College: School of Human Ecology
Designation: School
Majors and degrees offered: M.F.A., M.S., Ph.D. in Human Ecology
Other: Ph.D. Minors in Human Ecology and Human Development and Family Studies
Tracks: Human Ecology degree subplans in Consumer Behavior and Family Economics, Design Studies, or Human Development and Family Studies
Faculty: Consumer Behavior and Family Economics--Professors Jasper (chair), Apple, Douthitt, Goebel, Holden, Hoyt, Zepeda; Associate Professors Bartfeld, Riportella, Smith; Assistant Professors Gutter, Hatcher. Design Studies--Professors Gordon (chair), Boyd, Dong, Hunt, Merrill, Sarmadi, Sheehan; Associate Professors Clark, Rengel; Assistant Professors Angus, Chopra (Languages and Cultures of Asia), Nelson. Human Development and Family Studies--Professors Bogenschneider (chair), Aquilino, Bloch (Curriculum and Instruction), Brown (Educational Psychology), Enright (Educational Psychology), Kratochwill (Educational Psychology), Marks, Price (Curriculum and Instruction), Reynolds (Social Work), Riech (Nursing), Riley, Roberts, Small, Vandell (Educational Psychology); Associate Professors Uttal, Zeldin; Assistant Professors Bolger, Dilworth-Bart, Lewis, Papp, Poehlmann. Interdisciplinary Studies--Professors Hitchon McSweeney (chair), Rossing, Way. Family and Consumer Communication--Professor Hitchon McSweeney, (Chair).
Human ecology is the study of the complex relationships between human beings and their environments. The school offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in three program options: consumer behavior and family economics; design studies; and human development and family studies. Each program option has its own faculty, curriculum, and requirements. Prospective graduate students apply for the human ecology degree, the umbrella degree under which the degree options described below are offered. Inquiries should be made to the individual department offering the desired program option.
All of the school's graduate programs provide opportunities for interdisciplinary, advanced course work with an intensive research or creative discovery experience. Faculty and students are also involved with institutes and centers across the campus such as the Arts Institute, the Institute on Aging, the Institute for Research and Poverty, the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, the Waisman Center, the Women's Studies Program, and the Center for Demography and Ecology. With access to courses and resources in and beyond the School of Human Ecology, graduate students in human ecology's program options gain the skills and specialized expertise that will be required to be successful scholars and workers in academic, service, government, and business settings worldwide.
Applicants must apply online and pay the required application fee to the Graduate School. The applicant must meet all Graduate School requirements including a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution and an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher (on a 4.0 scale). Each of the three program areas sets additional minimum requirements and requires additional application material. See each program option for admission requirements.
Applicants to any one of the Human Ecology degree program options should list "Human Ecology (code 549)" as the graduate major on their application. Their individual statement of purpose should clearly indicate the degree option to which they are applying.
The program in consumer science offers a master of science and a Ph.D. degree option in consumer behavior and family economics. The interdisciplinary program explores how consumer choices and family well-being are shaped by interactions with the household, marketplace and the public sector. Specifically, the program focuses on the economic, psychological, and social well-being of families and individuals, and how these are influenced by both the marketplace and by public policies in areas such as consumer protection, economic assistance, and health care. Faculty members are trained in a variety of disciplines including consumer science, agricultural economics, sociology, retailing, history, social work, and family ecology. These disciplinary backgrounds contribute to a teaching and research training program that prepares scholars and professionals who can approach consumer issues from a multidisciplinary perspective, a perspective that reflects the reality of consumers' interactions with government, nonprofit, and business sectors. The joint appointments of some consumer science faculty members with the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension enrich students' training and opportunities in outreach and applied research.
At the master's level, a required analytical research thesis develops the student's ability to critically understand the research that is used in policy formation and business. At the Ph.D. level, students select electives and a dissertation topic that emphasize either consumer behavior or family economics. Core courses required for each degree are in the consumer science department and other departments in the School of Human Ecology and across campus. At both degree levels, students work closely with faculty members, often collaborating on research and outreach programs.
Currently, faculty research spans a broad range of topics including: family financial decision making, consumer behavior, family well-being, consumer issues in finance and insurance, family estate planning, time allocation, consumer demand, sustainable consumption, women in philanthropy, the history of consumer legislation, hunger and food insecurity, family economic vulnerability, child support policy, catalogue retailing, consumer cooperatives, consumer awareness of risk, property law, consumer health issues, program evaluation, and international studies of consumer behavior and family well-being. Students also benefit from faculty members' association with programs and research centers across campus. These include the Institute for Research on Poverty; the Center for Demography and Ecology; the Women's Studies Program; the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs; the Development Studies Program; the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies; the Science and Technology Studies Program; and the Latin American, Carribean and Iberian Studies Program.
Admission to the Ph.D. requires a master's degree with an emphasis in consumer behavior, family economics, or a related discipline. Admission for a Ph.D. degree also requires completion of a research-oriented thesis by the time the applicant enters the doctoral program. Applicants without a master's degree who intend to pursue a Ph.D. should describe in their statement their intent to do so, but will be admitted first to the M.S. program. Upon completion of that degree they will be considered for the Ph.D. Applicants holding a master's degree must submit their thesis or a publishable research paper along with other application materials to the consumer science program. If the master's thesis is not written in English, the applicant must provide the Graduate Admissions Committee with a 25-35 page substantive summary of the thesis in standard thesis format. Applicants for the Ph.D. must show, at minimum, evidence of graduate-level courses taken in consumer behavior, intermediate statistics, calculus, research methods, and intermediate microeconomics. Applicants for the M.S. must have taken statistics and microeconomics. An interview by phone or in person may be required. Students may be admitted with deficiencies but will be required to complete any deficiencies before enrollment or during the first semester of study.
