We believe another world is within our grasp. Systematic research of counter-hegemonic knowledge and practices has gained supreme relevance with the world in crisis. Our PhD program will equip you with the necessary skills to participate in the "nowtopian" task of constructing social scientific knowledge that looks beyond capitalism, hierarchy, and ecological disaster. Our graduates are trained for professional careers in academia, policy, social-political journalism, advocacy, and community, legal, and environmental organizations. Our faculty have a wide range of research interests, among them urban social movements, agri-food studies, politics and filmmaking, post-structuralist philosophy, gender equality, forced migration and refugees, radical oral history, and psychoanalytic time.

The mission of our Transformative Studies Ph.D. program is to develop transdisciplinary scholars committed to exploring leading-edge issues in innovative ways that combine scholarship, creativity, and self-inquiry. We invite students to take a systems view of a topic of interest, interrogating its context and complexity. From there, students will design a dissertation drawing on a wide range of qualitative and theoretical research approaches. Our graduates are trained for professional careers as both thought and action leaders who work in fields such as broadcasting, coaching, academia, and policy. Our faculty have a broad range of research interests, among them systems thinking as a catalyst for personal and social change, consciousness, education reform, creativity and improvisation, personal growth, leadership development, future studies, coaching, and spiritual intelligence.