The Doctoral Program

The History and Philosophy of Science Program at Notre Dame is a Ph.D. program. Graduate students pursue their studies on one of three tracks (History, Philosophy or Theology and Science), and have a second home in the corresponding department.

Our students meet all the Ph.D. requirements of their home department, as well as the additional HPS requirements, thereby emerging fully trained in their home discipline as well as in HPS. This is accomplished with three years of coursework, followed by at least two years of dissertation work.

Details of the degree requirements can be found in the Graduate Student Handbook.

Every year we admit up to four students. Click for more on admissions.

Concurrent Master's Degree

We do not accept applications from students seeking a master’s degree. However, students already enrolled in a different Ph.D. program at the University of Notre Dame are eligible to enroll for a concurrent master’s in HPS.

This non-research HPS M.A. degree requires the completion of 36 hours of coursework. Students may count up to nine hours of coursework toward both degree programs, subject to approval by the director of HPS and the director of graduate studies in the other program.