May 17, 2025  
Fall 2025 Graduate Catalog 
    
Fall 2025 Graduate Catalog

Cultural Studies


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Department of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature
Certificate Awarded: Graduate Certificate in Cultural Studies
 
Chairperson: Vacant
Graduate Program Director: Izabela Kalinowska-Blackwood, Humanities Building room #1067 (631) 632-7396
Graduate Program Coordinator: Mary Moran-Luba, Humanities Building room #1055 (631) 632-7456
 
 

Students who complete the Cultural Studies Certificate Program will, upon completion of their home department’s Ph.D. program, be awarded the Ph.D. in “[home department] and cultural studies.” Ph.D. students from all departments at Stony Brook are eligible; M.A./M.F.A. students may also apply and be admitted by the director of cultural studies.

The cultural studies program at Stony Brook is designed for students whose interests cut across traditional modes of study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Areas of emphasis include popular and mass culture, minority and diasporic cultures, visual culture, media and technology, cultural production, cross-cultural and transnational/global formations, as well as the study of elite, dominant, and national cultures.

The Cultural Studies Certificate program is designed for graduate students whose interests are not fully served by traditional Humanities and Social Science departments but who seek to be employed by such departments as they continue to adapt and evolve in a changing disciplinary and interdisciplinary landscape. The certificate is administered through the Department of Cultural Analysis and Theory (CAT), in conjunction with the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook. CAT’s strengths lie primarily in literary and cultural theory, cinema and media studies, visual culture studies, and cross-cultural studies, as reflected in the Department’s popular undergraduate major in Cinema and Cultural Studies. A network of Cultural Studies affiliated faculty represent a wide range of areas in disciplines including Africana Studies, Art History and Studio Art, Asian and Asian American Studies, Digital Art, Culture and Technology (cDACT), English, European and Hispanic Languages, History, Music, Philosophy, and Women’s Studies. The Certificate Program is open to students enrolled in any of Stony Brook’s Ph.D. programs. M.A./M.F.A students may be admitted on approval of the Director of Cultural Studies, who will advise students in tailoring the program to their specific needs. The Certificate will be awarded upon completion of the 15-credit sequence (two core courses and three electives), which may also be counted toward the Ph.D. in the student’s home department.

Electives


Two-credit CST elective courses are also required. These will normally be included in a list of electives published in the semester prior to their being offered (available in the CAT Department). Students may request that other relevant courses be approved to count as electives by contacting the director of cultural studies. Please be aware that a maximum of 6 graduate credits earned prior to the student being matriculated into the secondary program can be applied to the secondary program.

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