Stony Brook PhD in Cultural Analysis and Theory (and other "theory" programs)

[grubyczarnykot]

Greetings everyone, in the midst of another application season (it's my second). 

 

I applied to several PhD programs in English Lit departments last year without any acceptances (besides, of course, the MAPH at UChicago with absolutely no funding). After discussing everything with my professors and reviewing my application materials, I've decided to focus more on interdisciplinary/theory-based programs as I think they would be better suited for me than traditional English departments. Unfortunately, a lot of these are at extremely selective schools: for example, the programs I'm seriously interested in applying to are Berkeley's Rhetoric program, Stanford's MTL, UCSC's History of Consciousness, Duke Literature, and Brown's Modern Culture and Media program. UCLA's English dept with the prospect of the certificate in "Experimental Critical Theory" looks perfect as well, but (especially because of last year), I'm hesitant to even try. I'm trying to find some safer schools with similar programs, and one that I've come across was Stony Brook's PhD in Cultural Analysis and Theory. I was pleasantly surprised by the program - especially because of a POI who works with Polish/Soviet film and I have interests in this area. Does anyone know anything/have experience with Stony Brook - this program or just the school in general? Also, any other suggestions for similar programs would be awesome.

[abitstartled]

Hey gruby! 

 

I'm applying to a lot of interdisciplinary/theory programs as well! NYU has a program in Media, Communication and Culture. Carnegie Mellon might be a good place to look, too.

 

Are your interests mostly in film/visual media?

[Bennett]

Minnesota's Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society/Comp Lit program is a really phenomenal, interdisciplinary and theory-centered programs, in many ways analogous to Berkeley Rhetoric or Duke Lit, but certainly less competitive. If you're looking for some "safer schools" I would definitely recommend them. 

[veniente]

In line with some of the above thoughts and recommendations and your own suggestions gruby, you might also like to consider the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and the Humanities Center at Johns Hopkins. (I'm not sure about the future of USCS' HisCon. programme; it may be advisable to contact them if you're considering applying.)