The DIY PhD
The Universe is our University
Enrollment Now Open
Enrollment Now Open
We are offering two new DIY PhD cohorts this Fall!
Are you seeking a community of like-hearted change-makers to uplift you as you deepen your path of resonance and purpose in the world?
Are you a multi-passionate learner seeking to find the through-lines and possibility of your interests for a living planet?
Consider joining our DIY PhD 101 cohort!
DIY PhD co-founder Sarita Doe now offers this 2-month DIY PhD introductory cohort to replace our 8-month Year One Course.
We intend to make the DIY PhD even more accessible for those with limited time and financial capacities.
Participants are encouraged to take Quetza’s DIY PhD 201 Research Course in tandem to deepen their projects and momentum of study.
After this two-month course, participants can continue their DIY PhD in the ongoing Dissertation Integration course for folks who have begun their programs.
DIY PhD 101 Offers:
Curriculum that integrates learning in our body, mind, spirit, habitat, and community
An Earth-centered praxis built on inter-species collaboration
A dedication to unlearning capitalist-colonial approaches to education through an eco-feminist, anti-racist, and intersectional lens
Mentorship for clarifying what and how you want to cultivate for your dream life, projects, and paradigm
Methodologies for finding your way, including: somatic integration, creative mapping, and guided meditation
A community of comrades to learn alongside; processing, witnessing, and affirming each other’s journey
There are no prerequisites nor pressure to know what you will do before you begin.
Anyone is welcome with the understanding that this liberation-centered learning environment will not tolerate any transphobia, ableism, racism, sexism, or any other form of supremacy.
2026 Scholarships
Thanks to a generous donation from Earth Angel forest Lin, this Fall we are offering 10 full scholarships for Black, Indigenous, and low-income scholars!
If you are interested in a scholarship, email us at hello@ecocene.school with DIY PhD 101 Scholarship in the subject, as soon as possible. Scholarships will be given out on a first come, first serve basis.
In the body of your email, include an introduction to you, your background, current circumstances, and interest in the course. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
About the Instructor:
Sarita Doe is a parent, steward, artist, educator, and student of the Ecocene, born on Houma lands to a Cajun-Celtic Father and Andean-American Mother, and raised in Richmond, Virginia.
Punk rock and being of more than one culture nurtured her practice of echo-location, or finding herself in relation to the beings and stories of a place. She collaborates with habitats and communities to paint movement maps, activate dream visions, and rebalance within Empire for planetary liberation.
She is a student of native ecosystems, Queen Hollins of theEarthlodge for Spiritual Transformation, Olivia Chumacero of Everything is Medicine, the Run4Salmon, and Lidagat Luna, her and champoy’s 8-year-old child and healer.
Sarita is a cofounder of the DIY PhD to legitimize learning in body, mind, spirit, emotion and habitat for our deep callings and fulfillment in this life. She is a cofounding steward with School for the Ecocene Cooperative for nurturing ecopedagogías and pathways of repair as a planet.
She has taught ages 7 to 77 for over twenty years with a background in Critical Pedagogy, BA in Latin American Studios, and MFA in Painting. Her paintings have been published and exhibited widely. She is currently cultivating habitat, living cosmologies, and play with pamilya in Huchiun, Ohlone Lands. In 2020 she published Textbook for the Ecocene with Co-Conspirator Press at the Feminist Center for Creative Work.
The course will dive deep into academic research methodologies with a focus on Indigenous studies and decolonial methodology. The course will prepare students / artists to navigate information and create critical writing pieces. And the course will introduce students to BIPOC / 2SLGBTQIA+ authors using academia as a means of structural change.
No previous experience is required. Take this class alone, alongside, or after DIY PhD 101.
After taking this course, participants will be able to:
Study and read decolonial academic textbooks and articles
Gain the ability to create and write accurate literature reviews
Conduct research using reindigenizing methods
Note: Thanks to a generous donation, this Fall we have 10 full scholarships for Black, Indigenous, and low-income scholars available.
