College PhD Programs

New options in Ph.D. programs combine two or more disciplines.

Doctoral programs at universities and colleges cover every subject from archaeology to zoology. They prepare students for careers as academics and for advanced work as researchers, in government or for corporations. At some of the nation's premier universities, new hybrid Ph.D. programs are drawing doctoral candidates to studies that combine two or more integrated disciplines to promote new insights and ways of working in an advanced or entirely innovative field.

Princeton-Political Economy

Princeton, one of the top two universities in the U.S. according to U.S. News and World Report, offers a doctoral program in political economy that allows students to explore the influences at the intersection of politics and economics, that is "...the effects and design of economic policies [and]...the political context in which these policies are set." Students work to achieve scholarly and practical understanding of the way economics and politics affect each other and the way market environments and political decisions are related. Students and faculties of the Department of Economics, the Department of Politics, and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs are able to engage in specialized research that combines the three areas.

Princeton University
The Graduate School
Clio Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
609-258-3030
gradschool.princeton.edu/admission

University of Michigan-Musical Arts

The Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan offers a doctoral program in musical arts with a focus on composition, conducting or performance. The Ph.D. level studies aim to "develop creative and performing artists with great breadth of knowledge and scholarship." Courses undertaken may include conducting for band, choral or orchestra, performance on any of a number of instruments, from French horn to euphonium, course entry by audition. There are advanced studies in composition and in collaborative piano, and regular Ph.D. courses in ethnomusicology and music education, among others. The doctoral program uniquely allows for high-level work in a chosen aspect of musical creativity while supplying the academic framework of a doctoral course of study.

Rackham Graduate School
915 E. Washington St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070
734-764-8129
[e-mail]

Cal-Berkeley Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

The University of California Berkeley created a Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning to provide doctoral studies in "...the art of creating landscapes with a deep concern for ecology, natural resources, and social equity." Students create their own course-work plan to pursue an individual specialization. The university organizes the studies to facilitate scholars who want to do research, teach or do specialized work in government or as professional consultants. Candidates are expected to develop their own theories and methods that relate environmental planning and urban design to solving problems in the natural and urban environments. Field study is an important component and doctoral candidates travel and collaborate internationally on field research with foreign students and scholars and with foreign and American government planners.

Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning
University of California, Berkeley
202 Wurster Hall #2000
Berkeley, CA 94720-2000
510-642-4022
laep.ced.berkeley.edu

References

• Princeton University -- Political Economy
• University of Michigan -- Musical Arts
• UC Berkeley -- Landscape Architecture/Environmental Planning