The PhD program combines broad and rigorous training in conventional fields - international politics, comparative politics, international political economy, and/or political theory - with ample opportunities for customization, creativity and exploration. Faculty mentoring ensures each student pursues a productive path of study, whether the goal is college teaching or a career in research, government or the nonprofit sector.
Our PhD students develop close working relationships with faculty in an open, informal environment that facilitates interaction and the exchange of ideas. The small size of the program also contributes to a strong sense of community. The Josef Korbel School challenges each student to become an original and creative scholar while providing a supportive environment for personal and professional development.
Financial assistance
The Josef Korbel School provides tuition assistance for most doctoral students. Exceptional candidates also receive a living stipend for the first three years of the program.
In addition, students are encouraged to seek fellowships from external sources, which can offer generous multiyear support packages. Applicants who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents may be eligible for National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships and the Jacob Javits Graduate Fellowship. U.S. minority applicants may also want to investigate the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships for Minorities, the American Political Science Association Minority Fellowships, the American Sociological Association Minority Fellowships Program, the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Graduate Scholarship Program.
Helpful links and downloads:
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Office of Student Affairs, korbelsta@du.edu, 303.871.3608
Learn more about the PhD in International Studies from Professor Martin Rhodes, degree co-director.
Korbel PhD students
An interview with current PhD candidate Joel Pruce
By Nirvana Bhatia
MA Candidate, International Human Rights
Josef Korbel School of International Studies
The Sicilian Mafia and Lebanon's Hezbollah as modern-day Robin Hoods?
That's what Josef Korbel School doctoral candidate Joel Pruce argues in his award-winning essay on social banditry: "Outlaws, Rogues, and Robin Hoods in the Delivery of Human Rights Goods."
Pruce, who won the Stephen Poe Best Graduate Student Paper Award from the International Studies Association for his work, began contemplating the idea during the 2006 Lebanon War. His personal interests in mafia culture- he's a big fan of the TV series "The Sopranos"- naturally followed.
"It's these current examples that made me interested," Pruce said. "Look at the role of the hero. Whether it's in Lebanon or in Sicily, there is some middle person acting between God, or the state, and the community."
Originally an idea for his dissertation, Pruce was fascinated by how non-state entities were taking on state responsibilities and providing social necessities- education, health care, police defense- to otherwise overlooked people.
"Cast as a form of social protest, banditry emerges out of periods of tenuous transition and gives voice to peasant classes who have been left behind by modern progress," he writes.
Pruce worked with his academic advisor, Micheline Ishay, director of the Human Rights Program at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, while pursuing his independent research.
"It was a pretty quirky paper, so it was great to bounce ideas off her and she is always so accessible," Pruce said.
Pruce, who sees his award as a "nice recognition," will be back in front of the International Students Association in February 2010, when he will present two chapters from his dissertation on the tactics of global human rights theorists in New Orleans.
Although social banditry is no longer the subject of Pruce's dissertation, he's not quite ready to let go of it.
"I don't want anybody to get to it before I do," he said. "It's something I hope to revisit in the future."
In addition to a plaque, Pruce's award includes $300 and a year's membership to the International Studies Association-Human Rights section.