Graduate Program in the Humanities

Master of Arts

The program leading to the M.A. in Humanities is designed both for individuals wishing to enhance their knowledge and skills and for students intending to pursue a doctorate in a humanistic field. Thus, students seeking an M.A. in Humanities have two options, a �research� or a �professional� option.Students with plans for doctoral study should choose the research option.

Students in the research option must complete thirty semester hours of course work, demonstrate reading proficiency in an approved foreign language, and successfully complete a portfolio.

Core Course (3 hours)

HUMA 5300 Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Arts and Humanities.
Students are expected to complete this course as early as possible in their programs.

Elective Courses (27 hours)

Twenty-seven semester hours, of which at least twenty-four hours are normally in organized courses. Eighteen of these hours are divided among organized courses in Aesthetic Studies (6 hours), History of Ideas (6 hours), and Studies in Literature (6 hours). The remaining hours may be taken in one or more of these three areas, and normally no more than three hours of independent study are applicable to the degree plan.

Foreign Language

The research M.A. degree requires demonstrated reading proficiency in an approved foreign language. Students can demonstrate proficiency by passing a translation examination in an approved language (e.g., French, German, classical Greek, Italian, Latin, or Spanish). Intensive review courses (HUMA 6320-6323) and the advanced language workshops (HUMA 7320-7323), which students may take to prepare for the examination, do not count toward minimum course requirements for the degree. Any students wishing to satisfy the requirement with languages other than those listed above must secure the approval of the School�s Associate Dean for Graduate Studies. Students must satisfy the M.A. language requirement before or as they submit their master�s portfolio proposals to the Graduate Studies Committee.

Portfolio

Two substantial pieces of work (two research papers or a creative project plus a scholarly essay) originating in or completed for graduate courses are revised and presented in a portfolio for evaluation by a master�s committee.

 


Students in the professional option in Humanities must complete thirty hours of coursework, all normally in organized courses and distributed as in the research option above.They are not required to complete a portfolio or meet a foreign language requirement, however, and they receive a terminal degree.

 

Master of Arts in Teaching

To earn the M.A.T. in Humanities, a degree specifically designed for practicing teachers, students must complete a total of thirty-six semester hours of course work. While most courses are the same as those for other students in the school, some courses are concerned specifically with the school classroom. It is possible for students who are particularly interested in English and History to design their degree programs so that their work in these areas can be focused and set in an interdisciplinary context. The M.A.T. degree does not require demonstration of reading proficiency in a foreign language.

Normally students applying for admission to the M.A.T. program should have a teaching certificate. Students may be teaching full-time while they are pursuing the degree.

Core Courses (6 hours)

HUED 5300 Teaching of the Humanities in the Secondary School
HUMA 5300 Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Arts and Humanities

Specialization (15 hours)

Fifteen hours in organized courses in one of these areas of concentration: Aesthetic Studies or History of Ideas or Studies in Literature

Professional Development (6 hours)

Six hours in education courses in addition to HUED 5300. Three hours may be taken as independent study to prepare for the casebook.

Elective Courses (6 hours)

Six hours of electives in any organized courses outside the area of specialization.

Casebook: HUED 8304 (3 hours)

The casebook consists of two parts, a critical essay on an interdisciplinary topic as well as a curriculum plan that adopts that topic to the candidate�s teaching level in twenty to thirty lesson plans.

Doctor of Philosophy

Students seeking a Ph.D. in the Humanities will normally complete a minimum of sixty semester hours beyond a master�s degree or its equivalent, demonstrate advanced proficiency in a foreign language, pass qualifying examinations, and complete and defend a dissertation. In addition to meeting the general university criteria for admission to graduate study, students earning an M.A. degree in the Humanities from U.T. Dallas must obtain the formal endorsement of their portfolio committees to proceed into the doctoral program. Students who have completed pertinent graduate work at other institutions (thirty hours of humanities courses, language training, and written work roughly equivalent to the portfolio here) may qualify for a Master of Arts equivalency upon admission to the graduate program. Students admitted with an M.A. equivalent must take HUMA 5300.

Courses (42 hours)

Forty-two semester hours of which at least thirty-three are normally in organized courses. Eighteen of these hours are divided among organized courses in Aesthetic Studies (6 hours), History of Ideas (6 hours), and Studies in Literature (6 hours). The remaining hours may be in one or more of the three areas, and normally no more than nine hours of independent study are applicable to the degree.

Foreign Language

Students admitted to the Ph.D. program from universities other than The University of Texas at Dallas must pass a translation examination in an approved foreign language (e.g., French, German, classical Greek, Italian, Latin, or Spanish) during their first year in the Ph.D. program. Part-time students admitted from other universities, however, may have two calendar years to meet this initial requirement. All Ph.D. students must then demonstrate active use of the foreign language at an advanced level in two courses. For this purpose, they may undertake readings and research in regular organized courses, they may meet one half the requirement by taking the Art and Craft of Translation (HUSL 7321) once, or they may arrange for Advanced Independent Studies in Foreign Languages (designated 7330-7335). These advanced independent studies courses will not count, however, toward minimum course requirements for the degree.
Students wishing to satisfy the requirement with languages other than those listed above must secure the approval of the school�s Associate Dean for Graduate Studies.
Students must satisfy the Ph.D. foreign-language requirement prior to taking qualifying examinations.

Qualifying Examinations

After completing all the above requirements, students proceed to the qualifying examination, a sequence consisting of three written sections and one oral section. The examining committee, composed of three regular members of the faculty, oversees definition and preparation of the three examination fields within guidelines established by the program. At least seven days before the exams themselves, the faculty members submit examination questions to the Arts and Humanities office, which schedules and administers the examination. The maximum time allowed for a student�s completion of the examination sequence is twenty business days.

Dissertation (18 hours minimum)

Students are formally advanced to Ph.D. candidacy when they have successfully completed the qualifying examinations and received final approval for dissertation topics. A student may submit a preliminary dissertation proposal for consideration during the oral section of the qualifying examination. In any case, after that examination, a four-person supervising committee is formed, normally from the examining committee plus another regular faculty member proposed by the student, to oversee dissertation work. The supervising committee must then approve a formal dissertation proposal before the student submits it to the Graduate Studies Committee for final approval.
Each candidate then writes a doctoral dissertation, which is supervised and defended according to general university regulation. Every student must register for a minimum of nine hours of dissertation credit in two successive semesters and must maintain continuous enrollment thereafter for at least three semester hours during consecutive long semesters until the degree is completed. Any exception to this requirement is granted only by petition to the school�s associate dean for graduate studies.