Overview & Description
The Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) is, as its name implies, an interdisciplinary program that reaches across all of Stanford’s seven schools, but it is housed in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. The program aims to teach students the knowledge and skills necessary to address the world's most challenging environmental and sustainability problems. E-IPER combines academic disciplines such as natural sciences, engineering, humanities, social sciences, law, health, policy, and business with the belief being that such an approach is more likely to yield new insights and novel solutions to urgent global problems such as energy use, climate change, food security, freshwater availability, human health and sanitation, depletion of ocean resources, land degradation, and biodiversity loss, among others.
Dr. Ardoin advises E-IPER students who pursue a range of projects with social-ecological components including, but not limited to, designing and evaluating the effectiveness of community co-management of marine and coastal resources; using behavioral science principles to design and evaluate climate change and biodiversity management issues; and leveraging multi-criteria decision analysis tools to incorporate cultural, ecological, social, biophysical, and economic variables into land-use and marine-related decision-making. Students working with Dr. Ardoin share interests in social-ecological systems theories, sense of place, conservation at scale(s), environmental learning, and sustainability science.
FAQs: PhD Program in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER)
E-IPER has created online information sessions for prospective applicants who are not able to visit campus in person. You can find the list of scheduled information sessions for the coming academic year at the following link: https://eiper.stanford.edu/academics-admissions/phd-degree/phd-admissions#phdinfosessions
Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program, E-IPER draws together faculty members from across campus into unique constellations in support of student needs and interests. E-IPER faculty affiliates, with a range of interests, are available to advise and work with E-IPER PhD students.
E-IPER alumni trained through the Social Ecology Lab are in a range of positions that leverage their scholarly, teaching, and community-engagement expertise. Alumni positions include tenure-track faculty positions as well as postdoctoral fellowships in environmental studies, human dimensions of resource management, coastal and marine studies, and environmental education. Others work as social-science researchers with nonprofits, government agencies, and environmental consulting firms. For more information on Social Ecology Lab alumni, see here. For more information on E-IPER alumni, see here.
Normally, the doctoral program takes five years to complete. Funding is guaranteed for these five years.
E-IPER PhD students take a series of courses as a cohort in their first and second years to build a core body of knowledge and experiences. The courses are designed to introduce students to the theories, analytical tools, methods, and approaches necessary for interdisciplinary work. The degree also offers a great deal of flexibility for students to pursue courses and independent studies specifically aligned with their research interests. Information on the E-IPER PhD core courses can be found on the E-IPER website.
No, the research, teaching, and course requirements are a full-time undertaking (probably more than a full-time undertaking!).
Stanford PhD-level courses are not offered online. Being on campus and being part of the community is an essential part of the PhD experience as many of the enriching opportunities of learning can only be experienced that way. That said, many of our students do pursue in-depth field work for their dissertation research, which is entirely appropriate at various times during the course of the PhD program, as discussed with and advised by the PhD committee.
Please refer to the E-IPER website, which includes an overview of the program, information about the research interests of students and faculty, and advice from current students.
E-IPER students advised by Professor Ardoin, and thus affiliated with the Social Ecology Lab, pursue research on a variety of topics. Please visit the page that describes our current graduate students as well as alumni to gain an understanding of the range of interests of current and past lab members.
Through their studies, students can expect to gain knowledge of the theoretical underpinnings of their area(s) of interest as well as the necessary skills to conduct empirical research. Students will develop skills in conducting literature reviews; developing and implementing mixed-methods studies; working with community partners in the nonprofit and policy sectors; applying for and writing research grants; supervising research interns; and writing academic papers; among others.
The Social Ecology Lab is Prof. Ardoin’s research group and therefore is part of the Environmental Social Sciences Department in the Doerr School of Sustainability. PhD students and postdoctoral fellows who are supervised by Prof. Ardoin comprise the lab. Occasionally, the lab hosts visiting scholars (professors or experts from elsewhere); those experts join lab meetings and enhance our discussions as well. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of Prof. Ardoin’s work, our Social Ecology Lab group includes people from across campus pursuing a range of work. A typical lab meeting consists of PhD students and postdocs from various programs, departments, institutes, and centers around campus.
Work on your application, following guidance as discussed on the E-IPER website. Pay close attention to your statement of purpose, ensuring that you clearly describe an area of research interest and, ideally, justify that interest with backing in the scholarly literature. Be sure to suggest, too, some ways you might pursue that work through a PhD. When listing faculty, mention Prof. Ardoin if your areas of interest align with those described on this website.
Sample E-IPER Dissertation Titles: Ardoin Social Ecology Lab Members
- Together in changing places: The role of social and affective dimensions in conservation and adaptation behavior, Francisca Santana, 2022
- Examining factors that affect community participation in sea turtle governance: Lessons learned from Eastern Pacific Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) conservation in El Salvador and Nicaragua, José Urteaga, 2022
- Learning to be a human alongside the more-than-human world: Navigating information, morality, and sense of self in a social and environmental context, Anna Lee, 2022
- Learning with fishing families: How worldviews and lived experience shape fisher livelihoods and marine conservation, Shannon Switzer Swanson, 2022
- Respect the land: Pathways to resource stewardship and resiliency in a changing Arctic, Kristen Green, 2021
- The multi-scalar drivers of resident invasive species control action on the island of Hawai’i, Rebecca Niemiec, 2018
- Putting individuals in context: Interdisciplinary and behavioral science approaches for understanding environmental and human health decisions, Jennifer Wang, 2018
- Environmental decisionmaking and risk perception: Effects of place-related connections and implications for philanthropy, Nik Sawe, 2016