We continue to professionally place Ethnic Studies Ph.D. graduates in tenure-track positions and postdoctoral fellowships.

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. We 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:

  • California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Ethnic Studies).
  • California State University, Channel Islands (Black Studies).
  • California State University, Fullerton (Chicana and Chicano Studies).
  • California State University, Los Angeles (Pan-African Studies).
  • California State University, San Bernardino (Ethnic Studies).
  • Colorado State University (Race, Gender, and Ethnic Studies).
  • El Camino College (Behavioral and Social Sciences).
  • Long Beach City College (Ethnic Studies).
  • Mount Holyoke College (Gender Studies & Critical Race & Political Economy).
  • Ohio University (African American Studies).
  • Pennsylvania State University, Abington (Race & Ethnic Studies).
  • Rio Hondo College (Chicana/o/x Studies).
  • San Francisco State University (Criminal Justice Studies).
  • University of California, Los Angeles (Asian American Studies).
  • University of California, Riverside (English).
  • University of California, Santa Cruz (Latin American and Latino Studies).
  • University of Illinois Chicago (Global Asian Studies).
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore County (American Studies).
  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (American Studies).
  • University of Oregon (Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies).
  • Washington State University (Criminal Justice and Criminology).

In addition, our Ethnic Studies Ph.D. recipients have earned a Visiting Assistant Professorship, Scripps College (American Studies); a Provostial Postdoctoral Fellowship, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University; a UC President’s Pre-Professional Fellowship; and UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowships at:

  • UC Berkeley.
  • UC Davis (twice).
  • UC Los Angeles.
  • UC Merced.
  • UC Santa Barbara.
  • UC Santa Cruz.

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 2026–2027 year are open as of September 1, 2026.

Admission Deadline for funding consideration:
January 5, 2027

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