Language, Culture and Society

The Language, Culture and Society (LCS) program provides students with a strong theoretical and interdisciplinary foundation for the study of a range of educational practices across the human life span and in a variety of contexts. In this program we bring a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives to bear on studies that explore the nature of literate practices, democracy and civic engagement, and participation in social life. The program focuses on relationships between education, school, and the dynamic and changing structures of language, culture and society.  It examines connections between broader social, cultural, linguistic, historical, aesthetic, and political factors in education and the local contexts in which these issues take place.

In the LCS doctoral program, students and advisors work together to design a course of study leading to original research. Students choose from courses offered by program faculty and from across the campus, making for a program that is both individually tailored to the student’s research interests and is transdisciplanary in nature. Areas of faculty expertise include:

•    children’s literature
•    composition
•    critical and school literacies
•    critical education studies
•    cultural studies
•    early and elementary literacies
•    education policy
•    educational anthropology
•    gender
•    history and policy in literacy
•    history and social studies education
•    international and comparative education
•    language arts
•    media studies
•    new and digital literacies
•    qualitative research methods        
•    reading
•    secondary English education
•    sociology
•    the arts across educational settings
•    visual culture
•    writing