Students in the design studies program complete their course work through the program in Environment, Textiles and Design (ETD). The program studies human environments, textiles, and other products from an interdisciplinary design perspective. Such a perspective integrates aesthetic, cultural, historical, technical, and behavioral knowledge and methods, and the ETD faculty is comprised of professionally active scholars, designers, and artists. Each graduate student builds a unique course of study based on his or her own goals or interests, generally selecting a specialization in either interior environments or textiles, although some bridge or combine the two areas. At the doctoral level, students focus on basic or applied research. At the master's level, students focus on research, applications of research, or studio performance. Those master's students following the studio focus have the opportunity, with the support of their faculty committee, to pursue a design studies track leading to a master of fine arts (M.F.A.) degree.
The design studies program is well-suited to self-starting students who like the challenge of tailoring a graduate program to their needs and welcome the opportunity to draw from the excitement and resources of a large university, while still working closely with faculty mentors. The program may be less suitable for those who feel most comfortable with a predetermined course of study.
In design visualization, students utilize manual and digital media to expand the ability to see, communicate and produce understanding of interiors, spaces and human needs; students in design application conduct studio-based investigation on topics such as multicultural expression, wayfinding, reuse of older buildings, or sacred space.
Environment and behavior focuses on the study of relationships between people and the built environment, with the goal of incorporating research into the design process as well as the incorporation of research findings into design.
History of interiors involves analysis of the social, cultural, aesthetic, and historical context of interior environments, resulting in understanding of historical trends and their influence on contemporary design. The goal is to prepare professionals for positions in academia, museums, or preservation/conservation-oriented design firms. Students interested in this specialization may also become involved with the cross-college program in material culture studies (see www.materialculture.wisc.edu ).
History of textiles and clothing draws on historical, aesthetic, anthropological, and material culture perspectives to consider comparative meanings and uses of textiles and dress (fashion, costume, and body treatment) in different cultures. Students specialize in particular types of textiles or areas of the world, or focus on issues such as preservation or applications in museum settings. Students interested in this specialization may also become involved with the cross-college program in material culture studies (see www.materialculture.wisc.edu ).
Textile art and design is a studio-based approach that focuses on the conceptual, technical, and aesthetic possibilities of textiles. The goal is to produce a distinctive body of functional, conceptual, or fine art textiles for a thesis exhibit, and to train for a career as an exhibiting artist, designer, or entrepreneur. (Note that this graduate program is primarily geared to students with an art, rather than industry, focus.)
Textile science provides an in-depth understanding of the physical and chemical properties of natural and synthetic fibers and their interaction with dyes, finishes, and plasma.
All students are encouraged to collaborate with other campus units, including departments such as art, art history, engineering, folklore, forest ecology and management, history, landscape architecture, theater and drama, and architecture (at UW-Milwaukee); groups or programs that link departments, such as area studies programs; and interdisciplinary programs such as the Institute on Aging or “clusters” such as those in material culture and visual culture.
Faculty and students use a variety of investigative methods, including visual performance, qualitative narrative inquiry and interpretive interviewing, postoccupancy evaluation, survey research, and historical and material culture research methods.
Students have access to computer labs supporting design visualization, the Gallery of Design (sohe.wisc.edu/depts/gallery ), the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection (sohe.wisc.edu/depts/hlatc ), and the Ruth Ketterer Harris Library of textile and design-related materials (sohe.wisc.edu/depts/hlatc/library.html ).
Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores are not required for the design studies option. TOEFL or IELTS test scores are required for all international applicants. Minimum test score requirements are set by the UW Graduate School.
Ranked among the top programs of its kind, human development and family studies offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of families and individuals across the lifespan with an emphasis on research and its application to practice, programs, and policy. Graduate study in this program leads to the M.S. or the Ph.D. in human ecology: human development and family studies.
The HDFS program is served by 13 full-time faculty members plus eight additional affiliated faculty members. All of the faculty are professionally active with strong records of national and international scholarship. The faculty bring the perspectives of many different disciplines to their work, including psychology, sociology, education, and anthropology. Faculty members conduct basic research to understand families and their members and applied research and outreach to promote human development and family life.
Faculty and graduate students in HDFS collaborate on research and outreach projects in a wide variety of substantive areas. Current areas of scholarly activity include risk and resilience in childhood, child care, marital quality and family success, competent child rearing, risks and opportunities of adolescence, caregiving within families, development and adaptation in multicultural contexts, and adult development and relationships.
Reflecting the multidisciplinary orientation of the program, faculty and students employ a wide array of methods in their work. Faculty possess expertise in areas as diverse as longitudinal modeling, interpretive interviewing, program evaluation, observational methods, survey methodology, action research, and ethnography. The program explicitly values both qualitative and quantitative methods and encourages students to become proficient in both.
Central to the mission of the program is the dissemination and application of scientific knowledge to real world problems and issues. Applied work of current faculty and students includes public policy education, community building, outreach education, and prevention-intervention programs. Because of the department's affiliation with the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension, numerous opportunities are available for involvement in applied contexts throughout the state.
There is a demand for professionals trained in research, teaching, and service involving families and their members in higher education, government, and human service programs. Regardless of whether HDFS graduates pursue careers in academic or applied settings, they are prepared for a life of scholarship and service.