender
Katie Ward
MA Student
Research Interests
Postcolonialism, disability studies, critical race theory, and prison abolition.
Alicia Wyneken
MA Student
Research Interests
Critical study of creative expressions, thoughts, practices, and products in relation to social, political, historical, rhetorical, and economic contexts.
Tiara Yahnian-Murta
PhD Student
Research Interests
Aesthetics, Conflict Studies, Contemporary Art, Continental Philosophy, Critical Historiography, Critical Narratology, Critical Security Studies, Critical Theory, Genocide Studies, History of Philosophy, Intellectual History, Memory Studies, Museum Studies, Philosophy of History