220 Best Social Sciences Doctoral Degree Programs for 2025

CIIS’ Integral and Transpersonal Psychology Ph.D. is one of the few programs in the world that offers an online Ph.D. in whole-person approaches to psychology. It is a research-oriented program dedicated to systematic knowledge-building and the advancement of transpersonal psychology.

The M.A./Ph.D. program celebrates its 30-year long tradition of offering clinical psychology doctoral education in-depth psychological traditions, which emphasizes radical theorizing, in-depth relational clinical education, and engagement in issues of social justice and care. The program prepares psychologists through the integration of diverse depth psychological traditions, human sciences scholarship, and community praxis.

The Doctor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Gratz College is designed for students already holding a graduate degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, history, or another related discipline. Doctoral students will engage in a meta-study of genocide to understand the phenomenon from a comprehensive range of academic approaches—historical, sociological, geographical, psychological, legal, theological and scientific—to inform their dissertations while reviewing the significant literature and conducting in-depth original research in the field.

The Doctor of Psychology in Counseling Psychology (PsyD) program at Holy Family University is committed to a practitioner-scholar training model. The program is evidence-based and practice-informed, utilizing interventions that reflect the foundational values of the discipline of counseling psychology. Our view of clinical training is consistent with the American Psychological Association’s Standards of Accreditation for Health Services Psychology (HSP) and the guidelines for professional psychology training developed by the National Council for Schools and Programs in Psychology (NCSPP).

Simmons University's Ph.D. in Social Work program is designed for experienced practitioners to develop scientific research skills and improve individuals and populations' health and well-being. The Ph.D. in Social Work challenges students to view clinical experiences through a scientific lens.

This program emphasizes public administration scholarship, public policy, public management, and criminal justice/criminology in preparation for positions in academia and consulting firms, public management and administration, public policy analysis, politics and advocacy, and nonprofits.

Located in the Humanities, Feminist Studies Ph.D. program is an interdisciplinary program investigates how relations of gender are embedded in social, political, racial, and cultural formations. The program emphasizes feminist modes of inquiry and is designed to provide advanced training in feminist theories and methods.

Since 1990 our doctoral program has produced thought leaders in academic, public and private settings who address persistent and emerging inequities through socially just research.

The Annenberg School for Communication is home to world-class faculty and students. It combines the intimacy of a selective graduate program with the dynamism, resources, and personnel of a major research institute embedded within one of the world’s top research universities. The School is also a crossroads for visiting scholars and practitioners, providing Annenberg students opportunities to interact formally and informally with exciting internationally respected talent.

Wharton’s Ph.D. program in Applied Economics gives students the tools and training to get jobs in business schools, public policy programs, and applied-oriented economics departments. Drawing on a large faculty of applied economists across multiple Wharton departments and the Law School, the program allows specialization in a number of areas.

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Public Affairs offers rigorous, an advanced study that prepares researchers to enter academia or join highly respected institutions involved in cutting-edge research in public affairs, policy, planning, and management/governance.

The University of Missouri was the first institution in the world to grant a doctorate in journalism. In journalism education and research, the School was awarded the first doctor of philosophy degree in 1934.

Encompassing the ancient world from the western Mediterranean to East Asia, from the Neolithic to the Early Medieval period, ISAW is focused on creating a new generation of scholars whose work crosses over the disciplinary boundaries of traditional departments. In this way, knowledge of the cultures, art, languages, religions, economic systems, and interactions of the ancient world can be deepened and expanded.

BSTU educational programs prepare students for religious vocations as ministers, professionals, or laypersons in the categories of ministry, counseling, theology, education, administration, music, fine arts, media communications, or social work. The objective of our Ethereal Doctor of Psychology in Grief Counseling is to further your education in the grief and bereavement field. Attaining this prestigious level of education will no doubt allow you to counsel your patients with confidence but also educate those eager to learn how to counsel as well.

Students in Anthropology of Religion study cultural contexts, beginning with conceptualizing “religion” itself as the product of Christian, European, and colonial genealogies in order to understand this concept’s impact on the world.

Our program combines experiential learning with a serious academic inquiry and our graduates become transpersonal scholars, transpersonally-oriented therapists and healers, transformative educators, and change agents in various social and organizational contexts.

The Cultural, Social, and Political Thought major in the Ph.D. program is interdisciplinary in nature. It is based on a cohort learning model that fosters an environment of interdisciplinary engagement and exchange, research, peer mentoring, and collaboration.

The Ph.D. Program in Cognitive and Cultural Systems unites disciplines that have been carefully selected for their ability to provide the necessary cultural, methodological, and instrumental know-how for the analysis of complex social, cognitive, psychological, and cultural systems. It is truly a unique Ph.D. Program thanks to its common topics of study that consist of cognitive, cultural, and social systems.

EEH is a PhD course study activated since 2017 at G. d’Annunzio School of Advanced Studies, in the Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences (DiSPuTer) (Campus Universitario, Via dei Vestini, 31 - 66100 Chieti Scalo, Italy). EEH coordinator is Giusy Lavecchia, full professor of Structural Geology. EEH is dedicated to high-quality studies and original research on natural and anthropogenic hazards and their consequences. It is aimed to build a multi-task research community concerned, on one side, with monitoring, modelling and assessment of hazards and, on the other, with the investigation of the impact on individuals and society, finalized to the design and implementation of risk mitigation and adaptation strategies. The skills of the EEH teaching board, which span from Earth Sciences and Physics (ERC PE10) to Archaeology (ERC SH6) and Psychology (ERC SH4), make possible a multi-task approach to two high-impact categories of hazard, that concern earthquakes and environmental pollution. Characterizing EEH research and teaching topics are: 1. Seismotectonics and seismogenesis for seismic hazard assessment (responsible: prof. Giusy Lavecchia) 2. Geoarchaeology and archaeoseismology for cultural heritage risk and for seismic hazard (responsible: prof. Oliva Menozzi) 3. Endogenous and anthropogenic hazards for risk mitigation (responsible: prof. Francesco Stoppa) 4. Psycho-sociological analysis of hazard perception and risk communication (responsible: prof. Nicola Mammarella). EHH students will develop and implement their scientific background, but, at the same time, they will acquire basic tools and knowledge on hazard problems approached from different point of views. This strategy is crucial to educate and train a new generation of researchers and technicians able to combine their specific expertise into a common procedure for successful risk management. Such a framing process is urgent in order to increase resilience to earthquakes and environmental hazards and to reduce the impact from natural disasters. The course is open to candidates with a master degree in structural geology, geophysics, geomorphology, seismology, archaeology, geochemistry, petrography, physics, environmental science, psychology and sociology. Accordingly, candidates will widen their specific competence by working in a team of experts from many different fields.

The DIW Graduate Center (GC) at the German Institute for Economic Research welcomes applications from highly qualified post-graduate students from around the world to enroll in its structured doctoral program in Economics.