Commitment to Engaged Research
Our faculty and students are out in the world, taking on intractable challenges in creative and effective ways. We are committed to antiracist and decolonial scholarship and to social justice in all its dimensions.
Flexible Research Options
MA and PhD research can take many forms: traditional thesis, Research Creation, Community-based Research, or a portfolio of varied voices and approaches.
Diverse Community
150+ faculty work with students ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s, arriving to the program from across Canada and around the world with a vast range of experience. Students and staff share in program governance.
Competitive Funding
To cover tuition and offset the cost of living, all students receive teaching and/or research placements, fellowships, awards, or paid professional development.
Meaningful Futures
Graduates find work as academics, artists, journalists, curators, and social advocates.
Established in 2009 and comprising over 100 distinguished faculty from over 20 disciplines, the Cultural Studies Interdisciplinary Graduate Program at Queen's is committed to a diversity of students and faculty and to the global expertise that they bring to the cultural and academic fields. We are dedicated to centering antiracist, decolonial, Black, and Indigenous scholarship.
MA students and PhD students take courses together in their first year at Queen's, sharing one core course, CUST 803, "Cultural Studies Past and Present," and otherwise choosing courses from other CUST courses or graduate courses in other departments. Students serve as Teaching Assistants for undergraduate courses across the Faculty of Arts & Science, from Art History to Film, Gender Studies to Sociology. They also have opportunities to be Research Assistants on grant-funded faculty projects in areas related to their research, or to work on curatorial or community projects throughout the university and beyond. Advanced PhD students often have the opportunity to teach a course of their own. Students participate in various Cultural Studies administrative committees and organize conferences, teach-ins, and other events. When they graduate, our students have superior intellectual tools and practical skills that will last them a lifetime inside or outside of the university. Cultural Studies graduates work in galleries, non-profits, arts organizations, and universities across Canada and beyond.