University of Maryland, Baltimore County - Language Literacy & Culture

Founded in 1998, our interdisciplinary doctoral program investigates the concepts and processes of Language, Literacy, and Culture in relationship to social, historical, technological, and ideological formations. We advocate for socio-cultural and linguistic diversity in research, practice, and policy, with special emphasis on social justice, change, equity, power, and identity. In their research and teaching, our faculty members represent interdisciplinary areas of research across the humanities, social sciences, and education. The alliances made with other academic departments at UMBC have made our Ph.D. program an ideal incubator of knowledge and interdisciplinary inquiry. A unique value of this program is our wide range of contemporary multi-disciplinary perspectives and a continuum of methodological approaches from the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Our research and teaching community includes affiliated faculty from more than nine programs and departments across our campus. We expand beyond traditional methodological and disciplinary divisions, encouraging synergistic, collaborative, community- and place-based approaches that combine theories and applications. Our vision of language, literacy, and culture places those processes as crucially important to participatory democracy.