Co-Directors
Candace Vogler, Philosophy
Jay Schleusener, English
Steering Committee
Shadi Bartsch, Classical Languages and Literatures
Philip Bohlman, Music
Dipesh Chakrabarty, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Frederick de Armas, Romance Languages and Literatures
Thomas Gunning, Cinema and Media Studies
Donald Harper, East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Janice Knight, English Language and Literature
David Levin, Germanic Studies
Clinton Seely, South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Linda Seidel, Art History
William Veeder, English Language and Literature
Robert von Hallberg, English Language and Literature
The Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) is a one-year program
leading to the A.M. degree. It is designed to address the diverse needs
and interests of both intellectual generalists and specialists who stand
to benefit from a year of intensive work in the humanities.
Some MAPH students are recent college graduates. Others are professionals
at mid-career, free-lance writers, or performers. They hold undergraduate
degrees from public and private institutions throughout the world, in
disciplines ranging from biology to English to marketing. A number come
with extensive experience in non-academic fields including independent
filmmaking, industrial design, politics, science, foundation work, and
business.
Approximately half the students in MAPH each year plan to continue their
studies at the Ph.D. level in preparation for a university teaching and
research career. They find that MAPH provides both an ideal setting for
clarifying their academic and professional goals and a year of intensive
preparation for competitive Ph.D. programs where they continue the research
they began in their year in MAPH. MAPH has an outstanding record of placing
its graduates in Ph.D. programs at the University of Chicago and elsewhere.
MAPH’s emphasis on critical writing, analytical thinking, scholarly
research, and flexible cultural perspectives has also proved invaluable
for those interested in careers in cultural institutions and cultural
policy, publishing, journalism, business, politics, secondary school or
community college teaching, and the full spectrum of the nonprofit sector.
Degree Requirements
Requirements for the A.M. degree include:
- The colloquium. Before the start of regular classes in the fall MAPH
students come to campus for an intensive two-week colloquium. Through
a combination of plenary sessions and small groups the colloquium helps
students hone their skills while also thinking about larger issues of
communication within and across academic fields. Recent colloquia have
focused on literary criticism and the use of literary materials in humanistic
inquiry.
- The core course, “Foundations of interpretive theory,” taken
in the fall quarter. In it one reads and discusses seminal works by
thinkers such as Hegel, Marx, Freud, Heidegger, Lacan, and Althusser.
Distinguished faculty members from different disciplines teach the core
jointly. It gives MAPH students a shared base for their further study.
- Seven elective courses chosen from the Division
of the Humanities, Social Sciences,
or other divisions or professional schools. The choice of these courses
is left largely to the student, although a program of study must be
approved by a faculty adviser or a preceptor. Some students restrict
their courses to one field of study; others take a wide-ranging variety
of courses in as many as five disciplines. Most programs of study fall
somewhere in between these two extremes.
MAPH Program Options, developed in consultation with Humanities Division
departments and committees, provide guidance in selecting electives
for interested students. MAPH administers programs of study designed
by Classics, Cinema and Media Studies, the non-English Languages and
Literatures departments, and the University of Chicago Writing Committee
(the MAPH Creative Writing Option is the University of Chicago's alternative
to a traditional MFA).
- A master’s thesis of 25 to 35 pages produced under the supervision
of a faculty thesis adviser and a preceptor, and completed toward the
end of the spring quarter. In conjunction with the writing of the thesis
students take a thesis workshop which involves small group meetings
focused on the development of thesis topics and the writing of the theses.
MAPH thesis projects range from traditional research papers to creative
works accompanied by a critical assessment.
Preceptors
Preceptors are advanced graduate students or recent Ph.D.s, each of whom
oversees the progress of about fifteen MAPH students. Each student is
assigned a preceptor for the academic year. In addition to serving as
a general adviser, the preceptor leads small discussion groups in connection
with the writing colloquium and core course, and leads the thesis workshops.
Preceptors also offer courses specially designed for MAPH in the winter
quarter.
Admission
Applicants to MAPH must meet the divisional requirements for admission.
Application materials should include (1) the applicant’s recent verbal,
quantitative, and analytic scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), (2)
official transcripts from all institutions attended, (3) a ten-to-fifteen
page sample of critical writing, (4) three letters of recommendation,
(5) a statement of no more than two single-spaced pages stating reasons
for wishing to enter the program and interests to be pursued, (6) a completed
University application form. Students applying to the MAPH Creative Writing
Option must also submit (7) a substantial creative writing sample in their
chosen genre (e.g., several poems, a short story, a chapter from a work
of longer fiction in progress, a play, or a 10-15 page work of creative
nonfiction).
For further information, write to Program Coordinator, MAPH, 1010 East
59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, or e-mail ma-humanities@uchicago.edu,
or telephone (773) 834-1201, or visit the MAPH website at http://humanities.uchicago.edu/maph.
For an application, write to Dean of Students, Division of the Humanities,
1050 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, or e-mail org_hdos@midway.uchicago.edu,
or telephone (773) 702-8499.
This text last revised on 9/03/2003
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