Courses
The Foundational Seminars
Academic Concentration
The Foundational Seminars
MALS 5000—Introduction to Graduate Studies (3-0-3):
Required of all students. Emphasis on library research, using libraries from all over the Atlanta area,
internet research, and archival research. This course takes students from a variety of undergraduate disciplines
and trains them to conduct research in the selected areas of the graduate program.
And choose three courses (9 hours) from the following list:
- ART 5000—Great Works in Art History (3-0-3):
A survey of the high points of art history which examines aesthetic, historical, cultural, psychological, and other issues relating to art history, from various critical perspectives. The course will examine great works of art, ranging from the highlights of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, to the classical era, on to the Renaissance, and beyond to more modern masterpieces. - ENGL 5000—Great Books (3-0-3):
A course exploring the concept of “Great Books,” including the history and definition of the concepts both of “book” and of “greatness.” Many texts (fiction and nonfiction, as well as poetic) will be read closely in probing these definitions. The texts will range globally, from the earliest examples of writing (including pre-literate, oral traditions) through the present. Texts will be read in English translation where necessary. Both canonic writers (e.g., Homer, Mary Shelley) and writers outside conventional definitions of the canon will be considered. - MUSC 5000—Great Works in Music History (3-0-3):
A study of monumental works of music from the Medieval period through the present day. Works are chosen for their historical significance related to innovation in the art of music, to interest musically and artistically, and to significance of posterity. The course will begin with a study of the elements of music, formal procedures, terminology, and music history time-line so that all students (regardless of background) will have a solid foundation of understanding upon which to build. - PHIL 5000—Classics of Philosophy (3-0-3):
An examination of the original documents, the classic primary texts, in the history of philosophy in Western Culture. Primary source readings--including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, and Kant--will be supplemented by a history-of-philosophy text that will place these works in historical and philosophical context. - POLS 5000—Great Political Thinkers (3-0-3):
Emphasis on major ancient, medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment, modern, and postmodern political philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Burke, Kant, Mill, Marx and their modern philosophical legacy. Examination of the original documents, placed in contemporary historical and political perspective. Discussion will focus on political philosophy's impact on the development of Western political ideology and institutions.
Academic Concentration
Liberal Arts
A. Choose three to six courses (9-18 hours) from the following list:
- ART 5201—Visual Arts in the US from 1940 to the Present (3-0-3):
Survey of contemporary art in the United States from 1940 to the present and an examination of aesthetic, historical, cultural, psychological, and other issues relating to art history, from various critical perspectives. - CMS 5310—Contemporary Cinema Studies (3-0-3):
Advanced study in film with particular emphasis on cultural and historical movements after 1945, which can be taught as a revolving topics course. Important movements may range from Classical Hollywood to contemporary Independent production. Socio-cultural issues will be studied in conjunction with a variety of historical, critical, and theoretical writings about cinema. A basic knowledge of film technique and history is essential for students taking this course, and a weekly out-of-class film screening is mandatory. - CMS 5610—Digital Culture (3-0-3):
Through close readings of important old and new media works, this course investigates the impact of digitization on contemporary culture. Among the new media forms considered are net.art, interactive communities, games, and virtual environments. - MALS 5800 - Selected Topics in Liberal Studies (3-0-3):
A graduate-level seminar on special topics related to Liberal Studies. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. - IDST 5201--The Science in Science Fiction (3-0-3):
An examination of the scientific principles underlying representative works of science fiction. Science fiction will also be examined as a literary genre. This multidisciplinary course will be taught by faculty in science, English, and media studies. - IDST 5202—Contemporary Irish Fiction, Film, History, and Politics (3-0-3):
Examination of the interrelationships between contemporary Irish fiction, film, history, and politics with part of the course being held in conjunction with the Theater Gael Repertory Company at the 14th Street Playhouse. - PHIL 5201—Philosophy in the US (3-0-3):
A study of the American philosophical tradition of pragmatism as a unique and original contribution to Western philosophy. The focus of the course is on the thought of four classical American philosophers: Peirce, James, Santayana, and Dewey. It will also consider the intersection of pragmatism with analytic and linguistic philosophy. Finally, the course will examine the origin of pragmatism in American intellectual history, keeping in mind social and cultural influences, and will look ahead to the influence and relevance of pragmatism for present-day culture. - PSYC 5201—Psychoanalysis and Society (3-0-3):
This course will examine psychoanalytic theory and its impact on modern culture, religion, art, and literature. Freud’s original writings along with those of other psychoanalytic theorists, such as Jung, will be explored along with a sampling of other writings and artistic works that exemplify the psychoanalytic influence. - SOCI 5201—Religion and the Family in America (3-0-3):
An examination of the historical trends and current status of the institutions of family and religion and how they continue to play a vital role in the United States. Focused attention is given to how religion influences the family and how the family, in turn, has an impact on religious teachings and programs. Religion and family have undergone dramatic changes during the twentieth century as individuals sought personal freedom through new forms of religious expression. This course identifies those changes and explores their significance. - THEA 5201—Contemporary US Theater (3-0-3):
An exploration of the immediate state of theatre in the early 21st Century with an emphasis on World Theatre concepts as they apply to American Theatre, new works, and discussion of the future of live performance.
