2017-31

Arizona State University
University Senate

Senate Motion #2017-31

Motion Introduced by:  Curriculum and Academic Programs Committee, Caroline Harrison, Chair

Date of First Reading:  November 28, 2016

Date of Second Reading: January 30, 2017

Title of Motion: Request from the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences – School of Social and Behavioral Sciences – for the establishment of a graduate degree – Ph.D. in Law and Psychology

Action Requested: This curricular proposal has received all college, school, unit and university administrative approvals, and is being presented to the Senate for review and voting decision.   

Rationale: This program is designed to train a new generation of scholars in the field by taking a broad interdisciplinary approach that combines rigorous training in the Law and Psychology field with advanced research methodology and statistical training, training in criminological theory, and contextual training in other subfields of psychology. Our goal is for our students to use this training to tackle the many important but understudied areas where legal policy is in desperate need of empirical, psychological research. By focusing on those understudied areas, we believe our program (and ASU more generally) will have greater impact on both the scholarly field and societal stakeholders.