Women's / Gender / Cultural Studies 2009

[HelloFeminists]

Where has everyone applied / heard back from so far?

I've applied to:

UC Santa Barbara, Feminist Studies Ph.D

UC Davis, Cultural Studies Ph.D

UCLA, Women's Studies Ph.D

UC Irvine, Culture & Theory Ph.D

San Francisco State, Women Studies MA

San Diego State, Women's Studies MA

I've been accepted to UC Santa Barbara, which is FANTASTIC since they've been my #1 choice so far due to the amount of faculty with research interests parallel to mine etc. I haven't heard about funding yet, though, and I haven't heard back from any other programs. How about everyone else? Good luck!

[abolitionista]

I applied to Culture and Theory at UC Irvine, as well. I have not heard back yet. I do have a meeting with a professor next week. I'm hoping for the best. However, I did see on the board that someone was accepted via phone on Feb 8th.

[HelloFeminists]

I applied to Culture and Theory at UC Irvine, as well. I have not heard back yet. I do have a meeting with a professor next week. I'm hoping for the best. However, I did see on the board that someone was accepted via phone on Feb 8th.

Abolitionista, did the professor contact you about setting up the meeting, or vice versa? Are you already fairly close to Irvine? I'm all the way in MA, so it will be an all-day experience just to fly to Santa Barbara

[abolitionista]

hi hellofeminists,

I have been in communication with this professor for sometime now. I initially contacted him in October to discuss the possibility of working with him as a student if I were admitted to the program. We had a few email back and forths and then he stopped responding. I sent him an email at the beginning of January letting him know I would be in Irvine in February and would love to meet with him. Last week he finally responsed and said he'd be glad to meet with me. This is after he hadn't responded to two other email and I thought I was turning into a pest. So, I'll see where it goes from there but I'm trying not to get my hopes up because I initiated it.

I'm sort of close to Irvine. I'm currently living in berkeley so it's only a little over an hour away on a plane.

My focus is race and radical social movements tailored through a feminist lens. I graduated with a BA in Fem Studies. It's nice to see other feminist on this board

best,

abolitionista

[cooperphd]

Abolitionista-

I study social movements from the perspective of race and gender as well. Just curious, but are you interested in intersectional issues or comparative issues. I find a lot of programs are interested in the intersectional approach but few are working on the comparative approach. I had considered feminist studies programs, but then decided to do Law and Society programs because I thought that fit better. Good to see there are some feminists out there grappling with similar issues.

[abolitionista]

hi cooperphd,

I'm also taking the comparative approach. I considered my programs by really looking into their faculty. I guess you can say I scouted the faculty first then the program, weighed both then chose. The programs I chose had professors with really clear and similar research interest. It was then really easy for me to connect with them based on my interest.

I'm still in limbo waiting to hear back so we'll see if this approach to applying was worth it.

What programs did you apply to?

best,

abolitionista

[cooperphd]

Abolitionista-

I applied to NYU (Law & Society), UC Berkeley (Jurisprudence and Social Policy), UC Irvine (Criminology, Law & Society), UIC (Criminology, Law and Justice), ASU (Justice Studies), SUNY Binghamton (Social, Political, Economic and Legal Philosophy) and American University (Law and Justice). I heard last night that I am wait listed at UC Irvine and accepted to UIC, but only into the Master's program. I already have a masters from an ivy so I won't be accepting that offer. Did you do an interdisciplinary undergrad program? I studied Law & Society as an undergrad and it really was a place where I could put all my research interests into one place. However, that hasn't translated as easily to phd programs.

[enantiomorph]

.

[abolitionista]

cooperphd- those are all very dynamic programs. I looked into the JSP program at Berkeley. I debated myself on whether or not to apply but thought the Af Am program was more of a fit for my project. I did get my BA in an interdisciplinary subject, Feminist Studies, so I think that helps my application in the interdis programs. But we will see, it seems like nothing translated very easily in the PhD arena

enantiomorph- I'm glad you introduced yourself. I took the praxis route and decided to work for two years after undergrad. To say the least it was painful for me so I'm heading back to 'heady' academia, my home and comfort zone. I'm heading to Irvine tomorrow to meet with Professor X. I'm excited and nervous to say the least. I wish I could also meet with Professor Y but I haven't mustered up the courage to email him. He doesn't teach in the Culture and Theory department but I would love to just converse with such a great mind. He also taught at my Alma Mater when I was a freshman. So I encourtered his genious at one point in my life. Tell me anything you can about Irvine. Do you know much about the Culture & Theory Phd? What about Professor X? His work is so dynamic and amazing.

[enantiomorph]

sent a pm with juicy details :mrgreen:

[abolitionista]

sent a pm with juicy details :mrgreen:

Thanks. Now I can remove the Prof names from my post.

[abolitionista]

Has anyone heard from UCI's Culture and Theory program or know when they plan to report? Just curious... Thanks

[HelloFeminists]

Has anyone heard from UCI's Culture and Theory program or know when they plan to report? Just curious... Thanks

I did hear from someone during my recruitment visit to UCSB that they'd been accepted to the Culture and Theory program. So I'm guessing we're both on the wait list at best. We shall see.

[riss287]

I'm kind of doing a hodgepodge of things. I'm doing disability history, but focusing on women's disability history, so I applied to schools that had women's history departments and someone who knew something about disability history/studies. I haven't heard from anywhere yet and it's driving me nuts!

