Program: M.A., Humanities
Overview
Humanities, M.A. is currently a pilot program seeking regular-program status from the Chancellor’s Office. Prospective students should consult the program website for applicant information.
The purpose of the Masters Program in Humanities is to provide reflective mid-career adults with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the power and nature of the ideas that animate interaction between and among cultures in today’s world, including clashes and collaborations. The program focuses not only on the nature and construction of these ideas and on their play in the world, but also both on the methods and components of critical reflection and the practical implications of such reflection and on the deeper understanding it can lead to in the everyday social, political and moral decisions of the participants. Importantly, this student cohort will discover and explicitly address the role(s) of language in representing and shaping our understanding of these ideas—even of the ideas themselves—and in representing and defining our individual and collective identities.
This program is administered through the The Tseng College.
It is entirely funded by student fees, offered in the cohort format and features evening and weekend course schedules.
Program Requirements
HUMA 501 The Gateway to Humanities (3)
HUMA 510 The Sacred (3)
HUMA 520 The Self: Body and Mind (3)
HUMA 530 The Family and Life Cycle (3)
HUMA 600 Identity, Meaning and Culture (3)
HUMA 610 Space, Place and Geography: Mental Mapping (3)
HUMA 620 Science and Magic (3)
HUMA 630 Nation and Empire, Law and Government (3)
HUMA 640 Norms and Knowledge (3)
HUMA 650 Capstone: The Good Life (3)
HUMA 697 Directed Comprehensive Studies (3)
Total Units Required for the M.A. Degree: 33
Contact
Academic Lead: Sheena Malhotra
Jerome Richfield (JR) 340C
(818) 677-7217
Master of Arts in Humanities
Student Learning Outcomes
- Understand the origins and transformations of worldviews (“big ideas”) as they move through different social, historical and cultural contexts.
- Discover how ideas and values from the past inform our present expectations, practices and policies, both explicitly and implicitly.
- Analyze and develop the skills to “step out of” one’s worldview and question assumptions about self, society and others.
- Refine skills in critical thinking, reading, speaking and writing across a variety of disciplines in the liberal arts.
- Refine the skills of close, context-sensitive reading that makes visible the form, structure and rhetorical function of texts and artifacts in a variety of genres and media.
- Develop the skills to apply the theory and methodology appropriate to the liberal arts.