Environmental Humanities MA or MS Option
The Environmental Humanities Program offers either an MA or an MS; choose your degree when you apply to the Program. The primary distinction between the two Master's degrees offered by the Program is that the Master of Arts degree requires standard proficiency in an approved language, while the Master of Science degree requires students to complete three research methods courses approved by the EH Director of Graduate Studies.
- MA - You may enter the Program with standard language proficiency roughly equivalent to one year's college study of a foreign language, or learn a new language while you're enrolled in the Program. You may demonstrate language proficiency a variety of ways to meet the requirement.
- MS - Any course that uses a defined research method to create an original product counts toward our requirement. Methods courses span the Catalog. Since our students' interests are varied, we do not publish a set list of courses that count toward the requirement. For example artists, historians, geoscientists, social scientists, environmental educators, field ecologists, and park professionals choose very different courses of study. In addition, the same course number/title may be taught with different objectives and outcomes from year to year.
Required Courses
Students must complete a minimum of 33 semester hours, comprised of 27 hours of coursework and 6 hours for thesis or final project preparation.
Students must successfully complete these courses, including thesis hours*:
- EHUM 6101 (3) Foundations of Environmental Humanities
- EHUM 6102 (3) Field Methods in Environmental Humanities
- EHUM 6103 (3) Ecology of Residency
- EHUM 6804 (3) Tertulia - 1-credit professional dev/discussion/reading group for the first three semesters
- EHUM 6970 (6) Thesis Research - for thesis or final project research only, *not exam preparation
- EHUM 6900 (1) Orientation/Environmental Leadership
Plus at least 9 credits among these 3 repeatable courses and includes EHUM 6850 at least once:
- EHUM 6105 (3) Environmental Humanities Writing Seminar
- EHUM 6850 (3) Issues in the Environmental Humanities Seminar
- EHUM 6860 (3) Practices in Community Engaged Learning
Finally, for students that receive funding to do community engaged research:
- EHUM 6860 (3) Practices in Community Engaged Learning at least once
- EHUM 6805 (1) CEL Praxis - 1-credit community engaged learning practice for any three semesters
These courses provide a core understanding of theoretical and research perspectives represented in the Environmental Humanities, as well as an enriching cohort experience for students in interdisciplinary environmental studies.
Final work requirements
Students should plan to fulfill the requirements for the master’s degree by completing
either a thesis or project. An exam option may be available in
extenuating circumstances to be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. Students
choose their final requirement option at the time their supervisory committee is set.
- Thesis
Students who elect the thesis option often plan to continue their academic work, post-EH. Thesis writers are required to complete a minimum of 27 hours of course work and six hours of thesis credit. During semester three, students prepare a thesis prospectus in consultation with his or her adviser and the supervisory committee, and after approval, file appropriate paperwork and a copy of the prospectus with EH. During the final semester, the student completes a public presentation and defense of the thesis. Once the student has made the revisions suggested by the supervisory committee, the student has an additional 6 weeks to submit their properly-formatted thesis to the Thesis Office. Thesis writers should be very familiar with the Handbook for Theses and Dissertations.
- Project
Students who select the project option are required to complete at least 27 hours of course work and six hours of thesis credit and completion of a creative or applied project. Students prepare a project prospectus in consultation with his or her adviser and the supervisory committee, and after approval, files appropriate paperwork and a copy of the prospectus with EH. A public presentation and defense of the project is required in the student's final semester. Once the student has completed the revisions suggested by the supervisory committee, and the chair of the committee has approved the final work with the Graduate School, students must submit both an electronic and bound copy of the project to Environmental Humanities.