Human Ecology PhD
Human ecology is the study of the complex relationships between human beings and their environments. The school offers a doctorate of philosophy within four named options/specializations:
Civil Society & Community Research
Human Ecology MS
The Master of Science in Human Ecology offers multi-disciplinary course work that focuses on current theories and strategies for creating, managing and evaluating settings that promote human and community development. Students are exposed to current research and practice that integrates: (a) the promotion of human and family development with (b) perspectives on building effective organizations and sustainable communities. Students create their own “master’s specialization” through elective courses and the completion of a real-world capstone project.
Human Ecology MFA
The focus of the MFA degree is on creative performance in design. Its goals are to promote strong and creative conceptual thinking, exploration, interpretation, innovation, and overall excellence in design execution.
Graduate Assistantships
There are three types of graduate assistantships: teaching, project, and research assistantships. All incoming Human Ecology PhD and MFA students are guaranteed funding at the 50% level for 3-5 years, depending on their program and academic background.
Scholarships
The School of Human Ecology offers approximately $200,000 of scholarships to our graduate students annually. These fund student professional and academic development at every stage of a graduate career, from guaranteed funding to attend a conference in the first year to support through the final stages of a dissertation.
Fellowships
Fellowships are administered at the Graduate School level and vary in availability from year to year. These prestigious opportunities create protected time to allow students to focus wholly on their academic progress.
Our Community
Inés Botto Interviewed About Factors That Influence Parental Burnout
HDFS PhD student, Inés Botto, was recently interviewed by the SoHE Communications Department for a Q&A about the research results of a study she helped conduct on parental burnout.
Alison Berube Wins Saturday Poster Session Contest at APPAM
Fourth-year PhD student, Alison Berube, won first place in the Saturday Poster Session Contest at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management’s (APPAM) 47th Annual Fall Research Conference in Seattle, Washington!!
Kaina Martinez Selected as Human Ecology Flag Bearer
Time to give our congratulations to second-year SoHE MS student, Kaina Martinez! Kaina recently served as the flag bearer for SoHE at Winter 2025 Commencement and was featured as one of Winter 2025 Commencement's notable grads.
Ian Danner Co-Presents at BICCS with DS PhD Erin Dowding
Recently, second-year DS MFA student, Ian Danner went with his co-researcher, second year DS PhD Student, Erin Dowding, to the BICCS Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden to present their poster "Queer/Trans Weaving in the USA".
Suparit Suwanik's Paper Accepted for Publication in Journal of East Asian Studies
Huge congratulations to 2nd-year CBFE PhD student, Suparit Suwanik! Recently, Suparit had his paper, “Misunderstood Differences: Perception, Media, and Out-Group Animosity in Thailand”, accepted for publication in the Journal of East Asian Studies
Shields Featured for Research on Promotion of Environmental Wellbeing Through Design
Rachael Shields, fourth year DS PhD Student, was recently featured in the School of Human Ecology’s web story: How human ecologists are propelling environmental well-being through design for the research that she has done with her faculty advisor.
School of Human Ecology Events
- February
- February 14
- February 14
- February 15
- February 15
- February 15
Graduate Program Events
- March
- March 13
- April
- April 10
- April 17
- May
- May 1