Mission Statement
The Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program rests on the belief that human life and human action have meaning and that human beings, throughout their lives, must seek it out and live by its implications.
Modality
On Campus
Learning Goals
Students who complete the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies will:
- Examine perennial and current problems and recurring questions that we pose about our own identities, our past and future, our unique national experiences and conflicts, international behavior, and our place in a threatened environment.
- Understand the social ideals and values that unite us as humans and attempt to address the needs of a hurried, often fragmented world
- Analyze new ideas and develop new insights about our common life and mutual understandings
- Demonstrate awareness of human values as encompassing what constitutes human life and meaning, what it means to be a rational and free person, and what contributes to human flourishing and well-being
- Recognize the human values and ethics emphasized in one or more areas of study available to liberal studies, namely, in American and international studies; the classical, medieval, and modern worlds; religious studies; literature; philosophy; visual culture; social and public policy; science and society; and/or professional ethics
- Conduct rigorous interdisciplinary inquiry, i.e., how to engage various disciplines in the humanities and/or social sciences and integrate them in addressing topics related to your individual research interests
- Engage in intensive writing assignments of varied character and length in order to demonstrate proficiency appropriate to graduate-level scholarship
- Demonstrate the competence to consciously reflect on and assess your own scholarly development and that of your classmates with the aid of both faculty and peer review
- Practice the goals of Jesuit education, i.e., education of the whole person and education of "people for others" in leadership and service to the community
To earn the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS), students must complete 30 credits and a thesis with a minimum GPA of 3.000 within seven years of entering the program.
MALS Thesis Proposal (LSHV 7990)
During the MALS Thesis Proposal course, students work directly with the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Faculty Director to produce an annotated bibliography (including the state of the question and the 20 most important works on the topic) and thesis statement, which prepare students for thesis writing in the subsequent semester. Students are expected to attend all class sessions, meetings with the University librarians for research consultations and any additional meetings determined by the Faculty Director.
Students must successfully pass this course in order to advance to LSHV 7991. Those who do not pass on the first attempt are permitted to repeat the course one time at their own expense (see
Repeating a Course, SCS Academic Rules & Regulations). Students who are unable to pass the course upon repeating it will be academically terminated from the program without the right of further appeal.
The deadlines for all course assignments for the Fall/Spring semesters are as follows:
Fall semester
- October 1 - Completion of initial library consultation
- November 1 - Annotated bibliography submitted (10-15 pages)
- December 1 - Thesis statement submitted (approximately 250 words) and formation of thesis committee (including thesis mentor, thesis reader and Faculty Director)
Spring semester
- March 1 - Completion of initial library consultation
- April 1 - Annotated bibliography submitted (10-15 pages)
- May 1 - Thesis statement submitted (approximately 250 words) and formation of thesis committee (including thesis mentor, thesis reader and Faculty Director)
MALS Thesis Writing (LSHV 7991)
The MALS Thesis Writing course must be taken upon completion of the MALS Thesis Proposal course (LSHV 7990) in the subsequent Fall or Spring semester and is the final curricular requirement for the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree. In the MALS Thesis Writing course, students will work directly with their appointed thesis mentor to produce a master’s thesis and participate in a thesis defense. Students are expected to work directly with their thesis mentor and library representatives to actively write and produce the thesis argument. At the commencement of the thesis writing semester, students will develop milestones in consultation with the thesis mentor to ensure consistent progress.
The deadlines for the submission of the final thesis draft are as follows: April 1 (Spring semester) and November 1 (Fall semester). Concerning the thesis defense, students must defend their master’s thesis on or before May 5 (Spring semester) and December 5 (Fall semester). The thesis defense can be held in person or virtually (via Zoom web conferencing), and all members of the thesis committee (thesis mentor, thesis reader, Faculty Director) must be present for the defense.
Students must successfully pass this course in order to complete the degree. Those who do not pass on the first attempt are permitted to repeat the course one time at their own expense (see Repeating a Course, SCS Academic Rules & Regulations). Students who are unable to pass the course upon repeating it will be academically terminated from the program without the right of further appeal.
