ASPIRE Illinois offers an opportunity for traditionally underrepresented students in graduate education to explore and consider graduate school at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Toward this aim, the program provides preapplication supports and hosts campus visits.
PhD in Information Sciences
Join a renowned community of scholars
The work of our faculty defines the field and puts scholars like you at the forefront of the information society. When you join the iSchool, you'll benefit from the excellence and reputation of the nation's leading school in library and information studies. Our interdisciplinary research program responds to new social and technological opportunities for producing, analyzing, disseminating, and accessing information.
PhD students are guaranteed financial support for five academic years (excluding summers) through research assistantships, teaching assistantships, and fellowships. Our students come from a variety of academic backgrounds and professional experiences, creating a collaborative, innovative, and vibrant community of scholars.
The Information Sciences PhD program is a residency program. Students are required to complete all coursework while located in Champaign-Urbana. Students may choose to complete their research outside of Champaign-Urbana at the discretion of the faculty advisor. Please note that if an international student leaves Champaign-Urbana at any point during their study, this may impact funding opportunities through the iSchool.
PhD student William Langston chose the iSchool not only for its national and international reputation but also because it provides opportunities for interdisciplinary work and innovative research.
Careers
Our program opens doors, preparing students for successful careers. Recent graduates have obtained faculty positions with numerous universities including Denver, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland-College Park, Michigan, Simmons, South Florida, UNC-Greensboro, Washington & Wayne State. Additionally, recent graduates have secured their first jobs in in a range of settings, including:
- Privacy Researcher, Facebook
- Research Scientist, PatientsLikeMe
- Consultant, Deloitte
- Data Scientist, U.S. Government
- Digital Scholarship Librarian, DePaul University
- Instructional Data Specialist, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Cataloger, Princeton University
- Core Investigator, Veterans Health Administration
Program overview
Work closely with your faculty advisor to create educational experiences both within and outside the classroom to support your professional goals. With only two required courses—History and Foundations in IS (IS 509) and Research Design in IS (IS 519)—you can customize your degree through a broad range of electives. Your program will consist of 48 hours of coursework and 32 hours of dissertation work. Required milestones that will help to build your research expertise include:
- Field exam in a significant sub-area of IS
- Research presentation to demonstrate research competency
- Dissertation culminating in a public presentation, defense, and submission
For a more detailed program overview, please visit Program Overview.
What I like best about the iSchool is its inclusive culture and expansive opportunities. The welcoming faculty and staff are always there to offer academic and non-academic support. Because the iSchool's researchers work in very different subfields, PhD students are able to explore a range of research topics and collaborative opportunities across disciplinary boundaries.
Wenyi Shang, PhD Candidate
Explore your research focus
You want to do important work that makes an impact and to collaborate with leaders in the field. We have the resources and the expertise to help you accomplish just that.
iSchool researchers address key challenges at the intersection of people, information, and technology in highly multidisciplinary ways. Our strategic research vision drives the scope of our research projects and presents a distinct imprint for the substance and impact of our work in areas such as:
- Scientific data and knowledge practices
- Organization of knowledge and information
- Data curation
- Digital humanities
- Digital libraries
- Community informatics
- Youth services and digital youth
- Informetrics
- Human-computer interaction
- Human-centered data science and social computing
- Information privacy, security, and ethics
- Health and bioinformatics
- History of information
Support for leading-edge research
Flourish at a research university
The University of Illinois is a preeminent public research university, which means you will have access to exceptional resources beyond those in the iSchool:
- Blue Waters Petascale Supercomputer
- University Library
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Get the support you need
Research Services supports and promotes the research activities of the iSchool, large or small, funded or unfunded. At the iSchool, you'll find supportive staff ready to help you with:
- Project planning and consulting
- Grant proposal development
- Research administration
- Research policies & IRB
- Student grants
- Research infrastructure
PhD student Andrew Zalot chose the iSchool mostly because of its faculty but found an "amazing community of doctoral students" and a positive culture in which to collaborate and engage in creative research opportunities.
Questions? I can help.
Vetle Torvik,
Associate Professor and Interim PhD Program Director