PhD in Ethnic Studies in Berkeley United States | University of California, Berkeley

Ethnic Studies stands as the nation's inaugural interdisciplinary PhD program focused on examining race and ethnicity through comparative lenses across national, hemispheric, and global perspectives. It remains a leading doctoral program offering comprehensive interdisciplinary education alongside foundational training in comparative, relational, and intersectional approaches, supported by its core disciplines: Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, Native American Studies, and Comparative Ethnic Studies.

The graduate curriculum leverages faculty expertise spanning diverse areas such as race, ethnicity, indigeneity, gender, and sexuality studies; citizenship, migration, and border issues; diaspora and transnationalism; sovereignty and decolonial movements; representation and performance; social activism and cultural politics; as well as religion, food culture, museum studies, labor, and conflict. The program equips students with both social science and humanities research methods, from archival work and ethnography to oral histories and textual/visual interpretation. Additionally, students can pursue specialized concentrations in fields like Critical Theory, Film Studies, New Media, or Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.