PhD in General Studies

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Dennis Ruhl, Jul 14, 2002.

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  1. Dennis Ruhl

    Dennis Ruhl member

    Hundreds of years ago, academics were often on the leading edge of many different disciplines. They often knew essentially all there was to know in pretty well all academic fields. To be fair, the body of knowledge was smaller.

    Today, a doctorate can be earned (or indeed must be earned) studying an infintely small part of any particular discipline.

    The general education part of learning usually comes at the beginning of the bachelors degree and is quickly forgotten.

    Have we come a long way baby? When someone offers an accredited PhD in general studies, I'm ready.
     
  2. I think such programs are quite common, under the guise of "Interdisciplinary Studies." Dalhousie even has an Assistant Dean of Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies to facilitate such PhDs.

    If you do a Google search for "interdisciplinary PhD" you'll find many many relevant programs.
     
  3. Dennis Ruhl

    Dennis Ruhl member

    Whereas breadth of knowledge previously had value, now depth of knowledge in thinly sliced fragments is what is highly valued.

    I wasn't thinking of 2 majors. I was thinking 100, pure trivia. Better phrasing would be when Trivial Pursuit is the recommended study guide for a doctorate, I am ready.
     
  4. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Union Institute and Unversity's Ph.D. program is interdisciplinary in both name and construct. All non-psychology degrees are in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, with an empasis (or more than one) in the learner's "major" area of study.

    One aspect of the program is to build--and describe--its interdisciplinarity. My program interweaves business, human resources, and higher education, with a little suicidology tossed in for spice. Go figure.
     
  5. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    Most interdisciplinary doctoral programs that I've seen are quite focused. It's just that the focus is on a dissertation topic that cuts across disciplinary boundaries.

    Some of these interdisciplinary subjects have become so common that they have become academic subjects in their own right: Astrophysics. Geochemistry. Art History.

    But it's easy to imagine more novel ones. Psychology of religion, perhaps. A student might have a very precise research topic in mind, but one that demands expertise not only in Western psychology but specialist knowledge in some tradition like Vipassana or Sankhya/Yoga.

    One might combine art history, philosophy and religious studies in a study of religious imagery.

    But each of these interdisciplinary research topics would have to be tightened up, made sharp and precise. There would have to be a specific issue being addressed.

    It's hard for me to imagine how it could be possible to do a dissertation on... everything.
     

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