Interdisciplinary Humanities, M.A.

Program Description

wcgrad.ucmerced.edu
Contact: Mitch Ylarregui, Graduate Program Coordinator, mylarregui@ucmerced.edu

The Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Group program orients itself to the UC Merced 2009 Strategic Academic Vision, and in particular adopts the UC Merced guiding principle of “The World at Home/At Home in the World” as its signature focus. Our location in Merced inspires this programmatic concentration, which guides and structures the IHGG curriculum and mission through the idea of the Global Crossroads, and through our commitment to socially engaged education and research. The Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Group is the marquee graduate program of a single interdisciplinary department. An interdisciplinary orientation allows Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Group faculty and students to illuminate grand challenges, within the World at Home/At Home in the World framework, since the task of humanists, artists and anthropologists is to explain and express cultural complexity and contingency. Our brief is the human condition as it has existed at all times and at all places, and our insights apply to problems also addressed by scientists and engineers. 

The Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Group program offers courses of study leading to either a Masters of Arts (M.A.) or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree. Drawing on the expertise and interests of affiliated faculty, both M.A. and Ph.D. students develop coursework-based and research-based courses of study that encompass traditional seminar instruction and independent research. Students may either define their research around an interdisciplinary problematic or in primarily disciplinary terms with a wider lens. Thus, the Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Group offers a unique framework in which to approach core disciplines of scholarly study, one that emphasizes an understanding of how similar issues and topics are addressed in multiple fields. Our students address these questions using methods that include fieldwork, description, narrative, hermeneutics, qualitative and quantitative analysis, curation, and an orientation toward ethics and politics.  

Program Learning Outcomes

All IHGG students share a set of Program Learning Outcomes, but the program sets distinct Standards of Mastery for M.A. and Ph.D. students. M.A. students learn the methods and practices by which knowledge is created in the humanities and are able to communicate about the content and methods of the humanities in many organizational and institutional settings.  Ph.D. students combine and extend multiple research practices, apply them to novel topics, and produce new insights about the humanities. 

Upon graduating, we expect students to:

1. Become proficient in selected theories and research methods appropriate to the study of the humanities.
2. Understand and apply both disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to humanities research.
3. Achieve domain expertise in a particular disciplinary or interdisciplinary field of the humanities.
4. Demonstrate proficiency in research, analysis, and critique in the humanities through exams, papers, and theses.
5. Display commitment to the research ethics and professional standards of the humanities and to the particular field of expertise.

Master’s Program Learning Outcomes

The standards of mastery for the M.A. are:

• Develop communication skills and strategies appropriate for explaining the content and methods of the humanities to a wide range of audiences.
• Demonstrate proficiency in using one or more established research methods to address existing topics in a humanities field.