Sundays 2–5pm:
September 30, October 14, October 28, November 11, December 2
Presented by artist-in-residence Sarita Dougherty
Max 25 participants

Cost for all 5 sessions:
$50 for low income ($40/Members)
$75 for those earning $30,000-$50,000 ($60/Members)
$100 for those making $50,000 and above ($80/Members)

Member price accessed with discount code at checkout. Are you a member and don’t know your code? Email [email protected]! Not a member but interested in these perks? Join here!

The DIY PhD Semester Kickoff is on Sunday, September 23, 2-5 pm.  The Semester Kickoff is open to anyone, donation-based, and hosted by Sarita Dougherty and David Whitaker.

The first meeting of the fall cohort will meet on Sunday, Sept. 30. Please register above to join!

Sarita Dougherty and David Whitaker started their DIY PhD program post-graduate school in 2014, while seeking a rigorous and creative higher education program that met their embodied, spiritual and intellectual thirst for knowledge. An answer to Western and mind-centered institutional learning, the first cohort met weekly at different sites around Los Angeles. The 2018-2019 school year is their fifth year doing the DIY PhD.

Each DIY PhD program meets students wherever they are in life; the program’s structure reforms constantly to meet the cohort’s needs for personal and artistic growth. The fall DIY PHD cohort at WCCW will locate and express their own DIY Educations through guided meditations, creative exercises, and intentional mapping so that by early December, practitioners will be set up on their own DIY PhD paths of learning. The biweekly class is offered on a sliding scale based on what students can afford.

Sarita Dougherty is the artist in residence during the fall quarter at WCCW. As part of her residency, Sarita will facilitate a DIY PhD cohort based on her and David Whitaker’s methodologies as well as her own research into living practices. Sarita understands a living practice as daily life and life’s work that support health in body-mind-spirit as well as ecosystem. Her home is the first point of departure for her research, and she draws maps to locate that learning, called cosmologies. To redraft cosmologies back to connection is where she finds liberation. Her dissertation includes texts from eco-feminists of color; women who teach from an earth-centered cosmology, as well as an auto-ethnography on her own learning and produce of that learning. Sarita shares excerpts of her dissertation and methodologies at patreon.com/saritadoe. @saritadough

Accessibility information for this event: WCCW has a 36” wide ramp at our front entrance and a stairway with 8 steps and a rail. There are 2 gender neutral restrooms. One restroom is wheelchair accessible, with a handrail. We provide scent free soaps and encourage guests to attend our events scent free. If you require ASL interpretation, CART, interpretation for a language other than English, supervised childcare, or have any other access needs or questions, please contact [email protected] at least two weeks in advance. It is our practice to do everything we can to create a safe and accessible space.

*All members get 20% off paid programming. A limited number of free spots are also available for Warrior & Goddess level members. Email [email protected] to inquire about free tickets.

Our program costs go directly towards compensation of the instructors and staffers who work the event. We want to make programming as accessible as possible to anyone who is interested, however, so we offer volunteer opportunities in exchange for membership, as well as free community tickets to each program (number varies depending on capacity of the class). Email [email protected] for more info or to find out more about these opportunities for a specific event.