SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
Discover ideas across disciplines in Penn’s Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts
The Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts (MPhil) at the University of Pennsylvania is an advanced interdisciplinary graduate degree that invites you to explore your intellectual interests across disciplines—and to combine methods and concepts across fields to develop a distinct, original approach toward the intellectual questions that motivate you.
Ideal for students and professionals who have already completed a master’s degree, the MPhil degree requires five courses and an independent study that forms the basis of your final research paper or creative project. You set the curriculum: with the guidance of an advisor, you can choose courses from across the University that complement your interests and fit your schedule.
For example: in the spring 2022 term, course offerings in the MPhil’s home school—Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences—include seminars on environmental justice and visual studies, explorations of science fiction and queer Shakespeare, deep dives into the work of James Baldwin and Octavia Butler, and workshops for aspiring children’s book authors and experimental writers alike.
There’s also Psychopathology and the Media, a Proseminar that critically examines media portrayals of mental illness. Proseminars are small, intensive courses that strengthen your research, writing, and critical thinking skills; in this popular course, students develop those academic abilities with sensitivity and care as they unpack mental health stereotypes, stigmas, and myths. Psychopathology and the Media combines the methods and vocabulary of psychology with the analytical tools of media studies, resulting in an immersive interdisciplinary study with widely applicable lessons—whether you have personal or professional stakes in mental health awareness, whether you aim to enhance your storytelling and communications skills or deepen your understanding of human psychology.
Gender, sexuality, and women’s studies are inherently interdisciplinary, often drawing from a range of historical, sociological, and philosophical methods to examine how gender is constructed and experienced in specific cultural moments. The spring course On the “Nature” of Gender interrogates philosophical texts, critical theory, and cultural artifacts, and examines how concepts of gender are embedded in the ways we imagine and understand the natural world. For example, the personification of Mother Earth reveals something about how we see nature and how we see mothers; as a concept, Mother Earth exists in a philosophical lineage of binary thinking that not only sees maleness and femaleness in opposition but also humans and animals, humans and nature, the physical world, and the intellectual world.
MPhil students tend to be curious, inquisitive, and passionate about learning; a student might enroll in On the “Nature” of Gender and Psychopathology and the Media purely out of intellectual excitement and interest—and in an advanced degree program that encourages interdisciplinary exploration, the applications are endless. Many students enroll in the MPhil to prepare for further graduate studies: this pairing of courses would encourage an aspiring PhD candidate to deepen their understanding of psychology, media studies, gender studies, philosophy, and more—or introduce them to new frameworks that can inform and support their chosen field. Students who pursue creative projects such as film and creative writing would doubtlessly benefit from an enhanced understanding of human psychology on both an individual and a cultural level, as well as the analytical tools to assess hidden biases and tacit assumptions in their own storytelling. And professionals in a wide range of roles, from communications to leadership to operations and administration, apply lessons from the liberal arts for complex problem-solving and people-first policies in the workplace.
Your ambition is the curriculum
Course offerings vary from term to term; this spring 2022 course pairing is just a sample of the interdisciplinary coursework that characterizes Penn’s Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts. Available on a full- or part-time basis, this advanced graduate degree opens doors across the University. Contact our program director, Dr. Christopher Pastore, to schedule an appointment to review your current research and explore your options for pursuing a Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts at Penn.
(215) 898-7326
lps@sas.upenn.edu
www.upenn.edu/mla-mphil
