The PhD in Design, Environment and the Arts Program in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts has an explicit mission: to prepare students to become public intellectuals and transformative practitioners in shaping the environment at all scales – from the design of cities, buildings and landscapes, to interiors, products and graphics, to the arts all the while placing emphases on sustainability, innovation, community building, cultural and contextual awareness.

Despite its breadth, the implicit mandate of the mission is possible for several reasons. First, the PhD Program is interdisciplinary and involves facets of the Herberger Institute's academic units, with students currently enrolled from the disciplines within – the The Design School, the School of Art and the School of Arts, Media and Engineering. Second, the PhD Program has access to a pool of experts from the Institute’s faculty as well as faculty throughout the university including, but not limited to, the Department of Applied Biological Sciences, the College of Nursing and Health Innovation and the School of Sustainability. Third, the PhD Program has access to some of the best facilities found in any college of its kind. Lastly, the PhD Program is evolving in one of the most progressive and transformative educational environments in the country, commonly referred to as the New American University.

In the end, however, it is our students and graduates who reflect the quality of the PhD Program. They are all succeeding. From the first day that they enter the program, our students begin to embed themselves in research and academic endeavors outside of the institute through active participation in lectures and presentations at various national and international workshops and conferences. As graduates of the program, they climb to the top of their careers pursuing academic paths and assuming leadership roles in professional planning and design practices, the corporate sector, the public sector and the nonprofit sector.

If your concern is more about what you want to do than rather what you want to be, then join us in the PhD in Design, Environment and the Arts in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

Kenneth Brooks, FASLA, FCELA, PLA
Professor and Director of PhD in Design, Environment and the Arts