The Master of Arts in Humanities is an interdisciplinary, multicultural program that emphasizes the study of society, ideas, and the arts, with special concern for the questions of value —moral, intellectual, cultural, and aesthetic— that are inherent in major human expressions. The program serves a variety of personal and career objectives, including preparation for teaching, doctoral study, and careers in business, public service, and the arts.

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University Admissions

All students applying for the M.A. program in Humanities must first be admitted to the University. The current San Francisco State University Bulletin (available online at http://www.sfsu.edu) contains the information you will need to apply for admission. The deadline for fall applications is April 15; for spring, October 15. Any questions regarding admission to the University should be directed to the Graduate Division Office and not the Humanities Department.

Application forms may be obtained from the Graduate Division Office, ADM 254, San Francisco State University,
1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132
Telephone number: (415) 338-2234)
Website: http://www.sfsu.edu/~gradstdy

or from any California State University campus admissions office. Forms may also be downloaded directly from the World-Wide Web at http://www.calstate.edu.

Applicants should mail directly to the Graduate Coordinator of the Department of Humanities a writing sample, and two letters of recommendation. The statement of purpose required in the online application should be at about 500 words. The mailing address is Graduate Coordinator, Humanities Department, HUM 410, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132. The department often recommends conditional admission, which means that applicants must successfully complete additional undergraduate course work in the department before being admitted to classified status.

Admission to the Humanities M.A. Program
The University does a preliminary evaluation to see if you meet minimum university standards. If you meet the minimum standards, the University sends Part B of the application along with one set of your official transcript to the Humanities Department to review and to make a recommendation on admission. The Graduate Division makes the final decision on admission.

Depending on your level of preparation, successful applicants may be admitted either as classified or conditionally classified graduate students.

Admission with classified status means that you have satisfied all the university and departmental conditions for admission, and may take any Humanities graduate seminar.

Admission as a conditionally classified student means that you need an additional three to six units of preparatory coursework, which will be specified on your admissions documents. You may enroll in graduate seminars concurrently with this coursework and you may count it toward the degree, as a partial or complete substitution for your allotted three to six units of electives, but it must be successfully completed during your first year in the program with a grade of B+ or better. Once you have done this, you should complete and file the form for Advancement to Classified Status at the Graduate Division Office .

Good Standing
Students must maintain a 3.0 (B) average in order to remain in good standing within the program. Any student whose cumulative GPA falls below 3.0 may be placed on probation, or removed from classified graduate status by the department.

Time Toward the Degree

The University allows a maximum of seven years for completion of the M.A. degree given that our students often have considerable work and family responsibilities in addition to school work. Completion normally takes a minimum of a year and a half, and the culminating experience takes at least one semester.

If you do not enroll in courses for two consecutive semesters, you must apply for readmission ot the University and the program. If you are readmitted, you will be subject to the degree requirements in effect at the time of re-admission.

If you have laid an adequate foundation for your final project in your coursework, it may be possible for you to finish in one semester, but we believe your graduate experience is richer and more satisfying if you do not try to rush through it. You may extend your registration in an 898, 895, or 896 course over two semesters without paying additional tuition.

Language Requirement

Although reading proficiency in a second language is not required for admission to the program, it is required for completion of the degree and must be demonstrated by the time of enrollment in the thesis or other culminating experience. The department strongly recommends that you acquire and demonstrate reading proficiency as early as possible. Please consult the Graduate Co-ordinator to make arrangements for confirming your proficiency.

Under exceptional circumstances a candidate may petition to substitute demonstrable proficiency in an auxiliary skill that has a clear relationship to his or her M.A. program. Consult the Graduate Co-ordinator for details.

Level I English Requirement
The Level I English requirement will be fulfilled by a grade of B or better in Humanities 700 or 721.

The M.A. Program

Course descriptions are listed in the course information section of the University Bulletin. More complete descriptions of current seminars are available in the department office . With the graduate advisor�s approval, most upper division undergraduate Humanities Department courses may be used to satisfy up to six units of the Master of Arts requirements. Consult the course instructor about additional assignments for graduate students.

A. Core Seminars
Humanities 700: Introduction to Integrative Study
Humanities 721: Culture and Style

Two of the following courses (six units) in the integrative study of cultural expression to be chosen in consultation with advisor. One course must be non-Western
Humanities 710: Seminar in European Forms and Culture
Humanities 711: Seminar in American Forms and Culture
Humanities 712: Seminar in African Forms and Culture
Humanities 713: Seminar in Asian Forms and Culture

B. Disciplines of the Humanities (six units, in consultation with advisor)
Humanities 701: Fine Arts in the Humanities
Humanities 702: Literature in the Humanities
Humanities 703: History in the Humanities
Humanities 704: Philosophy in the Humanities

C. Issue in the Humanities (three to six units, in consultation with advisor)
Humanities 720: Humanistic Themes
Humanities 722: New Models in Humanistic Studies
Humanities 723: Seminar in Contemporary Humanistic Scholarship

D. Electives:
three to six units selected in consultation with graduate co-ordinator and advisor

E. Culminating Experience (Sponsored Study)One of the following:
Humanities 896: Directed Study in Selected Humanistic Works, to include comprehensive written and oral examinations
Humanities 898: Master�s Thesis and Oral Defense.