Thesis/Non-Thesis Option
English
B. Choose up to three courses (0-9 hours) from any of three areas of concentration listed below.
- ENGL 5100—Literary Theory (3-0-3):
This course surveys different schools and trends in literary criticism of the 20th century, including Russian Formalism, New Criticism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Reader-Response criticism, Psychoanalytic Theory, Marxist criticism, New Historicism, Feminist literary criticism, Cultural Studies, and Postcolonial Studies.
And choose 5 courses (15 hours) from the following list:
- ENGL 5150--Studies in Shakespeare (3-0-3):
This graduate-level survey of Shakespeare’s dramatic works before and after 1600 will emphasize the major comedies and tragedies and will usually offer attention to the histories, problem plays, and romances. Course content will include some attention to research methods and critical theory in the context of Shakespeare studies. - ENGL 5120--Studies in Nineteenth Century American Literature and Culture (3-0-3):
An expansive course focusing on the major movements, issues, or themes in the study of nineteenth century American literature and culture. Topics may include the American Renaissance and Romanticism; Realism; Naturalism; evolving literary genres; African American fiction, non-fiction, and poetry; race and gender; and/or in-depth studies of selected writers. - ENGL 5130--Studies in Southern Literature (3-0-3):
This course examines the major issues and themes in the study of Southern American literature. Topics will include the history of Southern culture, slave narratives, Civil War autobiography and memoir, the Southern Renaissance and its beginnings and influence, the “New South,” and comparative studies of gender and race. - ENGL 5140--Studies in Twentieth Century American Literature and Culture (3-0-3):
An expansive course focusing on the major movements, issues, or themes in the study of twentieth century American literature. Topics may include Modernism, Post-modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, Depression-era literature, the Southern Renaissance, American fiction since 1945, poetry, and/or major authors. - ENGL 5210--Studies in Renaissance Literature (3-0-3):
A graduate-level survey of early modern English literature and literary culture, ca. 1500-1700. Typical areas of emphasis will include significant literary movements within the era, major authors, and/or attention to a specific genre. Course content will include some attention to historical context, research methods, and applied critical theory. - ENGL 5250--Studies in Nineteenth Century British Literature and Culture (3-0-3):
A graduate-level survey of nineteenth century British literature and literary culture, ca. 1780-1900. Typical areas of emphasis will include significant literary movements within the era, major authors, and/or attention to a specific genre. Course content will include some attention to historical context, research methods, and applied critical theory. - ENGL 5260--Studies in Twentieth Century and Twenty-First Century British Literature (3-0-3):
A graduate-level course focusing on the major movements, issues, or themes in the study of British fiction from the 20th and 21st centuries. Topics may include but are not limited to modernism, postmodernism, war literature, literature between the wars, minor literary movements (such as Angry Young Men, The Movement, Poets of the Apocalypse), and/or major authors. - ENGL 5300--Literature by American Women (3-0-3):
A study of traditions in American women’s writing. The course may cover a wide range of texts for focus on a single theme, genre, period, literary movement, or cultural tradition. - ENGL 5350--Studies in Gender and Sexuality in American Literature and Culture (3-0-3):
A variable topics course, focusing on one or more of the major issues, movements, forms, or themes in the study of gender and sexuality in American literature and culture. Topics may include masculinity and femininity in literature, feminism and womanism, and traditions of gay self-representations. - ENGL 5400--Studies in African American Literature and Culture (3-0-3):
A course focusing on the major movements, issues, or themes in the study of African American literature and culture from the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Topics may include but are not limited to modernism, postmodernism, African American womanism, Africana womanism, and other literary movements such as The Harlem Renaissance, The Black Arts Movement, The New Black Aesthetic, and/or major authors. - ENGL 5410--The African American Novel (3-0-3):
A course focusing on the major movements, issues, or themes in the study of the African American Novel from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Topics may include but are not limited to modernism, postmodernism, slave narrative, neo-slave narrative, the blues novel, and other literary movements such as The Harlem Renaissance, The Black Arts Movement, The New Black Aesthetic, and/or major authors. - ENGL 5450--Race and Ethnicity in American Literature and Culture (3-0-3):
