专业描述

The Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies (formerly the Ph.D. in Dance History and Theory) at UC Riverside provides an advanced interdisciplinary base for innovative research in the field of cultural, political, and historical studies of dance. Inaugurated in 1993, the program has achieved world-class status as the preeminent site for intellectual inquiry into dance, corporeality, movement, choreography, and performance. The specificity of the program's focus on dance studies distinguishes it in the fields of performance studies, theater studies, and cultural studies. At the same time, the program is committed to interdisciplinary models of dance scholarship and accordingly pursues a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches. The critical dance studies approach of our Ph.D. program is equally distinct for the close relationship it maintains with the department's M.F.A. in Experimental Choreography, inaugurated in 2001. Depending on the nature of individual projects, the work of Ph.D. students is informed by their exposure to specific, intersecting curricula that bring Ph.D. and M.F.A students together. This environment of close cooperation between our graduate programs contributes to the department's embrace of both dance making and written scholarship – dancing and writing about dancing – as complementary, intertwined modes of theorizing corporeality. The education offered in the Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies program at UC Riverside prepares students to become the next generation of dance scholars. UC Riverside's Dance Department is unique for its outstanding faculty of nationally and internationally recognized scholars and artists. In addition to three faculty in Experimental Choreography, the sheer number of Critical Dance Studies faculty - currently five - sets it apart from other dance departments in the U.S. The faculty draw from a wide range of academic and creative backgrounds, including history, critical race theory, feminist studies, gender and sexuality studies, choreography, improvisation, theater and performance studies, and ethnography, as well as specific areas of study such as American Studies, African American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Latin American Studies, and Eighteenth-Century Studies. UC Riverside faculty continuously strive to expand the boundaries of the disciplines of dance making and dance studies. Our Ph.D. students pursue an extraordinary diversity of research agendas. Recent projects include: “Danzas Fronterizas: Contemporary Dance at the U.S.-Mexican Borderland,” “Forbidden Bodies: Dancing Christian from Ruth St. Denis to Pole Dancing for Jesus,” “White Nose, (Post) Bawdy Bodies, and the Un/dancing Sexy Jewess,” “Women on the Move: Mapping the Transnational Labor of British Indian Female Dancers in the Age of Globalization,” “Expanding Nations, Moving Bodies: Bharata Natyam Dance Practice in Sri Lanka,” and “Black Male Dancers and the Performance of Masculinity On- and Off-Stage: Bill T. Jones, Desmond Richardson, Dwight Rhoden, and Ronald K. Brown.” The program also has an impressive placement record. Graduates have gone on to secure full-time academic positions nationally and internationally at such schools as UCLA, Florida State University, Davidson College, Colorado College, University of Minnesota, University of Illinois, Rutgers University, University of Washington, California State University, Long Beach, University of Kansas, York University, Middlesex University, University of Surrey, and Taipei National University of the Arts. During the first two years of doctoral work, students will take a total of eleven required and elective courses. Required courses introduce students to rhetorical, cultural, historical, and political approaches to dance studies. The curriculum will also require students to conceptualize dance as a cultural endeavor and to confront issues involved in writing about movement-based performances. Students are strongly encouraged to pursue several of their graduate courses outside of the Department of Dance; these will be selected under the guidance of a faculty advisor and should help students create an interdisciplinary approach to their research. Ph.D. students must also demonstrate competence in at least one foreign language. In the third year, students prepare for and take the Written Qualifying Exams. These are followed by preparation for a Qualifying Essay, and then completion of an Oral Qualifying Exam, by the winter quarter of their fourth year. In the following years, students will complete the research and writing of the doctoral dissertation.