Students interested in historical and contemporary theories of culture, including both the major American and European schools of cultural theory, will want to participate in the activities of this cluster. Faculty and graduate students in the sociology of culture encourage empirical research involving a combination of quantitative (or survey), ethnographic, historical, and textual methods. Substantive topics of interest to faculty in this cluster include the institutional settings in which culture is produced, symbolic boundaries that define status distinctions, the construction of religious identities and institutions, and the tensions inherent in such contemporary debates as individualism vs. communitarianism. These topics are often subjects of discussion in the department's Weekly Seminar on Culture. Students in this cluster are often associated with the Center for the Study of Religion, the University Center for Human Values, the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, the Program in Political Philosophy, or the Program in European Cultural Studies.