SPT at Acadia

Explore diverse and innovative issues in the Social and Political Thought (SPT) Graduate program at Acadia University.  Founded in 2007, Acadia’s SPT program is the first interdisciplinary theory program in the region and the only SPT program east of Ontario.

SPT at Acadia develops the knowledge, skills and delivery methods needed to thrive in an interconnected and evolving world.  Students are invited to explore interdisciplinary knowledges and pursue their own unique interests. They develop their own personal initiative into an intellectually coherent pattern of study in Social and Political Thought. 

Acadia SPT’s unique approach to building reciprocal connections among academic and non-academic communities enhances intellectual, cultural, social and economic interdisciplinarity and contributes to an innovative, resilient, culturally rich and affirming community. The SPT community exemplifies how existing disciplines can learn to branch out and incorporate other disciplines’ core strengths.  The SPT program is made up of faculty from Politics, Philosophy, Sociology, English and Theatre, Comparative Religion, Environment and Sustainability Studies, Education and History. 

Within this diverse community, a unique potential for reflexive engagement with interdisciplinarity exists. In addition to the diversity of disciplines, a breadth of theoretical approaches is also fostered. As such, while recognizing productive tensions between analytic, critical, contemporary and continental approaches to theory, the SPT community is committed to a dizzying array of questions concerning: the human, the machine, the animal, the planet and the viral; technology, information, communication, and media; gender, race, indigeneity, sexuality, location and class; ethics, morals, techne, praxis and poiesis. Our lists and connections are as endless as we are collectively creative.  Come join us!   

The SPT graduate program at Acadia is small and personalized.  You will have ample opportunities to work one-on-one with SPT’s core faculty, expand your writing, reading and critical thinking repertoire, contribute to exciting seminar work, build interesting and meaningful academic and community connections, and develop important and useful professional skills.  Whether it is the graduate student journal (TBD), the biennial graduate student conference, the community speaker’s forum, the SPT colloquium, your co-supervised thesis, and/or your small interactive seminars, the SPT program is designed to challenge the boundaries of thinking.

Acadia’s SPT programs excels in building theoretical scholarship from a broad interdisciplinary perspective, allowing students to shape communities and study holistically.  You should apply if:

  • You are looking for an intellectually challenging, rigourous, interdisciplinary program;
  • You are excited by the "big questions" about political, social, moral and economic life, whether your interest was sparked in a course you took recently or in the distant past, or whether your interest was sparked outside of the classroom, through your life, work or activism;
  • You have completed or are about to complete an undergraduate degree, majoring in a relevant disciplinary field (philosophy, political science, sociology) or interdisciplinary program (communication and cultural studies, environmental studies, women and gender studies, etc.);
  • You feel you would thrive in the highly supportive environment of an M.A.-only graduate program, with small class sizes and a high degree of faculty-student interaction.

Applications for admission and funding will be considered beginning February 1.  Applications submitted after this deadline will be considered on a case by case basis. 

If you want to speak to the SPT program coordinator about your ideas, your proposed area of study or your interests in the program please email: andrew.biro@acadiau.ca For all questions about admissions procedures (TOFEL, GPA, Transcripts etc.) please email Research and Graduate Studies: gradadmissions@acadiau.ca