Introduction
The PhD Program in American Studies, organized and promoted by the Instituto Franklin-UAH, is integrated in the Escuela de Doctorado de la Universidad de Alcalá. It aims to foster original research on the subject of North-American Studies, particularly those related to the United States of America.
The Instituto Franklin-UAH is the only research institution in Spain dedicated to the study of the United States, being thus a frame of reference and an academic platform for mutual understanding between both nations. Since its creation more than 25 years ago, the Instituto Franklin-UAH has impelled research and developed PhD programs, aiming to contribute to the understanding of the reality of North America.
Due to the wide variety of fields of knowledge related to North America and the United States, the PhD Program in American Studies includes an interdisciplinary approach related to the territory such as Humanities and Social Sciences.
- To train researchers in the diverse fields incorporated in North American Studies: Political Science, Sociology, International Relations, History, Philosophy, Literature, and Culture.
- To provide PhD candidates with the tools, competencies, and skills necessary for high-caliber scientific research and for the presentation of an original research dissertation.
- To promote the completion of dissertations that respond to the demands of both scientific and social spheres.
BASIC AND GENERAL COMPETENCES
- The systematic comprehension of a field of study and command of the skills and research methods related to that field.
- The capacity to conceive, design or create, apply, and adopt a substantial research or creative process.
- The capacity to contribute to the creation of knowledge through original research.
- The capacity to undertake critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas.
- The capacity to communicate with the academic and scientific community and with society in general about their fields of knowledge in the manners and languages most commonly used in the international scientific community.
- The capacity to foster, in academic and professional contexts, scientific, technological, social, artistic, or cultural advancement in a society based on knowledge.
PERSONAL CAPACITIES AND ABILITIES
- To operate in contexts with little specific information.
- To find the key questions to respond to in order to solve complex problems.
- To design, create, develop, and undertake novel and innovative projects in a specific field of study.
- To work individually and in teams in an international or multidisciplinary context.
- To integrate knowledge and confront complexity.