Since 2009-2010, the inaugural academic year of our Ph.D. program, we have been dedicated to mentoring and supporting high-caliber scholars who crucially contribute to one of the most dynamic, intellectually creative environments in the University of California system. We provide rigorous, interdisciplinary training to students who produce theoretically sophisticated scholarship that is relevant and accountable to everyday people.

We welcome admissions applications from scholars who possess the drive, focus, and motivation needed to navigate an interdisciplinary, individually tailored course of study. Are you ready to improve your professional prowess, strengthen your current abilities, and hone new skills? If so, you can maximize your potential for planning and executing an original research plan, as well as crafting expository prose that analyzes data or research findings via effective argumentation, advanced critical thinking, and cutting-edge knowledge production.

Our faculty members, in their research, teaching, professional, and public activity, analyze the ways in which social constructs such as race and ethnicity intersect with class, gender, and sexuality, building upon the historical and contemporary paradigms through which scholars have understood colonialism and other stratified structures of power, hierarchy, and difference. Please see each faculty member’s profile on this website to learn more about their expertise and research interests.

Our collective scholarship models multiple methods and practices, while our graduate program reflects the department’s philosophical and ethical principles, as well as its engagement in a profound, provocative conversation across disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields. Ultimately, we continue to professionally place unique, vibrant intellectuals who significantly impact society within academia and beyond.

For example, our Ph.D. graduates have earned tenure-track faculty positions at the following institutions:

  • University of Minnesota (American Studies).
  • Mount Holyoke College (Gender Studies & Critical Race & Political Economy).
  • University of California, Los Angeles (Asian American Studies).
  • Ohio University (African American Studies).
  • California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Ethnic Studies).
  • University of California, Riverside (English; Ethnic Studies).
  • Pennsylvania State University, Abington (Race & Ethnic Studies).
  • Colorado State University (Ethnic Studies).
  • Washington State University (Criminal Justice and Criminology).
  • San Francisco State University (Criminal Justice Studies).
  • California State University, San Bernardino (Ethnic Studies).
  • California State University, Los Angeles (Pan-African Studies).
  • California State University, Fullerton (Chicana and Chicano Studies).
  • California State University, Channel Islands (Africana Studies).
  • Long Beach City College (Ethnic Studies).
  • El Camino College (Ethnic Studies).
  • Rio Hondo College (Chicana & Chicano Studies).

In addition, our Ethnic Studies Ph.D. recipients have earned University of California President’s
Postdoctoral Fellowships at:

  • UC Davis.
  • UC Santa Cruz.
  • UC Santa Barbara.

Since our very first cohort, 89% of all Ethnic Studies PhD graduates have tenure-track positions
or are current UC President’s Postdoctoral fellows.

Sincerely,

Anthony Macias
anthony.macias@ucr.edu
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Ethnic Studies
University of California, Riverside

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Learn more about the Ethnic Studies graduate programs:

Applications for the Graduate Program for the 2025–2026 year are now open.

Priority Admission Deadline:
December 15, 2024

Further details about admission requirements, and how to apply online, can be found on the Graduate Division website.