This course examines the major issues, and themes in the study of race and ethnicity in American literature and culture. Topics will include African American literature, post-war Jewish fiction, Native American literature, whiteness studies, Chicano-Latino literature, Asian American literature, literature and racism, double consciousness, migration narratives, and comparative studies of racial and ethnic experience. - ENGL 5620--Postcolonial Theory and Literature (3-0-3):
A graduate-level study of postcolonial literary theory and literature. Texts written in English from a variety of formerly colonized regions will be studied; including, but not limited to, Africa, the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The focus will be on such topics as imperialism, race, gender, ethnicity, nation, language, and representation. - ENGL 5710--Contemporary American Poetry (3-0-3):
This course examines post-1960 American poetry and focuses on the poets who represent major developments in traditional and non-traditional poetics along with a consideration of the styles, trends, and influences that inform contemporary American poetry. - ENGL 5720--Contemporary American Fiction (3-0-3):
This course examines the major movements, issues and themes in the study of contemporary American fiction. Topics may include Postmodernism; individual identity; race, class, and gender; dualism and pluralism; magic realism, and/or major authors. - ENGL 5800--Selected Topics in Literature and Culture (3-0-3):
A graduate-level seminar on special topics important to professional, postgraduate liberal studies. Typical areas of emphasis will include significant literary movements within a particular era of American, British or postcolonial cultures, major authors, and/or attention to a specific genre. Course content will include some attention to historical context, research methods, and applied critical theory.
History
Choose 6 courses (18 hours) from the following list:
- HIST 5050—Historical Methods and American Historiography (3-0-3):
An introduction to the basic skills, problems, materials and methods employed by professional historians for research and writing, and a systematic examination of the divergent interpretations, controversies and major schools of American historical inquiry. - HIST 5100—African-American History (3-0-3):
An examination of the formation of African-American cultural identity from the early national period to the present, with emphasis on major formative events: slavery, the early development of cultural institutions, the reconstruction of life after slavery, northern migration during the world wars, the civil rights and black power movements of the 1950’s and 1960’s, and urbanization and class structure in the 1980’s and 1990’s. - HIST 5200—History of the American South (3-0-3):
An in-depth look at the special contributions of the South to the evolution of the United States, and an analysis of the major themes of Southern History in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the role of ideas and values in the making of Southern history. - HIST 5300—Women’s History in America (3-0-3):
An exploration of the roles of women in the social, economic, and political development of the United States. The course will cover such topics as the images and ideals of womanhood, nineteenth-century feminism, the Victorian woman, female sexuality, women at work, women at war, the suffrage movement, and the new feminism. - HIST 5400—Twentieth Century US History (3-0-3):
An in-depth examination of recent US history from before the First World War through the Clinton presidency. Concentrating on the growth of the US as a major economic and political power, special attention will be devoted to the impact of industrialization, urbanization, immigration, reform movements, mass culture, domestic economic fluctuations, governmental expansion, and military involvements during the twentieth century, as well as the political and cultural responses of Americans during this time of enormous change. - HIST 5500—Twentieth Century World History (3-0-3):
An intensive investigation of the political, social and cultural developments of the twentieth century world. Topics to be discussed include the birth of the twentieth century, the emergence of global industrialization and imperialism, the worldwide depression, the first and second World Wars, the end of the European world order, the Cold War, postcolonial Africa and Asia, the demise of European communism, and the arrival of globalization. - HIST 5600—The Atlantic World (3-0-3):
An examination of the histories, cultures and connections between peoples living around the Atlantic Ocean, specifically in Africa and the Caribbean, from the 15th century to the present. The course will pay particular attention to the destruction and reconfiguration of indigenous societies, the era of slavery and the slave trade, the links forged between the Caribbean and Africa through the Pan-African movement, as well as colonization and independence and the successes and failures of the post colonial state. - HIST 5700—American Military History (3-0-3):
