The Curriculum, Cultural and Social Studies concentration within provides students the opportunity to explore, critique, and expand upon historical and contemporary trends of education while producing scholarship that critically engages with these topics and others in order to be an advocate for societal improvement. This concentration includes three independent, yet overlapping, threads that doctoral students may pursue: Curriculum Studies, Cultural Studies, and Social Studies.
The three threads of our doctoral concentration are, in their own right, independent fields of study, yet provide naturally overlapping and interdisciplinary links. The areas are intertwined and multifaceted, thus allowing you to learn about content in each of these areas. Broadly, this concentration aspires to understand educational practices within broad social, geopolitical, and cultural frameworks, focusing on what counts as knowledge, and what knowledge is most valued, by whom, at what time, and for what purpose.
Using philosophical and theoretical underpinnings, innovative research methodologies, and timely pedagogical practices, this program will enhance your collaborative experience through cutting-edge research experiences, conference presentations, and mentorships. Areas of interest in this field deal with interdisciplinary matters concerning global, cultural and civic identity, equity and social justice, cultural studies as public pedagogies, and critical literacies and pedagogies. Topics such as neo-colonization, local and global politics, gender and sexuality studies, culture and society, immigration, institutional power, and the national curriculum are also an eminent part of the specialization. Students who complete this program may go on to be educational leaders, advocates, and experts in the field while working with diverse populations and settings.
