Doctoral Program in Social and Political Thought
Australian Catholic University
Supported by innovative and world-renowned scholars engaged in local, regional, and international networks of research and praxis, the Doctoral Program in Social and Political Thought (PhDSPT) is a doctoral program for people who believe that the world can and should be different.
Altogether distinctive in the Australian context, the PhDSPT is a four-year program that begins with an intensive year of coursework and training, combining serious theoretical and conceptual work with a strong commitment to engaging with the enormous challenges of our era. The demanding and rigorous year of coursework, comprised of four North American-style doctoral seminars, provides students with a deeper understanding of the great debates in social and political thought, and better prepares them for the task of undertaking original investigations of their own.
The program is also committed to a cohort model of doctoral training. Each year there is one intake of Ph.D. applicants, who begin the coursework and training together, forming a mutually supportive community of inquiry sustained by close contact with academic staff and students from other cohorts. All members of the program, staff and students, learn from and support one another from the beginning to the end of the Ph.D.
Students develop a deeper understanding of the great debates in political and social thought, and the complexities of socially engaged research, and they develop original investigations within a strong intellectual community sustained through close contact with academic staff and other students. Students come from diverse disciplines (philosophy, political science, sociology, anthropology, geography, political economy, Indigenous studies, gender studies, literary studies, film, art history), and many also have activist experience. Some projects are purely theoretical, and some combine theory with diverse forms of empirical and action research. All students are engaged in practically oriented and theoretically sophisticated research projects that aim at the creation of a more just, participatory, and sustainable world.
Contact Information
Allison Weir, Professor
Nikolas Kompridis, Professor
P.O. Box 968
North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Australia http://isj.acu.edu.au/
isj@acu.edu.au
+61 2 9739 2789
Region
Asia and the Pacific Rim
Oceania
Academic Program
Ph.D.
Year Established
2014
Fellowships and Potential Scholarly Affiliations
Doctoral Program in Social and Political Thought Fellowships