INTERDISCIPLINARY PhD EMPHASIS IN GLOBAL STUDIES
About the PhD Emphasis
Students pursuing a Ph.D. in certain departments may petition to add an emphasis in global studies. The departments for which the emphasis is available include anthropology, English, history, political science, religious studies, and sociology. To be eligible for admission to the Ph.D. emphasis, students must be admitted to the Ph.D. program in one of the departments choosing to offer this emphasis with their existing Ph.D. program and petition successfully to add the optional emphasis.
The student's dissertation committee must have one member from a participating department other than the student's own department. The student may also elect a global emphasis for his or her department field/area/specialization exam, if such an emphasis is offered within the department. The chair of the Coordinating Committee will determine when the student has successfully completed all of the requirements for the emphasis.
By “global” we refer to transnational economic, political, environmental, social, and cultural interactions and flows that operate at a global (i.e., trans-continental) scale. “Global studies” views the world as comprised of increasingly interdependent processes, rather than as shaped exclusively or even primarily by the interplay of discrete nation-states.
Petitions for adding the emphasis can be made at any time in a student's graduate career, but typically will be made after at least one successful year of study in the home department. Work completed prior to admission in the emphasis that meets emphasis requirements (as determined by the Ph.D. Emphasis Coordinating Committee) may be counted towards completion.
To satisfy the Ph.D. emphasis in global studies, students are required to take four one-quarter graduate level courses. One course is Global 201, the introductory gateway seminar, offered by the Global and International Studies Program. Three additional courses must be chosen from among qualifying global theory and global issues courses offered by these participating departments: anthropology, English, history, political science, religious studies, and sociology. These courses will be selected from an approved list of global theory and global issues graduate courses prepared by the Ph.D. emphasis Coordinating Committee each spring, for the following academic year. At least one of these three courses must be a global theory course, and at least one must be a global issues course. Courses will typically be taken for a letter grade.
At least one of these three courses will be taken from the student's home department, and at least two must be taken from the five other participating departments or the Global & International Studies Program. No more than one of the three seminars (excluding Global 201) can be taken from a single instructor.
For additional information, please contact the graduate advisor in one of the participating departments or Global Studies.