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The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which awards the Harvard PhD, offers 57 degree programs, including interfaculty PhD programs with Harvard’s professional schools. PhD students may broaden their programs by enrolling in a growing number of secondary fields of study.

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Scholarly Life

Could a Secondary Field Enhance Your PhD Program?

Posted October 14, 2011

With the addition of a secondary field in Computational Science and Engineering last spring, the Graduate School now offers 15 secondary fields, in subjects ranging from African and African American Studies to Film and Visual Studies to Science, Technology, and Society. These secondary fields may help PhD students broaden both their intellectual and their professional portfolios as they move through their degree programs.

Secondary fields, which are listed on a student’s transcript if completed to satisfaction, typically consist of four or five graduate courses in a discipline, interdisciplinary area, or intellectually coherent subfields. In addition, depending on the field, there are opportunities to take part in symposia, workshops, and other special gatherings, with the aim of expanding interdisciplinary networks and the reach of one’s scholarly work.

Click here for application instructions, other policies, and a description of each of the available secondary fields.