PhD Degree

To offer a full range of interdisciplinary courses (BA, MA, MAS, PhD) and better articulate training with interdisciplinary research, the Global Studies Institute offers an interdisciplinary PhD in global studies from the 2015 academic year onward. From 2017 onward, the Global Studies Institute in collaboration with the Interfaculty Center for Children’s Rights Studies organise an innovative PhD school.

This new doctoral program meets the needs of researchers and students wishing to continue their academic careers in the fertile path of interdisciplinarity. Just like other academic institutions which recently developed interdisciplinary doctorates, the University of Geneva intends to prepare a new generation of researchers to think about contemporary problems related to globalization which lay at the touching points of different disciplines.

Let us not forget interdisciplinarity is not in competition with existing disciplines. It relies instead on the vitality of disciplinary work, developing methods to enable researchers – collectively or individually – to create a dialogue between disciplinary approaches in order to respond to problems and answer questions either too complex or too broad to be processed by a single discipline. In this sense interdisciplinarity aims to produce new knowledge, promoting a "transformative" research ("transformative research", in the words of the US National Science Board in 2007 already). Such interdisciplinary research aims, on the one hand, to change perspectives on a number of objects or disciplinary research methods and allows, on the other hand, the development of new theories, concepts, and methods in a spirit of innovation and discovery. In this respect, interdisciplinarity nourishes the disciplines it brings into dialogue, in a virtuous circle that should be stimulated and maintained.

To be eligible, doctoral candidates must at least hold a Master (or an equivalent title) from a recognized University and submit a thesis project supported by two professors from the University of Geneva, each teaching a different discipline. One of the professors, at least, must be affiliated with the Global Studies Institute. Given the potential diversity of interdisciplinary doctoral degrees that can be achieved, the thesis co-directors will establish a specific doctoral program for each PhD student. The program will be subject to control and validation from GSI professors’ college. The GSI organizes an interdisciplinary graduate school for doctoral students. At least parts of that doctoral program covering interdisciplinary methodologies should be included in the specific doctoral programs of candidates for the interdisciplinary PhD in global studies.

For more information, you can read the Rules and Regulation of studies linked below or contact Ms. Maud Preher, the academic advisor.

    Rules and regulations of the Interdisciplinary PhD in global studies.