Keough School establishes two new doctoral programs
The Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame has established two new doctoral programs in sustainable development and peace studies.
The peace studies and sustainable development programs will enable doctoral students in the Keough School to examine from different perspectives the intersection of poverty, the environment, violent conflict and peace. Both programs will enroll students beginning in fall 2025.
“The creation of these new programs marks a milestone in the history of the Keough School,” said Scott Appleby, the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School. “We now have a critical mass of highly talented and accomplished faculty who are qualified to educate and train researchers, teachers and thought leaders in these crucial areas of sustainable development and peace.”
The Ph.D. program in sustainable development will address the existential threat posed by rapid environmental change and its impact on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations.
“Sustainability is commonly defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” Appleby said. “It focuses on ensuring well-being across three interconnected dimensions: environmental, economic and social.”
The program will train students to be experts in one of three areas: climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental governance or development policy. The plight and participation of the most vulnerable members of society, especially in the Global South, will be a common theme.
Program highlights include a semester-long course that will enable students to develop research that is both scientifically sound and policy-relevant. They will do so by engaging with organizations whose work intersects with academic and policy arenas, such as the Nature Conservancy, the World Resources Institute, USAID, the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, the World Bank, regional development banks and other organizations.
The program will draw upon the expertise of several of the Keough School’s international institutes, including the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Pulte Institute for Global Development, all of which have experience conducting translational research — applied scholarship directed to outcomes that directly benefit people.
The new Ph.D. peace studies program is geared toward highly accomplished professionals with backgrounds in fields such as conflict resolution, education or human rights who wish to bring professional and interdisciplinary knowledge into their doctoral research and immerse themselves solely in the field of peace studies.
The “stand-alone” peace studies doctoral program will welcome candidates who are not seeking to be credentialed in a single discipline but who will draw on the disciplines and practices most relevant to their specific area of expertise within the field of peace studies.
“The new program will offer an additional way for graduate students to engage in peace studies research at Notre Dame at the highest level,” said Caroline Hughes, director of doctoral studies and the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., Chair in Peace Studies at the Keough School’s Kroc Institute. “It will complement the school’s existing joint doctoral program, which has been enormously successful.”
The school’s long-standing joint doctoral degree program, administered by the Kroc Institute, educates and trains students in peace research and their choice of discipline — anthropology, history, political science, theology, psychology or sociology. Created in 2008, the program’s 43 graduates are employed in prestigious academic positions at Emory University, Fordham University, Boston College, Chapman University, Pepperdine University and other institutions, while other graduates are engaged in educational administration, research or peacebuilding practice.
Created in response to increasing recognition of the role of peace studies expertise in addressing global challenges, the new program will pair the scholarship of peace studies with the interdisciplinary approaches preferred by policymakers and practitioners. Students will be trained and prepared to disseminate their research findings both among the communities they have researched and also in policy forums with capacity to initiate positive change.
“Equipped with state-of-the-art training, graduates of the new program will return to and enrich global networks of scholarship, policy and practice,” Hughes said.
Students will benefit from expertise at the Kroc Institute, one of the world’s most acclaimed and influential centers for the study of peace and conflict, as well as from the other international institutes within the Keough School and Notre Dame more broadly.
To learn more about the Ph.D. in sustainable development, contact keough-admissions@nd.edu. To learn more about the Ph.D. in peace studies, contact krocphd@nd.edu.
Originally published by news.nd.edu on April 03, 2024.
atLatest Research
- Notre Dame theologian to receive 2024 Ratzinger Prize from VaticanCyril O’Regan, the Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, has been selected to receive the 2024 Ratzinger Prize in Theology, widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the field. Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, will present the award to O’Regan and to sculptor Etsurō Sotoo during a ceremony at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City on Nov. 22. Both winners will also have an audience with Pope Francis earlier that day.
- Four First-Year Students Named 2024-25 Murphy Fellows at Notre Dame Law SchoolNotre Dame Law School has announced the selection of four first-year law students—David Jordan, Maddie Kosobucki, Catherine Kolesar, and Jack McEnery—as the 2024-25 Murphy Fellows. Established in 2022, the Murphy Fellowship supports students who are interested in exploring the intersection of law…
- ND Expert Sean Kassen: Statement on first FDA-approved treatment for Niemann-Pick Type C diseaseToday, the FDA announced the first approved treatment for Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC) disease: an oral medication named Miplyffa (arimoclomol). Sean Kassen, director of the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Fund at the University of Notre Dame, said this represents the beginning of a new and hopeful era for NPC families.
- What Would You Fight For: Notre Dame psychologists combating America's mental health crisisAustin Wyman ’23 was young when the mental health crisis hit home. A struggling family member reached out to a provider for help, but with no immediately available appointments, the relative soon had a mental health episode. The situation ended in the death of two of Wyman’s family members, and left…
- Notre Dame to host conference on St. Thomas Aquinas, commemorating 800th anniversary of his birthTo commemorate the 800th anniversary of his birth, the University of Notre Dame will host a conference Sunday through Wednesday (Sept. 22-25) celebrating Aquinas’ enduring importance to contemporary cultural, philosophical and theological discussions. “Aquinas at 800: ‘Ad multos annos’” will be the largest conference of its kind, with more than 500 in-person attendees and more than 150 speakers.
- From Italy to South Sudan and back again: MGA graduate aims for peace through shuttle diplomacySince she first began working for the Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio as an intern in 2021, Elizabeth Boyle MGA ’23 has boarded more flights to Juba, South Sudan than she has to her Long Island hometown in the United States. As an international relations officer for …