The Doctor of Liberal Studies degree, abbreviated (D.L.S.),for the Latin Doctor Liberalium Studiorum, is an advanced academic degree. Georgetown University in Washington, D.C was the first university in the world to offer the Doctor of Liberal Studies degree. The Doctor of Liberal Studies degree is interdisciplinary in nature. Rather than pursue academic grounding and theoretical research in a specific discipline in order to create new knowledge, D.L.S. students synthesize existing knowledge from multiple disciplines in new and creative ways. The U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation recognize numerous research-oriented doctoral degrees such as the Doctor of Liberal Studies (D.L.S.) as "equivalent" to the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and does not discriminate between them. To be admitted as a D.L.S. doctoral student, candidates must have a Master’s or other advanced degree from an accredited institution.
Just as the Doctor of Philosophy is not an advance degree focused on studying and researching philosophy as a subject, so is the Doctor of Liberal Studies not an advance degree focused on studying and researching liberal studies as a point of study. Through the required foundational courses in the humanities, specifically philosophy, theology, history, art, literature, and the social sciences, the Doctor of Liberal Studies establishes the intellectual and scholarly context needed to carry out serious interdisciplinary study and research.
Georgetown University awarded the first Doctor of Liberal Studies degree to W. Taylor Johnson on May 22, 2010. Dr. Johnson has been recognized by the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs as the first student in the world to earn a doctoral degree in Liberal Studies. Johnson’s doctoral thesis, Shaping Better Physicians?: The Role of the Visual Arts in Medical Education, defends the idea that the integration of the visual arts into medical curricula not only enhances the quality and durability of physicians’ diagnostic skills, but also proves essential—through the promotion of humanism, empathy, and ethical behavior—to a physician’s approach to those ethical questions encountered daily in clinical practice.
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