Academic Blazer Chat: Humanities
Corey Campion, Ph.D., professor in the humanities program, and Tara Scibelli, a humanities student, discuss Hood's humanities offerings and why the humanities field is so important.
About this Program
The Master of Arts in Humanities program appeals to students with a variety of backgrounds. From educators and working professionals to retirees and lifelong learners, the program’s students share a passion for the humanities and engage in exciting interdisciplinary exchange as they pursue their particular interests in the fields of history, literature, art, music, philosophy and/or religion.
Program Overview
Tuition & Fees
Funding Opportunities
Download Humanities Brochure
Professional Advancement, Personal Enrichment
Whether students seek to enhance their professional expertise or pursue a topic of personal interest, they find in the program exciting opportunities to realize their goals. For educators, the program offers advanced education in their particular content fields. Past and current students often share stories of how they apply course themes and readings in their own classrooms. To working professionals, retirees and lifelong learners, the program offers an opportunity to explore a topic of interest that falls outside their past education or current employment. From accountants and scientists to police officers and administrative professionals, many students have found in the program a chance to pursue a long-held personal interest in one or more humanities fields. Students may begin their studies in the fall, spring or summer terms. Courses may be taken on either a degree-seeking or non-degree seeking basis. (Contact the Graduate School for more details about the non-degree option).
Committed Faculty
A strength of the Master of Arts in Humanities program remains the quality of the faculty. All courses are taught by instructors who hold terminal degrees in their fields and are experts in subjects ranging from Renaissance literature, women's history and African-American studies to American and European history, Orientalism, classical and modern philosophy, indigenous peoples and film studies. These scholars, researchers and artists bring a passion for teaching and a desire to share their expertise as they help students pursue their unique interests and expand their understanding of the humanities. Aware of the needs of part-time graduate students, the faculty are committed to offering personalized instruction in small, evening classes.
Customized Interdisciplinary Curriculum
The M.A. humanities program offers a 30-credit curriculum that allows students to enrich their expertise in a particular field through both interdisciplinary exchange and specialized study. In the program's foundational proseminars, students examine the central concepts and texts that shape work in and across the core humanities disciplines of literature, history, art and music, and philosophy and religion. From this foundation, students then enrich their knowledge of a specific topic or field through elective courses and a final research project.
Degrees Offered
- MA
Are you ready to go further?
To apply to the M.A. humanities program, please submit the following to the Graduate School:
- A completed application.
- Official copies of all college transcripts.
- A formal essay that discusses:
- The applicant's academic and professional interests; and
- How the M.A. humanities program will help the applicant achieve their specific academic, professional and or personal goals.
Given the importance of writing in the humanities, the essay is an important component of the application and should demonstrate the applicant's formal writing skills.
Transfer credit policy for admitted students
Students may transfer a maximum of 6 graduate credits from an external, accredited institution, or another Hood graduate program prior to the first semester of study in the current program. Please review the full graduate transfer credit policy in the College catalog.
Program Requirements
Required Proseminars:
All students must successfully complete the following proseminars, offered on a two-year cycle with one course offered each semester. Substitutions for these courses are not permitted and transfer credits will not be accepted as exemptions.
| FA 501 | Art and Music Proseminar: Aesthetics, Culture and History | 3.0 |
| HIST 501 | History Proseminar | 3.0 |
| LIT 501 | Literary Studies Proseminar: Tragedy, Ideology and the Tradition of Literary Criticism | 3.0 |
| PLRL 501 | Philosophy and Religion Proseminar | 3.0 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 12.0 |
Electives
Students must complete four or five 3-credit elective courses. Students completing the thesis option will take four elective courses. Students completing the portfolio option will complete five elective courses. Students can fulfill their elective requirements by taking a variety of the course types listed below. Note: specific elective offerings vary by semester and are communicated to the program's students ahead of registration each term. The internship option is a great opportunity for students in the program, but it is not a requirement to earn the degree.
| HUM 550 | Directed Readings | 3.0 |
| HUM 560 | Humanities Colloquium | 3.0 |
| HUM 597 | Humanities Internship | 1.0 - 3.0 |
| HUM 599 | Graduate Writing for the Humanities | 3.0 |
| Discipline-Specific 500-level course | 3.0 | |
| One graduate level course in a non-Humanities field | ||
| Total Credit Hours: | 12.0-15.0 |
Final Projects
In collaboration with their academic adviser(s), students will complete either a final portfolio project or a thesis. Substitutions for these courses are not permitted and transfer credits will not be accepted as exemptions. They will complete one of the following courses:
| HUM 594 | Humanities Portfolio | 3.0 |
| or | ||
| HUM 580A/HUM 580B | Humanities Thesis | 6.0 |
TOTAL CREDIT HOURS: 30.0
Looking to learn more about our special interest topics in History and Philosophy? See our upcoming offerings below;
- LIT 501: Literary Studies Proseminar: Speculative Fiction & Philosophy
- HUM 560X: Dirty Wars in Latin America
- HUM 560Y: Global Art Feminisms
All the above courses are available for degree and non-degree seeking students. For additional information, contact Dr. Karen Hoffman at hoffmank@hood.edu, or click here to register for the Spring semester.
Program Contact
Program Director
Phone
301-696-3433
Email
Assistant Director of Graduate Admission
Phone
Office: 301-696-3601 Cell/WhatsApp: 240-651-4015
Email
Corey Campion
- Associate Professor of History and Global Studies
- Program Director, Master's in Humanities
- Chair, Department of History
Didier Course
- Professor of French
Trevor Dodman
- Associate Professor of English
Amy S. Gottfried
- Professor of English
Jay Harrison
- Associate Professor of History
Karen Hoffman
- Professor of Philosophy
- Department Chair
Elizabeth Knapp
- Professor of English
- Program Director, Creative Writing MFA
Heather Mitchell-Buck
- Associate Professor of English
Scott Pincikowski
- Professor of German
- Chair, Department of Global Languages & Cultures
Nicole Pulichene
- Libman Professor of Humanities
Jennifer C. Ross
- Professor of Art and Archaeology
- Chair, Department of Art & Archaeology
Noel Verzosa, Jr.
- Associate Professor of Music
- Department Chair of Music
- Program Director, Master's in Humanities
Wayne Wold
- Professor of Music
Donald Wright
- Professor of French and Arabic
- Director of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies
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