Dual-Title Ph.D. in Bioethics

Join the first interdisciplinary graduate bioethics program of its kind

We are proud to announce our new graduate program in bioethics. Commencing in the Fall Semester of 2011, we are offering a dual-title Ph.D. program in bioethics.  It is the first program of its kind in the country—the only one that enables and requires students to combine bioethics with one of a variety of other disciplines in their doctoral dissertation. We are launching the program with three collaborating partners: the departments of Anthropology, and Communication Arts and Sciences (both in the College of the Liberal Arts); and the department of Biobehavioral Health (in the College of Health and Human Development). We intend to add other collaborating units across the University as the program grows in the coming months.

This dual-title program will produce a new cadre of interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners who will enrich both their primary disciplines as well as the burgeoning field of bioethics. Our graduates will have skill sets that will help us address what one scholar has termed the "wicked problems" that society faces—in medicine, public health, and the environment, to name just a few. Importantly, they will also be better equipped to help us address the serious social and ethical implications of these problems, and of the proposed solutions.

Just as important in this tight economy, the graduates of the program should be highly competitive on the job market. Their interdisciplinary training will make them eligible for positions in their primary discipline, centers for bioethics, and for joint hires. They will similarly be competitive for jobs in the private sector, and when applying for research grants. 

The program is housed in the College of the Liberal Arts, and administered by the Rock Ethics Institute.  Students must first be admitted to their primary program before they can be considered for the bioethics dual-title.  However, when they apply to their primary program, they should indicate that they would like to be considered for the bioethics dual-title Ph.D.

 

For information about the new dual-title Ph.D. program, click here.

To download the brochure for our new dual-title Ph.D. in bioethics, please click here.

To download the flyer for our Spring 2013 graduate course in Perspectives and Methods in Bioethics, click here.

Students do not need to be admitted to the dual-title Ph.D. to register for these courses.

 

For more detailed information about each program, please click on the links below:

Dual Title Ph.D. in Anthropology and Bioethics

Dual Title Ph.D. in Biobehavioral Health and Bioethics

Dual Title Ph.D. in Communication Arts and Sciences, and Bioethics


If you have any questions about the new program, please email Jonathan Marks, the Director of the Bioethics Program, at bioethics@psu.edu.