33 PhD programmes offered by the university

Wharton’s highly selective PhD program in Applied Economics at the University of Pennsylvania offers students many resources not available at other institutions, such as 1:1 faculty to student ratio, five years of funding, and minimal teaching requirements.

The Graduate Program in Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania offers students a range of curricular options that provide a broad academic base in Italian literature, film, cultural studies, intellectual history, and critical theory, as well as the most current pedagogical theory and practice.

The cross-disciplinary PhD program in East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania is designed to train graduate students who can teach and conduct independent research in a variety of humanistic disciplines using Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, and occasionally other languages of East Asia.

The Department of South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania is the principal unit within the School of Arts and Sciences for teaching and research on South Asia at Penn and offers a number of modern and classical South Asian languages, as well as courses in a variety of fields related to South Asia.

The Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World at the University of Pennsylvania trains students for careers in the art and archaeology of Classical and Near Eastern Civilizations.

The overarching goal of the French Studies program at the University of Pennsylvania is to train students for productive scholarship and for effective college or university teaching.

The highly interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania combines the traditional concerns of criminologists with concepts, theories, and empirical research from a wide variety of academic disciplines.

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) at the University of Pennsylvania offers PhD degrees in five distinct fields.

South Asia Regional Studies at University of Pennsylvania is an interdisciplinary field focusing on the history, languages, society, literature, and art from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Bhutan.

The emphasis in the Graduate Program of Anthropology - Medical at University of Pennsylvania is on training candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

MELC’s PhD program in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures - Mesopotamian Civilization at University of Pennsylvania offers advanced study of the languages and philology of ancient Mesopotamia as well as the history and archaeology of that region in its Middle Eastern context. 

The Education Policy Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania equips graduates with the knowledge and methodological tools to use, understand, and conduct research on the pressing educational issues of the day.

The German Languages and Literatures program at the University of Pennsylvania takes a forward-looking perspective on developments in the field.

The Social Welfare PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania is offered as an interdisciplinary degree through a Graduate Group that includes the faculty of SP2 along with faculty with interest in social welfare from other departments and schools

The emphasis in the Graduate Program of Anthropology - Linguistic at University of Pennsylvania is on training candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Wharton’s PhD program in Health Care Management and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania provides an interdisciplinary health services research focus applicable across private and public sectors.

The Spanish and Portuguese program at the University of Pennsylvania prepares students in a range of critical and methodological approaches to the study of literature, culture, and theory in Spain and Latin America.

The Political Science Graduate Program at the University of Pennsylvania offers the Ph.D. degree. Candidates completing the Ph.D. degree follow careers in university teaching and scholarship, and in private or public research institutions.

With one of the nation's premier doctoral programs in Communication, the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania is a tight-knit, supportive community of scholars committed to advancing knowledge of our media environment.

The emphasis in the Graduate Program in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania is on training candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.