A study of the American military art from the earliest days of frontier offensives to present-day global concerns. Focuses on the creation of American military institutions, the genesis of policy-making and maintenance of civilian control over that process, the inter-relationship between foreign and military policy, the conduct of war, and the influence of American society upon the armed forces as social institutions. - HIST 5800—Modern American Popular Culture (3-0-3):
An exploration of several institutional aspects of the vast, pervasive, complex, and fascinating phenomenon of American popular culture in the 20th century, in particular the rise of mass entertainment as a form of communication and community formation. Course readings will introduce students to the cultural history of comics, feature films, music, literature, radio, television and sports as commodities and as expressions of identity in a diverse nation. - HIST 5900—American Environmental History (3-0-3):
An introduction to the environmental history of North America, from colonial times to the present. Explores the complex and ever-changing interrelationship over time between human society and the natural environment, the differing perceptions of nature held by people and how those ideas and human activities regarding nature combined in ways that reshaped the American landscape.
Music
Choose 6 courses (18 hours) from the following list:
- MUSC 5100—Survey of Renaissance and Baroque Music (3-0-3):
Survey of Western music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This will include secular and sacred music and include various vocal and instrumental genres. Major program outcomes: student will be expected to develop an understanding of musical forms and processes in their historical contexts, and be able to place music studied in historical, cultural, and stylistic contexts. - MUSC 5200—Survey of Classic and Romantic Music (3-0-3):
A survey of the Classic and Romantic periods of music. This course will emphasize the classic forms including the modern “sonata” with its related single movement forms and its application to multi-movement forms and various performing ensembles. Also included is the Romantic expansion of the forms and movement away from tonality. Major program outcomes: student will be expected to develop an understanding of musical forms and processes in their historical contexts, and be able to place music studied in historical, cultural, and stylistic contexts. - MUSC 5300—Survey of Twentieth Century Music (3-0-3):
A survey of the major developments in twentieth century music as well as the more important composers. New compositional techniques and new subject matter will be examined. Included will be the important trends and schools as well as the important composers and compositions. Major program outcomes: student will be expected to develop an understanding of new developments in music and to place music studied in the appropriate stylistic context. - MUSC 5400—Form and Analysis (3-0-3):
Study of various tonal and non-tonal musical forms including sectional, contrapuntal and process forms. Major program outcomes: student will demonstrate a broad understanding of the common elements and organizational patterns of music through aural, visual, and verbal analyses. - MUSC 5500—Eighteenth Century Harmony and Form (3-0-3):
Study of late Baroque and Classical harmony including contrapuntal and sectional forms with special emphasis on similarities and differences between the two periods. Major program outcomes: student will demonstrate an understanding of the compositional techniques and formal organization of the Baroque and Classical periods through aural, visual, and verbal analyses. - MUSC 5600—Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Harmony and Form (3-0-3):
Study of nineteenth and twentieth century harmony and form. Emphasis on formal structure, the growth of chromatic harmony, and the emancipation of dissonance. Major program outcomes: student will demonstrate an understanding of common nineteenth and twentieth century approaches to form and the gradual movement away from tonality through aural, visual, and verbal analyses. - MUSC 5700—Advanced School Music Methods (3-0-3):
Methods and materials used by music teachers in grades K-12. Emphasis on teaching methods used in the public schools today. Special problems related to student needs. - MUSC 5800—Applied Music (2-0-2):
Individual instruction in the student’s primary area of performance. Student is expected to perform music from a cross section of the repertory of the particular performing medium, and develop skills requisite for artistic self-expression at the graduate level. - MUSC 5900—Major Ensemble (1-0-1):
Performance in a large vocal or instrumental ensemble depending on the student’s major performance area. Student may be expected to perform a leadership role in the ensemble. Student may be expected to rehearse and/or conduct the ensemble.