Ph.D. Program – Curriculum

Academic Requirements Overview

To qualify for the doctoral degree, students must meet the requirements of both the Jackson School Ph.D. Program and the Graduate School. The Graduate School doctoral degree requirements can be found online.

The program requires students complete a minimum of 100 credits to earn their degree. These credits are comprised of up to 30 credits transferred from prior work in a Master’s program, 45 credits of required and elective Ph.D. courses, and 27 dissertation credits.

The Ph.D. Program recognizes that incoming doctoral students might have previously taken courses that align closely with the JSIS Ph.D. In this case, the student can petition the Ph.D. Committee to request a waiver for specific requirements. Such a petition should be undertaken in consultation with the student’s FA and the GPA. All final determinations and approval of individual student petitions regarding appropriate program coursework and/or course credits rests with the Graduate School.

 

Required Courses and Electives

• JSIS 501 – Comparative International Studies (5 cr., Autumn)

The primary goal of this seminar is to provide an understanding of the historical origins of the international system, its inherent contradictions, and future directions.  Through readings, discussions, and written assignments, students will learn how to use the global context to ask comparative questions across historical periods, geographical areas, cultures, and institutions.

Most of the readings that are assigned in this seminar take a global perspective. They discuss specific time periods and discuss how the ideas, relations, structures, and institutions that define our world developed in these junctures.  The course will also consider how these changes affected different parts of the world, what kind of contradictions and conflicts they led to, and how these conflicts were (or were not) resolved.

• JSIS 511 – Research Methods-Research Design (5 cr., Winter)

In this course, students will learn concepts of research design. Similar to other graduate classes, especially methods-oriented training classes, the purpose of this class is not only to help students learn about concepts, but to help students learn to use these concepts in their own research. As the foundation of any project, research design is arguably the most important part of the research project. Analogous to the foundation of a house, a strong design is necessary for the success of a project. Without sound research questions and design, the methods, evidence, and conclusions of a project might be inaccurate or misleading, and will definitely not be convincing or publishable.

In an academic setting, the primary documents in which research design is displayed are prospectuses (a plan for the dissertation) and grant proposals. As such, these two types of documents contain the same conceptual information: what the researcher plans to study and how they will study it. The only difference between these two types of documents is the style of writing and any particular guideline elements of specific grants.

• JSIS 510 – Research Methods-Statistics Literacy for International Studies (5 cr., Spring)

Statistical literacy is a crucial skill for researchers in a wide range of topics and disciplines. Even if your own work does not integrate statistical methods, your field or professional area will likely include key literature built on statistical models and data. This course is meant to give students, especially those not planning to specialize in quantitative methods, the basic tools to understand and integrate quantitative analysis into their research. These tools will open the door to a broader range of conversation partners and academic studies. The course will try to feature studies and methods from many disciplines, depending on student interests.

• Any approved course from the list of QUAL Methods Courses OR a Qualitative Methodology from any campus unit (must be approved by the PhD Program Director) (3-5 cr.) 

In addition to JSIS 595, all Ph.D. students are required to take one (1) additional research design and methods course, which could be 3-5 credits. The emphasis is on solidifying students’ understanding of the research-related skills that they can use to advance their individual dissertation research. These skills may include interviewing, case studies, content analysis, archival work, ethnographic studies, observation and fieldwork, data analysis, experiments, and statistics. In planning their methodological training.

In addition to this methods course required for the JSIS Ph.D., students can choose to complete an optional certification track: the QUAL Concentration offered by the Qualitative Multi-Method Research Initiative or the Statistics Concentration offered by the Center for Statistics and Social Sciences. Both tracks, are open to all doctoral in the Jackson School but are not required for the Ph.D. degree. Again, students should enlist the advice of their FAs/Committee Chairs as they design their methods-related training.

• 2 required JSIS Area Studies Courses (10 cr.)

These courses have a “JSIS A” code on Time Schedule and UW MyPlan; look for 400- or 500-level courses only.

• 1 required JSIS Thematic Course (5 cr.)

These courses have a “JSIS B” code on Time Schedule and UW MyPlan; look for 400- or 500-level courses only.

• 40 elective credits

The requirement for specialization courses can be met with existing graduate-level courses (course numbers of 500 or above) at JSIS or in other related departments at UW or with Independent Study courses at the 600 level. These courses should help doctoral students deepen the foundational knowledge gained from the thematic course requirement, and to also present an opportunity for them to situate it in specific areas of the world. Ph.D. students are advised to approach each course with a view to narrowing down and/or pinpointing their research interests for dissertation purposes, in consultation with their FAs. Language courses that are below the 500-level cannot be counted toward Ph.D. credits.

In addition, and subject to approval by the Ph.D. Committee, all incoming students are eligible to transfer up to 30 credits for previously earned graduate work, generally in a Master’s program. The process for waiving these credits is as follows: The GPA downloads the student’s M.A. transcript from their application file and distributes it to the Ph.D. Committee. The Ph.D. Director, in consultation with faculty, then determines which courses are eligible for transfer. The GPA petitions the Graduate School to waive the credits, as determined by the Ph.D. Director, and the Graduate School either approves or denies this petition. The GPA then notifies the student how many credits were waived.

• JSIS 800: min. 27 dissertation-writing credits

The Graduate School requires that students complete a minimum of 27 dissertation credits (800 level), spread across a period of at least three quarters. At least one of those quarters must come after the student passes the General Exam. Students are limited to a maximum of 10 dissertation credits per quarter, with the exception of the summer quarter. Students are eligible to register for JSIS 800 credits after they successfully complete their Preliminary Exam in winter quarter of their second year.

 

Table 1. Overview of required courses and credit for the JSIS Ph.D. Program

Sample Course Schedule for Year 1 and Year 2