[abolitionista]

I did hear from someone during my recruitment visit to UCSB that they'd been accepted to the Culture and Theory program. So I'm guessing we're both on the wait list at best. We shall see.

Thanks... Do you know if they have sent out rejects?.. Maybe they are just slacking on that... I hope your theory proves to be true it's my #1 choice I did speak with Francine last week and there was no mention of me being rejected she encouraged me to visit with her so we'll see. :|

Edit: A close friend of mine went to a recruitment weekend in San Diego and heard the same. So I'm now preparing myself for bad news. :x

[HelloFeminists]

Thanks... Do you know if they have sent out rejects?.. Maybe they are just slacking on that... I hope your theory proves to be true it's my #1 choice I did speak with Francine last week and there was no mention of me being rejected she encouraged me to visit with her so we'll see. :|

Edit: A close friend of mine went to a recruitment weekend in San Diego and heard the same. So I'm now preparing myself for bad news. :x

I have no idea about the rejection letters. Francine told me I'd hear back in "the next couple of weeks" last Friday [i.e. one week ago], but I have no idea. I did respond to her today and tell her that I have a fully funded offer from another UC and that I'd like to be able to make a decision in the near future. I actually ended up accepting the other offer today, so if it makes you feel better, should they admit me to the program, I will give it up

I wish you the very best of luck!!! What do you want to study? I had applied to study the history of sexuality with Jennifer Terry.

[HelloFeminists]

Update, abolitionista - I was rejected today via e-mail. They said that a record number of applicants + the financial crisis forced them to only accept 6 people, down 2 from last year. I was on their top 20 wait list. Glen Mimura's e-mail / letter was very thoughtful though. I'm wishing you the best of luck!!

[abolitionista]

Update, abolitionista - I was rejected today via e-mail. They said that a record number of applicants + the financial crisis forced them to only accept 6 people, down 2 from last year. I was on their top 20 wait list. Glen Mimura's e-mail / letter was very thoughtful though. I'm wishing you the best of luck!!

Congrats on making it into the top twenty! I received the standard rejection in the mail. Glen was nice enough to sign it. It's unfortunate that the financial crisis is having such a huge baring on admission this year. My grad process is officially over and I am accepting an offer for the Ethnic Studies PhD program at UC Riverside.

I wish you the best of luck at UCSB.

[grad_applicant]

How would you rank gender/media/cultural studies programs? Anyone want to take a stab?

-UC Irvine- Culture & Theory PhD

-University of Minnesota- Comparative Studies in Discourse & Society PhD

-UC Santa Barbara- Feminist Studies PhD

-UC Davis- Cultural Studies PhD

-UCLA- Women's Studies PhD

-Rutgers- Feminist Studies PhD

-UC Santa Cruz- History of Consciousness PhD

-Northwestern- Screen Cultures PhD

-Brown- Modern Culture & Media PhD

-University of Michigan- Screen Arts & Cultures PhD

-USC Cinema Studies PhD

-NYU Media, Culture & Communications PhD

(Feel free to mention others I have not included)

[HelloFeminists]

How would you rank gender/media/cultural studies programs? Anyone want to take a stab?

-UC Irvine- Culture & Theory PhD

-University of Minnesota- Comparative Studies in Discourse & Society PhD

-UC Santa Barbara- Feminist Studies PhD

-UC Davis- Cultural Studies PhD

-UCLA- Women's Studies PhD

-Rutgers- Feminist Studies PhD

-UC Santa Cruz- History of Consciousness PhD

-Northwestern- Screen Cultures PhD

-Brown- Modern Culture & Media PhD

-University of Michigan- Screen Arts & Cultures PhD

-USC Cinema Studies PhD

-NYU Media, Culture & Communications PhD

(Feel free to mention others I have not included)

In terms of gender programs, I really think it's hard to rank them when there aren't all that many to begin with. I was just looking at the National Women's Studies Association's website, and they were saying that they're not really into ranking the programs because a.) it's kind of antithetical to the discipline's holistic approach as a whole but b.) because programs that put out less than 500 Ph.Ds a year don't really have official rankings. I think that each of the programs have their strengths, and it really matters what you want to focus on / who you want to study with. For instance, UCSB is only starting their Ph.D in Feminist Studies this year, but they have some great, well-established people in their department, and they're really strong in gender and sexuality, which is exactly what I do. I didn't apply somewhere like Berkeley, even though they have Judith Butler, because as a whole the Rhetoric program doesn't fit the way that I want to approach sexuality studies. So again, I think that in this field, it's really more of a matter of individual fit and interests.

That being said, I seem to come into contact with a lot of interesting History of Consciousness people from UCSC when I'm reading random things I looked into applying there, but they didn't have anyone I could work with and it seems like their department is badly funded. I also know that Indiana is supposed to be great, especially with their history of being a stand-out, well-established program, but there is no way in hell that I want to live in Indiana for the next 5-6 years. So there are many variables involved!

[GeoFemme]

So great to see all you feminists on the board! I started out applying for MPP/MPA programs to focus on gender policy, but then discovered the Ph.D. program of my dreams, in feminist geography at Syracuse. It's the only Ph.D. program I'm applying to but I've had positive feedback from the dept. head and the professor I'd like to work with (who incidentally has some funding to go around next year). Anyone else looking at Geography programs? Anyone looking at Women's/Gender studies at either Harvard or Columbia? I just discovered the Boston consortium on gender studies, hosted at MIT. Do you guys know anything about this association? Looking forward to hearing what everyone else is applying to.