Graduate students in these disciplines are again showing interest in a geographic concentration. It should not surprise us, then, that graduate programs in foreign-culture studies have been initiated at several universities. Turtles have resilient shells and grow quite old unless, of course, they are upended. Research of the participating faculty members usually centers on only one of the cooperating disciplines. Attempts to lower the hurdle by concentrating on disciplines close to our own, such as philosophy or the history of art, often narrow the scope of a program.
Efforts are under way to formulate a first consensus, a profile of culture studies.
Culture-studies publications are, and by necessity will be for some time, more programmatic than substantive. Perhaps the practice of culture-studies instruction at any level is not yet sufficiently consolidated to permit a cohesive graduate curriculum. At this time, culture studies constitute neither a discipline nor a professional concentration. It is far from certain that a doctoral or master's degree in culture studies will soon be accepted as equivalent to one in an established field or that the training will actually meet the needs of the employment market. In view of curricular problems, uncertain demand, and the financial depression of higher education, a university administration understandably does not like to commit funds to a degree program beset by questions, no matter how innovative the plan.