Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (DSPT) is a Catholic graduate school in Berkeley, California. It is sponsored by the Dominican Order and is part of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU); it is also affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley. DSPT offers certificates and degree programs for people of all faiths and trains Dominicans of the Western Province. It is the only graduate theological school in the United States to offer a concurrent degree with two master’s degrees and one shared thesis in philosophy and theology.

A brief history:
- The Dominican Order in California began with the Diocese of Monterey in 1850–1851.
- The first house of studies opened in Monterey in 1851, moved to Benicia, then Oakland in 1932, where it became the College of St. Albert the Great.
- It joined the GTU in 1964 and received accreditation from WASC; it was renamed DSPT in 1978.
- The current North Berkeley campus opened in 2006.
- A course on the Traditional Dominican Rite started in 2011, and a new scholarship program was launched in 2021.
- Reverend Albert Duggan became president in 2025.

Key facts:
- Chartered by California; accredited by WASC and the Association of Theological Schools (ATS).
- A center of Dominican studies, with a College of Fellows that discusses topics across politics, law, economics, sciences, technology, media, and the arts.