With the approval of the Graduate Co-ordinator, a limited number of appropriate seminars from other departments may be counted toward the M.A. degree.

Consulting with your Advisor

You will be assigned a preliminary advisor as soon as possible after beginning the program. You may also seek advice from the Graduate Co-ordinator, the chair, or any faculty member in the program. Your advisor will work with you to plan your graduate program and discuss any problems you might encounter.

As you take additional classes in the program and get to know various members of the faculty, you will naturally turn to several of them for advice, and it may turn out that someone other than your original advisor is the best person to sponsor your thesis or other culminating project. You should always feel free to consult the Graduate Co-ordinator, the chair, or any faculty member in the program about your progress toward the degree.

Graduate work in the Humanities can be an intellectual adventure of incomparable value; but dealing with the nuances of administrative forms and formalities can be frustrating to the student who tries to �go it alone.� See your advisor regularly, and tell him or her of any change in your graduate study plans before you take action. A half hour consultation can save you a month of frustration.

The Graduate Approved Program (GAP)

The GAP and Culminating Experience Form (see next link) must be filed together. In the semester before you enroll in the thesis or other culminating experience, you must enroll in an 899 (independent study) with the prospective chair of the thesis (898) or comprehensive examination (896) committee, who will supervise and coordinate the timely filing of the GAP and Culminating Experience Form. As part of the 899, you must submit a thesis prospectus with a preliminary bibliography, which must be approved by all members of the committee before the student may enroll in HUM 898 or HUM 896. If you plan to complete the degree with HUM 896,the comprehensive written and oral examination, you will develop a substantial plan of reading in consultation with your committee chair."

You must file a Graduate Approved Program (GAP) with the Graduate Division the semester before you plan to enroll in the thesis or other culminating experience course. The GAP lists all the courses completed, in progress, or planned for the Master�s Degree; your language proficiency or auxiliary skill; and the nature of your culminating experience. You should work closely with your advisor to ensure that everything you intend to list on the GAP has the approval of the department. Do not list any additional courses beyond the minimum necessary for the degree.

The form must be signed by the Graduate Co-ordinator and by the Associate Dean of the College of Humanities (HUM 484). Check the University Calendar for GAP deadlines, normally in late September for Spring graduation and mid-April for Summer or Fall. If you change your plan of study after you have filed your GAP, you must file a GAP substitution form.

Proposal for Culminating Experience

The Proposal for Culminating Experience form includes a summary of your plans for the culminating experience and the signatures of the members of your committee. You should file it in the semester before you enroll in an 898, 895, or 896. Check the University Calendar for the exact deadlines, normally in late September for Spring graduation and mid-April for Summer or Fall graduation. If you change your plans for your final project, your thesis topic, or any of the members of your committee, you must file a new Proposal for Culminating Experience. When you are thinking about a possible culminating experience project, remember that faculty members are experts in particular fields of study, and that if you propose a project in an area in which no one on our faculty has the appropriate expertise, you will have difficulty in assembling your committee. This is why it is so important to seek faculty advice and commitments to your project at an early stage, and to be in touch with the members of your committee�especially your sponsor/first reader�at every stage of your work.

Sponsored Study (Humanities 898, or 896)

In the semester before you enroll in HUM 898 or 896, you must enroll in HUM 899, Independent Study, with the prospective chair of your committee, who will help you to develop a plan for your thesis or comprehensive examination."
Because the term sponsored study emphasizes the collaborative intellectual relationship between a faculty member and a graduate student, it is the Humanities Department�s preferred term for the culminating experience that the University requires for completion of the M.A. degree. As you take courses toward the degree, you should be planning ahead for your sponsored study, considering not only the topic or specific texts on which you would like to work, but also who your sponsor will be, and whether to do a thesis, comprehensive examination, or creative project.

Your choice of how best to complete the degree depends on your reasons for pursuing it in the first place. Some students see this degree as a step toward acceptance into a competitive Ph.D degree program and an eventual academic career, while others pursue it in order to enhance a career in K-12 teaching or in some other professional field. Still others see it primarily as an opportunity for personal intellectual development. We believe that all of these motivations are equally valid, and we strongly urge you to consult an advisor well before you actually have to make the decision.

The master�s thesis (HUM 898), allows you to develop an area of scholarly expertise and to demonstrate your ability to complete a fairly large-scale piece of scholarly writing and defend it orally. In recent years, the vast majority of our students have chosen to write theses. A thesis is an opportunity to work closely with members of the faculty on a subject of mutual interest, and to produce a substantial piece of research and writing on a subject that is important to you.

