Labour Studies, Ph.D.

Admission

Admission to the Ph.D. program normally will require:

A Master of Arts degree or equivalent in any relevant discipline from an accredited university with a minimum average of A-. Select candidates may be admitted with a B+ average from a Masters degree if they have a minimum of five years of work or volunteer experience in a labour or work-related community organization and are able to provide evidence that they have strong writing and critical thinking skills.
A demonstrated interest in studying work, employment or worker organizations from a Labour Studies perspective.

Applicants will be evaluated on the basis of their qualifications and the alignment of their interests with the research interests and availability of faculty.

Degree Requirements

Course Requirements

Normally, candidates for the Ph.D. will complete 12 units (4 half courses) of course work at the graduate level which include:
1. LABRST 715 or an equivalent methods course approved by the program; Students entering the PhD program who have already taken W&S 715 are exempt from this requirement and may take another elective.
2. LABRST 793 Advanced Labour Studies Theory
3. Two elective courses offered by the School of Labour Studies or by another department or academic unit

Supervisors and Supervisory Committees

Successful applicants will be assigned a temporary supervisor of studies upon admission. Not later than eight months following arrival, a supervisory committee for each Ph.D. student will be appointed by the Graduate Committee, on the recommendation of the student and their dissertation supervisor. This committee will consist of at least three members: a dissertation supervisor, normally a full-time faculty member in the School of Labour Studies, and two other members, at least one of whom is a faculty member from outside of the School of Labour Studies, whose scholarly interests include the area of the student’s main interest.

Comprehensive Examination

After finishing their course work, normally in Term 1 of their second year in the program, students will complete a comprehensive exam. The purpose of the exam is to ensure that the student has sufficient knowledge of the relevant scholarly literature in the field of Labour Studies and that they are able to synthesize and communicate this literature in a critically insightful way. The comprehensive exam will consist of a written and an oral component. The examination committee for the comprehensive exam shall normally consist of the members of the supervisory committee.

Dissertation Proposal

Following the completion of the comprehensive exam requirement, students will publically present their dissertation proposal outlining their research question, methodology and how their project will contribute to academic knowledge.

Dissertation

Candidates for the Ph.D. degree are required to write a dissertation with a maximum length of 300 double spaced pages that demonstrates competence in original research following School of Graduate Studies guidelines. Students will be required to defend their dissertation in an oral examination.