Twenty eight graduate programs, many interdisciplinary, across 16 departments, challenge and prepare College of Arts and Sciences’ (CAS) students to prepare for future careers or graduate programs in a wide variety of areas.
Music, Theatre and Dance
The department of Music, Theatre and Dance offers a Ph.D. in music education. Students who pursue this program are interested in working in higher education as music teacher educators and researchers or working in a K-12 school setting as curricular leaders. The program is internationally known for its constructivist vision of the music education practice and for preparing fine qualitative researchers.
The first graduate of this program was a recipient of Oakland University’s first Outstanding Dissertation Award (Deborah Blair, May 2008). Graduates of this program have presented papers at some of the field’s most prestigious conferences and universities and published in some of its most competitive journals. Several recent graduates are already serving as reviewers for prestigious journals. Three have been invited to contribute chapters to research books (each graduate to several books), including the new comprehensive Oxford Handbook of Music Education, which will include the work of those considered most influential in the field worldwide.
Biomedical Sciences
Since 1984, the College has provided an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences. The program began with specializations in Medical Physics (based in the department of Physics) and Health and Environmental Chemistry (based in the department of Chemistry). In 2006, the Biological Communication specialization was initiated in the department of Biological Sciences.
These specializations provide students with a theoretical background and the practical skills necessary to be successful in their chosen field. Students collaborate with OU faculty, area hospitals and institutes to participate in relevant and cutting edge research projects. To date, more than 75 students have completed the Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences program; currently there are a total of 41 doctoral students in the three specializations.
Kathy Moore, associate dean, notes, “OU was interdisciplinary ahead of the long-standing traditional universities in the state. That is paying off now as today’s students recognize the need to be able to work with people and ideas across a variety of disciplines.”