You may also finish the degree by comprehensive examination (HUM 896). In this case, you will complete a substantial body of reading on your topic of interest under the direction of an appropriate faculty member, in consultation with two additional faculty members. You will write three examination essays on questions based on your reading; at least one of the essays must address a work done in a medium other than written language. Then you will discuss and defend your answers orally to your committee.

Since sponsored study is intended to take at least one full semester, students should choose a willing sponsor and begin preliminary discussions on the project well before the beginning of the semester in which the work will be completed. Sponsored study is intended to be an intensive, structured, ongoing process, and regular meetings must be held with the sponsor.

The Committee
Both options for completing the degree require a committee of at least two of whom but no more than five faculty members to supervise your progress through your final project. The department encourages students to ask three readers, at least two must be tenured or tenure-track members of the Humanities Department. With approval from the director of your committee and the graduate co-ordinator, the third may be a member of another department who has an appropriate area of expertise, or a faculty member from another university. The student and his or her sponsor ("chair" or "first reader") will consult on whom to invite as second reader and third reader, if any. The student should meet with the second and third readers for their agreement and signatures on the Proposal for Culminating Experience. Lecturers may not ordinarily serve on M.A. committees.

Oral Defense
Whichever option you choose, once you have completed your work you will be required to defend it. That is, you present it in person to your committee and answer their questions about it. You may choose to have an open defense, in which anyone interested in your work is welcome, or a closed defense, with an audience limited to the members of your committee. This normally lasts an hour or perhaps two. Although it requires considerable effort and concentration, students are often relieved to find that the defense is nothing like the ordeal they imagined. Instead, it turns out to be an intellectually focused but informal and friendly conversation among people with a common interest.

Your sponsor will schedule a time and place for the defense in consultation with you and the other members of your committee. It is your responsibility to be aware of university deadlines and to keep in close touch with your sponsor about your progress, so that neither you nor your committee members are subject to unreasonable time pressures.

Final versions of your work should be given to all committee members at least a week before the defense. You should bring your own copy of your work, which must include the top sheet for the committee�s signatures (see Graduate Division format requirements). You should also bring the form for Completion of Culminating Experience and� if you have taken more than one semester to complete your sponsored study� a grade change form.

Sponsored Study Requirements
The advantage of sponsored study is that the length, scope, and organization of your final project are worked out in the course of your work with your sponsor and the other members of your committee. There is no fixed or required length for the thesis. In recent years, we have seen excellent theses ranging in length from 50 to 100 pages or more. The graduate division does have specific requirements for thesis format, which you should observe carefully.

Grading of Sponsored Study
The M.A. thesis (898) is graded credit/no credit. The comprehensive written and oral examination on directed study (896) is graded with a letter grade. The creative project (895) is graded credit/no credit. If you need to extend your enrollment in any of these courses beyond one semester, and if in your sponsor�s judgment you have made reasonable progress, you will be given a grade of SP (satisfactory progress), which will be changed to the appropriate CR/NC or letter grade upon completion of all requirements for the degree.

Petition for Graduation

When you have completed or made arrangements to complete the final requirements for the degree, you must file a separate application for graduation. Check the University Bulletin for the exact deadlines. If you do not finish your degree work in the semester for which you filed your graduation application, you will need to submit a new application.

Other Resources

The Morrissey-Andersen Prize is a yearly prize for the best graduate paper. It was endowed by two of our emeritus faculty, Professor Eleanor Morrissey and Professor Stan Andersen. The prize standards and application procedures are normally posted early in the Spring term and the winner is announced at the end of the Spring term.

The Humanities Symposium Club is in charge of the Humanities Symposium, a yearly one-day event featuring presentations by SFSU College of Humanities students and faculty. The papers are edited and published every year. You can learn more about attending and participating in the symposium from the current officers of the Symposium Club, whose names may be obtained from the graduate co-ordinator.

The Graduate Email List: The graduate coordinator maintains an e-mail list of all graduate students, which is updated at the beginning of each semester on the basis of information students provide to their seminar instructors. Announcements of deadlines, scholarships, events, and so on are sent via this list. Please inform the graduate coordinator (mscott@sfsu.edu) of any changes in your e-mail address.

Graduate Teaching Associate Positions

The university through its major departments provides a number of currently enrolled graduate students with part-time employment offering practical teaching experience related to their advanced study. The appointments usually involve teaching regular classroom and/or laboratory courses, making assignments to undergraduate students, preparing course materials, administering examinations, assessing student performance, tutoring students, and determining course grades. The students appointed may also be assigned to assist faculty with field experiences, supervision, simulation exercises, and/or research projects.

Individuals interested in being considered for such an appointment in the Humanities Department should contact the Humanities Department chair.