Center for New Institutional Social Sciences

Center for New Institutional Social Sciences

Certificate Program in Institutional Social Sciences

Director - Itai Sened
Administrative Assisant - Alana Bame

The idea behind the Certificate in Institutional Social Sciences is to bring together students from diverse academic backgrounds in order to provide each student with a more complete understanding of the new institutional social sciences.
The program fosters the students' individual research within his or her respective field, while also challenging the student to see beyond the traditional barriers between the social sciences by emphasizing the study of people within their respective belief system.

The program admits five second year Ph.D. students of Washington University each year (or more students depending on need that year), preferably, with one from each of the Ph.D. programs in the social sciences: Anthropology, Economics, History, Philosophy, and Political Science; students from the School of Social Work are also admitted to the program. The Center plans to add other departments and Schools at Washington University as demand and availability of resources for the program increases.

Once accepted into this program, students attend a research seminar class taught during the Fall and Spring (one class is required per each year of tenure with the program) to discuss their respective research. In addition, they must choose four out of six special Ph.D. classes taught throughout their tenure in the program during the summer of each year that emphasize institutional analysis from differing disciplinary perspectives.

Go to Certificate Program Courses
See the Placement of Graduates of the CNISS Certificate Program

How to Apply
Applicants to the program must provide records of their grades, two letters of recommendation and a project plan which meets the requirements of the program: the plan must bring relevant and promising new research to the field of New Institutional Social Sciences. 2008 application