Colorado State University Masters and PhD Scholarships in USA

Dr. Holly Nesbitt is recruiting PhD and Master’s students to study collaborative environmental governance in the Forest Sciences Graduate Program in the Forest and Rangeland Stewardship department at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. 

Students will have the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary research with other scholars and work in partnership with practitioners to inform policy and programming.

Students should have prior experience or interest in topic areas like collaboration, environmental governance, natural resource policy and planning, conservation social science, social-ecological systems, and research methods in social sciences. 

Students will have the flexibility to define their research project, but should be interested in the following types of questions:

1. Does collaborative planning improve outcomes after a wildfire? For whom?

2. What inspires individual landowners to address the collective action problem of wildfire? To what extent are policy interventions that encourage collective action among landowners effective at mitigating wildfire?

3. How can research support and inform policy interventions in partnership with land managers?

Prospective students will need the following traits to succeed in my lab: 

• Curiosity

• Strong writing skills

• A keen interest in developing quantitative skills in the statistical program R

• Strong work ethic

• Ability to work well with others

Students will receive a stipend each semester ($2300-$2500/month) as well as a summer stipend. Tuition, student fees, and health insurance fees will be covered.

To be considered, please send the following to holly.nesbitt@colostate.edu by Nov 18, 2026:

• 1

  A letter of introduction that describes your research interests and how they align with the questions and/or themes outlined above, your past research experience and educational background, whether you are applying for the Master’s or PhD program, why you’re interested in pursuing a graduate degree and what you hope to do after graduate school, and why you’d like to join this lab (max 2 pages).

• 2

  A CV or resume that details your relevant work, volunteer, and educational experience

• 3

  PDFs of two writing samples. These samples could be assignments from a class you took, memos or reports you wrote for work, publications, or another form of writing that showcases your ability to write clearly. Please do not send writing samples that were generated with AI in any way.

• 4

  Contact information for two professional references.

Once interviews have been conducted, prospective students will be encouraged to apply to the graduate school by February 1, 2027, for a fall 2027 start.