Facts about the PhD programme
- Three years full-time
- Requires funding and admission
- Educational component of 30 ECTS credits
- A scientific thesis
- Concludes with a public trial lecture and defense
The Faculty of Humanities offers doctoral education at a high international level, with a varied education programme.
You will receive close supervision and academic guidance, but you are responsible for planning and completing your thesis work.
The Faculty has approximately 180 PhD candidates, around 120 of whom are employed as Doctoral Research Fellows.
We offer good salary and working conditions.
Network and academic environment
As a PhD candidate, you become part of an active research environment with a strong international profile. You will collaborate with other researchers and connect with relevant research networks, both nationally and internationally.
All PhD candidates participate in internal, national, and international research courses and conferences, offering excellent opportunities to establish contacts and build networks.
We also encourage you to spend time abroad — either for source- or fieldwork related to your doctoral thesis, or to receive supervision and other academic guidance at another university.
Further career path
A PhD from the Faculty of Humanities opens up opportunities for a career as a researcher or for a career in other professions requiring a high level of knowledge and expertise.
Through doctoral work, you acquire skills that are valuable across many sectors. You learn to
- formulate academic research questions
- plan research and development work
- evaluate the use of various methods and processes
- work with complex academic issues
- challenge established knowledge and practices within your field
- identify relevant ethical issues and conduct research in accordance with applicable ethical guidelines and principles of good research practice
- participate in and contribute to academic collaboration and the development of your academic community
- communicate research findings
- identify and communicate the relevance of the research to the advancement of knowledge and society
Follow-up and education offered
The faculty's seven departments are responsible for the day-to-day follow-up and much of the education offered for the PhD candidates.
Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (IAKH)
The Department offers training programs for candidates in archaeology, conservation, and history. The training is partly shared and partly discipline-specific. Most of our candidates are affiliated with a research group.
Research School
IAKH runs one research school
Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas (IFIKK)
The Department has particularly strong expertise in
- Philosophy: ancient philosophy and Kant, ethics, philosophy of language, logic, metaphysics, and theories of consciousness and knowledge
- Art history: middel ages, modernism, visuality, new media, architecture, and design
- Classical languages: textual criticism/papyrology, historical linguistics, literary analysis, and reception
- History of ideas: history of knowledge and textual culture
Centres
The Department hosts a thematically oriented centre
Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (IKOS)
The Department has expertise in
- Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
- Study of Religion and Cultural History
- Museology and Cultural Heritage Studies
Centres
The Department hosts four thematically oriented centres
- Centre for Islamic and Middle East Studies
- Centre for Museum Studies
- Center for Religion and Politics
- OCEH: Oslo Center for Environmental Humanities
Research School
IKOS runs one research school
Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies (ILN)
The Department has strong academic communities within
- linguistics
- medieval studies, including Old Norse philology and Celtic studies, particularly Irish language and philology
- Nordic and Norwegian literature
- Nordic and Norwegian language
- Norwegian as a second language
- rhetoric and linguistic communication
Centres
ILN hosts two thematically oriented centres
About the training program
ILN offers a solid and comprehensive range of PhD courses, particularly in linguistics.
ILN holds primary responsibility for PhD candidates in linguistics, while the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages (ILOS) holds primary responsibility for PhD candidates in literature.
Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages (ILOS)
The Department has strong academic communities within
- nation-building in Eastern Europe
- discourse analysis
- literary theory
- formal semantics
- linguistic research on parallel corpuses
- translation studies
Centres
ILOS hosts two thematically oriented centres
About the training program
ILOS offers an extensive range of PhD courses, particularly in literature and area studies.
ILOS holds primary responsibility for candidates in literature, while the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies (ILN) holds primary responsibility for candidates in linguistics.
Department of Media and Communication (IMK)
PhD candidates affiliated with IMK conduct research on communication, media, and forms of expression.
The Department's specific areas of expertise
- political communication
- studies of innovation related to the media
- media aesthetics
- the role of the media in culture and society
Centres
The Department hosts three thematically oriented centres
- POLKOM – Centre for the Study of Political Communication
- Centre for Studies of Children, Youth, and Media
- HumAIn – A Humanities Hub for the Reimagination of AI
Department of Musicology (IMV)
The Department has cutting-edge expertise in
- music history, aesthetics, and philosophy
- music technology and music psychology
- popular music studies, society, and media
Centres
The Department hosts two research centres