If you are interested in a scholarship, email us by September 1st via hello@ecocene.school with DIY PhD 201 Scholarship in subject.
In the body of your email, include an introduction to you, your background, current circumstances, and interest in the course. We will get back to you by September 10th.
About the Instructor:
Quetza is an Indigenous Two-Spirit person in this world. Quetza is the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature Youth Hub Coordinator. Their work centers the Intersections of Climate Justice, Indigenous Liberation, and the Rights of Nature.
Join one or both of these cohorts to launch the deeper and higher education of your dreams.
No prerequisites required.
What’s a DIY Phd?
A DIY PhD is creating a deeper education that honors learning in our bodies and spirits as much as our minds.
It’s a reclamation of education for the Earth and legitimizing the knowledges held in our bodies and communities.
Our DIY PhDs thrive when we are in community, connecting to intuition, habitat, and ancestor guides, in cycles of unlearning and learning. Our DIY PhDs are interdisciplinary, honoring multi-species ways of knowing, and unfolding as pathways of resonance through life.
Your DIY PhD is yours! There is no one right way to create your program.
We recommend beginning with a cohort – at least one other person whom you love to learn with – and a weekly time to meet during the semester. Most DIY PhDs take between 4 to 8 years to complete.
A DIY PhD
finds rhythms in the seasons, roots in identity and habitat, and is co-created by a cohort.
Our School offers two DIY PhD Intro Courses for DIY PhDers seeking mentorship, structure, and weekly meetings in like-minded community to begin mapping their emergent programs.
DIY PhD 101: Intro Course with Sarita Doe and DIY PhD 201: Research Course with Quetza are replacing our Year One Course.
After these courses, DIY PhDers can continue on their journey through Dissertation Integration, our ongoing course of study for planetary change-makers in years 1 - 8 of their DIY PhD.
There is no prerequisite nor pressure to know what you are going to do before beginning. Participants usually spend the first semester connecting to bodies, community and habitat; unlearning and composting old limiting beliefs; mapping their interests; and opening to their intuition and spirit guides.
The first year is an initiation.
Register now to save your spot this Fall.
10 scholarships for Black, Indigenous, and low-income participants are now available for each course thanks to a generous donation by Earth Angel forest Lin!
Email us via hello@ecocene.school with the course name + scholarship in the subject, with a little about your background in the body. Scholarships will be given out on a first come, first serve basis.
Meet Sarita Doe, DIY PhD 101: Intro Course Facilitator
Sarita Doe is an Earthworker, parent, painter, author, and educator living in occupied Ohlone Lands of Cajun, Celtic and Bolivian ancestry. She paints stories, regenerates habitat, and cocreates pedagogy in service to global movements for multi-species sovereignty and planetary liberation.
Meet Quetza, DIY PhD 201: Research Course Facilitator
Quetza is an Indigenous Two-Spirit person in this world. They continue to learn more about these identities through Mexica danza, Mexica temezcal ceremonies, and plant medicine ceremonies. Quetza is the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature Youth Hub Coordinator. Their work centers the Intersections of Climate Justice, Indigenous Liberation, and the Rights of Nature.
Creating a DIY PhD is
a loveletter • a habitat offering • a creative passion • community • ceremony • a shift towards plant, soil, ancestors, water, multispecies kin
DIY PhD Cohorts Gain:
Trust in themselves and the Universe
Structure for organizing and reaching their goals
Clarity in their purpose and paths of learning
Connection to their guides and intuition
Creative play in supportive community
Auto-ethnographic research methodologies
Connection to the knowledge held in their bodies & in our Earth body
Mapping to manifest their dream work, see the intersections of their passions & plan the pathway of their creative pursuits
Now available: a limited edition DIY PhD Activity Deck by Sarita Doe. Order yours today!
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Choose a card at random for divination as to what will help your current path or find the activity listed in the accompanying booklet that most resonates for you at this time. Whether you are an independent artist, scholar, educator, healer, and/or activist; the DIY PhD Activity Deck supports you in bringing your dream projects to life. The cards are organized by themes to support you at every stage in your journey.
