2025-2026 Academic Catalog

Jun 27, 2025

2025-2026 Academic Catalog

Geography, PhD

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Overview

Doctoral Program

The Graduate School of Geography has awarded more doctorate degrees than any other geography program in the United States. We welcome applications for admittance to our Ph.D. program annually from individuals with or without prior training in Geography. Students are not accepted for master’s studies only, although many choose to earn that degree en route to the doctorate, and the Geography, MA may be awarded as a terminal degree in the rare cases where a doctoral candidate has completed all requirements but is unable to complete and successfully defend thier dissertation.

Timeline & Applicant Requirements

The Ph.D. program typically takes five years to complete, including writing and defending a dissertation. Depending on their concentrations, students may be required to improve their knowledge of geography, quantitative methods or research methods. TOEFL scores or results of another recognized English proficiency test are required for students for which English is not the first language.

The annual deadline for doctoral applications is mid-December. The exact date changes from year to year and can be found on the Graduate Admissions Application Deadline Website. All doctoral applications receive careful consideration from a faculty-student admissions committee, which meets early in the spring semester to evaluate candidates.

For further information, please view our website at www.clarku.edu/departments/geography or contact:

Graduate Admissions
Clark University
phone: 508-793-7373
email: GraduateAdmissions@clarku.edu

Graduate School of Geography
phone: 508-793-7282
email: Geography@clarku.edu

Doctoral (Ph.D.) Program Requirements

Applicants should request a copy of current guidelines and degree requirements from the Program Administrator.

The doctoral curriculum provides an opportunity for students to pursue studies across the full array of geography: Human-Environment Geography (nature-society), Urban-Economic Geography, Earth System Science, and GIScience/Remote Sensing. Students are encouraged to explore faculty and research interests across these geographies in combination with work in complementary fields and disciplines within and outside of Clark.

Program requirements include:

8 semesters of credits (including courses, seminars, directed reading credits, research credits, and thesis/dissertation work)
Satisfactory completion of doctoral examinations
Fulfillment of a skills requirement
Completion, acceptance and successful defense of a dissertation research proposal
Completion, acceptance and successful defense of a dissertation

Students’ typical course load is three courses per semester. The usual sequence students follow is: course work, doctoral exam, research proposal, and dissertation research, write up and defense.

In the first year, students normally complete the two required courses (across fall and spring semesters):

For more detailed information regarding the Geography Ph.D. Program in the Graduate School of Geography, please visit: https://www.clarku.edu/departments/geography/graduate-programs/doctoral-programs/ or reach out to Yaa Poku, Department Administrator, at YPoku@clarku.edu.

Geography Faculty and Staff

Program Faculty

Hamed Alemohammad, Ph.D.
Yuko Aoyama, Ph.D.
Anthony Bebbington, Ph.D.
Asha Best, Ph.D.
Mark Davidson, Ph.D.
Lyndon Estes, Ph.D.
Abby Frazier, Ph.D.
Karen Frey, Ph.D.
Dominik Kulakowski, Ph.D.
Deborah Martin, Ph.D.
James McCarthy, Ph.D.
Siobhan McGrath, Ph.D.
James T. Murphy, Ph.D.
Gustavo Oliveira, Ph.D.
Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr, Ph.D.
Max Ritts, Ph.D.
John Rogan, Ph.D.
Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Ph.D.
Florencia Sangermano, Ph.D.
Christopher A. Williams, Ph.D.

Adjunct Faculty

Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Ph.D.

Distinguished University Professor Emerita

Susan Hanson, Ph.D.

Distinguished Research Professor

B. L. Turner, Ph.D.

Research Faculty

Emeriti Faculty

Martyn Bowden, Ph.D.
J. Ronald Eastman, Ph.D.
Jody Emel, Ph.D.
Douglas Johnson, Ph.D.
Laurence A. Lewis, Ph.D.
Samuel Ratick, Ph.D.
Dianne Rocheleau-Malaret, Ph.D.
Henry J. Steward, Ph.D.

Staff

Yaa Poku, Department Administrator and Assistant to the Director
Marjorie Miller, Office Coordinator and Asst. to the Dept. Admin.
Hilary Laraba, Managing Editor, Economic Geography