Information Science PhD Program

     The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree is a research degree. It is awarded in recognition of original scholarship and the generation of new knowledge by immersion in a topic, analysis, synthesis, and creativity. When a Ph.D. is awarded it carries and bestows certain rights and responsibilities that relate in large measure to serving society by exploring, shedding light upon, and resolving fundamental problems.

     The Doctor of Philosophy degree is said to be fundamentally interdisciplinary. All those who pursue the degree, in one sense or another seek to clarify some portion of our best possible image of the world. That is to say, each of those who pursue the Ph.D. seek to provide the most robust understanding and the most appropriate tools for enabling each member of society to live well, to make the best life decisions, to become most fully human. Doctoral pursuits follow many paths, use different tool sets, invoke different mind sets, and continue testing assumptions by different means. Over the past centuries many of these have clustered into discrete departments or schools. An interdisciplinary program attempts to return to an era of broader assumptions, linking paths, and cross-fertilizing research. Such an approach provides resources across boundaries.

     Each discipline has its foundational notions of what constitutes doctoral studies. Likewise, each institution sets administrative guidelines and constraints for doctoral studies. The goal is to ensure that society is provided with the most capable people and that each person pursuing doctoral studies has every opportunity and resource to flourish.

     The University of North Texas Interdisciplinary Information Science PhD Program (IS PhD Program) responds to the varied and changing needs of an information age; to the increasing recognition of the central role of information and  information technologies in individual, social, economic and cultural affairs. Graduates of the program are prepared to contribute to the advancement and evolution of the information society in a variety of roles and settings as administrators, researchers and educators. UNT IS PhD Program offers:

• excellent research faculty across UNT serving as instructors and advisors;
• a variety of course delivery formats, including online and blended;
• a residential experience with a high level of faculty-student interaction;
• a flexible degree plan tailored to individual interests;
• a culturally and ethnically diverse community of faculty and students;
• competitive scholarship, grant, fellowship, and assistantship opportunities;
• extensive research library resources on campus and online. 

     To receive timely notifications about the upcoming deadlines, defenses, TA/RA position opportunities, conferences, new courses etc., IS PhD Program students (both continuing and incoming) need to be subscribed to UNT-ISDOC-L mailing list. To subscribe  to the list, send an email to listserv@unt.edu with subject line blank and with "SUBSCRIBE UNT-ISDOC-L YourFirstName YourLastName" in the body of the message.

Additional Information

PhDs in linguistics traditionally focus on the structure of language and the process of learning it. (Relevant sub-disciplines include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and first or second language acquisition). The Information Science (IS) PhD program with a Concentration in Linguistics encourages students to learn and apply methods and theories of information science and other affiliated disciplines to solve problems in core linguistics, which will give graduates an edge in both academic and nonacademic markets. Students will learn how to fashion highly interdisciplinary fields of study, such as digital language data curation, computational modeling of linguistic behavior, advanced technologies for language teaching, and neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic techniques for alleviating speech and hearing disorders.
     The IS PhD Program responds to the varied and changing needs of the information age; to the increasing recognition in individual, social, economic and cultural affairs of the central role of information and technologies for refining it. Graduates of the program are prepared to contribute to the advancement and evolution of an information society in a variety of roles and settings: as administrators, researchers and educators.

Information Science Website