The Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies (formerly the Ph.D. in Dance History and Theory) at UC Riverside supports the pursuit of innovative research in the field of cultural, political, and historical studies of dance. Inaugurated in 1993, the program is widely recognized as the preeminent site for intellectual inquiry into dance, corporeality, movement, choreography, and performance.<br><br>UC Riverside's Department of Dance features an outstanding faculty of nationally and internationally recognized scholars and artists. The Ph.D. program's explicit focus on dance studies and large concentration of Critical Dance Studies faculty distinguish it from doctoral programs in performance studies, theater studies, and cultural studies. At the same time, the program is committed to interdisciplinary models of dance scholarship that draw on a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches. Our Critical Dance Studies Ph.D. program is equally distinct for the close relationship it maintains with the students and faculty in the M.F.A. program in Experimental Choreography, inaugurated in 2001.<br><br>In their scholarship, Critical Dance Studies faculty engage with critical race theory, feminist studies, gender and sexuality studies, political economy, and performance studies. They employ methods including embodied research, choreographic analysis, oral history, dance ethnography, critical theory, and archival studies. Faculty research continually expands the field of Dance Studies while also contributing to fields such as American Studies, African American Studies, Latin American Studies, Hip Hop Studies, Indigenous and Decolonial Studies, as well as South Asian and South Asian Diaspora Studies.<br><br>Our Ph.D. students pursue an equally extraordinary diversity of research agendas. Some recent projects have critically analyzed Contemporary Dance at the U.S.-Mexican Borderland, Jewish-ness, Dance, and Humor, Raqs Sharqi in Cairo, Amateur Ballroom Dance in Mormon and Same Sex Communities, White Christian Dance in the U.S., Ongoing Indigenous Dance Practices, Black Concert Dance in Montral, Bharata Natyam in Sri Lanka, Concert Dance and/as Autobiography, Black Concert Dance and Masculinities, Second Lines in New Orleans, Female Lion Dancers in Chinatowns, Histories of Dance, Food, and Audience Engagement, Dance, War, and Repetition, Modern Dance and Yoga Histories, Tango and Neoliberalism, and Ballet and State Power in Ukraine.<br><br>Graduates have gone on to secure full-time academic positions nationally and internationally at schools such as UCLA, Florida State University, University of Florida, Davidson College, Colorado College, Bowdoin College, University of Minnesota, University of Illinois, University of Nebraska, Rutgers University, University of Washington, California State University Long Beach, Elon University, University of Kansas, York University (Canada), Middlesex University (UK), University of Surrey (UK), University of Malaya (Malaysia), University of Malta (Malta), and Taipei National University of the Arts (Taiwan).