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The Deck includes 70 cards with illustration on one side and a prompt on the back, as well as an activity booklet in a cotton screen-printed bag. The booklet describes how to create your own DIY PhD, highlights the seven thematic areas of support, and offers examples of how to use the deck.
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The deck is printed in Ohlone Lands, Richmond, California by Greenerprinter. The cards are made from kraft cardstock with a plant-based coating and soy-based ink. While the cards will last while stored indoors, ultimately they can be composted. The booklet is printed with soy-based ink on recycled glossy paper. A cotton drawstring bag carries the cards and booklet.
DIY PhD Dissertations
DIY PhD Dissertations
Ecocene Press has released our very first DIY PhD Zine with how-to prompts + featuring the research of 7 DIY PhDers: Arianne Ayu Alizio, Chayo (Rosario Luis), j. nyla ink mcneill, Lyn Pacificar, Sapito (Jenny Montalvo), sevine clarey, and Susannah Simpson.
How it Started
In late August of 2013, David Whitaker and Sarita Doe had their sketchbooks open, surrounded by sunlight and succulents we had planted years prior when just beginning graduate school for Art at UCLA. Sarita talked about wanting to continue pursuing higher education, but without going into debt or sacrificing her budding Earth-based spiritual practice, embodied well-being, or interest in non-Western bodies of knowledge.
Their classroom moved around the city and followed wherever their passions and interests took them. They met weekly and followed what felt fun, healing and resonant. They created countless exercises to center creativity and grow intuition as they learned. Whatever was happening in their daily lives was integral to their program, which shifted with their life experiences.
David pointed to the words “DIY PhD” in his sketchbook and Sarita said “YES!” And so began their 6-year, self-guided program.
A DIY Phd
honors learning in body, mind, spirit, emotion, habitat, creativity and community
FAQs including requirements & tuition:
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No previous institutional degrees are required! A DIY PhD program can happen in tandem with an institutional program, instead of one, or after one!
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No! You can come knowing exactly what you know at the time our program begins. We honor cycles of not-knowing as much as cycles of knowing. We support participants in mapping all of their passions, pursuits, and areas of potential study and learning what common threads emerge as especially resonant for their DIY PhD. These paths will also change and shift throughout the program.
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We are legitimizing ourselves.
The DIY PhD is a self-accrediting degree program, and currently not guaranteed recognition by any governmental or formal institution. We are reclaiming our own agency and autonomy in deeper and higher educations! School for the Ecocene offers mentorship for planetary learners in their first year of self-guided higher and deeper education.
DISCLAIMER: We do believe that many professions require technical training that would be unsafe to approach in a DIY fashion, such as engineers or surgeons. As artists, teachers, healers and Earthworkers, however, we feel confident that we can co-create these dream programs with connections to resources in our communities and DIY PhD guides like the Textbook for the Ecocene.
Additionally, many planetary learners choose to participate in the DIY PhD alongside or to complement more traditional academic programs in order to meet their emotional, physical, and spiritual needs that are often ignored in higher education.
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As of Fall 2026, we are changing the structure from an 8-month Year One Course to two 2-month courses: DIY PhD 101: Intro Course with Sarita Doe is $350 and our DIY PhD 201: Research Course with Quetza is $200.
We have 10 scholarships for Black, Indigenous, and low-income participants available for each course, thanks to a generous donation by Earth Angel forest Lin.
To apply, email hello@ecocene.school with the course + scholarship in the subject and a little about your background in the body.
Scholarships will be offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.
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We are hoping for cohorts of between 20 and 30 people for the Fall DIY PhD 101 & 201 courses.
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Yes. We offer a three-month course each semester called “Dissertation Integration,” in which anyone already on their DIY PhD path is welcome to join. The Fall 2026 Dissertation Course will be held by Sarita and Quetza, and is free for member-owners of our school.
This weekly container includes a check-in and centering, working our projects, and sharing + receiving feedback on our work.
What Folks Are Saying
We are creating the deepest and highest education of our dreams.
Stay connected to learn about our current and future DIY PhD Offerings!
