This program is open for September 2025 admission
Program description
Saint Paul University, through its faculties of Human Sciences, Theology, Philosophy, and Canon Law, offers a PhD in Interdisciplinary Research on Contemporary Social Issues. This degree is conferred jointly by the Senates of Saint Paul University and the University of Ottawa under the terms of the federation agreement between them.
The interdisciplinary research doctorate provides a space for reflection to increase understanding of contemporary social issues taking account of the insights of the graduate disciplines of the four participating faculties.
The program prepares leaders intending to assume responsibility for addressing contemporary social issues.
In the PhD in Interdisciplinary Research, students will have the opportunity to deepen their methodological grasp of at least two academic disciplines with a view to intervening critically, creatively, and constructively in contemporary debates of public and social relevance. Recent research topics have included:
- Disability justice
- Normative analysis of religiously based social movements
- Ethics of public memory and crimes against humanity, such as violence against women as a weapon of war
- The social and political implications of irreligion for liberal democracy
- New technologies (such as AI) and their implications for children’s public health