The Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts (MPhil) at the University of Pennsylvania is an advanced graduate degree that invites you to explore your intellectual interests across disciplines. You set the curriculum: with the guidance of an advisor, you can choose five courses from more than 50 academic disciplines across the University 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 culminates with an independent study that forms the basis of your final project—which might take the form of an in-depth academic research paper, an interdisciplinary approach to a complex moral issue, or even the novel or screenplay of your dreams.
Regardless of the unique course you chart for your studies, the MPhil offers numerous opportunities to develop, challenge, and refine your writing skills. Whether you’re an experienced wordsmith hoping to polish your work or a beginner exploring the arts of creative expression, Penn writing workshops and writing-intensive proseminars offer inspiration, technique, and constructive feedback. Consider the following courses, which are offered periodically by the MPhil program’s home school, Penn Arts and Sciences.
For example, let’s say your project entails writing about an era of unprecedented political upheaval, war, disease, and environmental devastation. You might find an anchor for understanding complex global change by exploring the history of World War I through personal and public memory. The Great War presented a profound rupture in the world as it was once known—and unleashed an outpouring of memoir, poetry, and fictional accounts by those who experienced it. In HIST 5600:The Great War in Memoir and Memory, MPhil students study how World War I endures in personal, cultural, and political memory, through memoir, literature, artwork, and public commemoration such as monuments and days of remembrance. HIST 5600 is a Proseminar, which means you can expect a writing-intensive seminar with a small class size designed to maximize thoughtful discussions and feedback on student research, writing, and critical thinking skills.
On the other hand, they say that every person is a universe with their own secrets and treasures, and you’ll find a wide range of authors that tap into the rich and complex inner world of the individual. In ENGL 9013: Writing and Remembering: A Memoir Workshop, MPhil students can expect to delve into works by authors such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Kaye Gibbons, Jorge Luis Borges, Toni Morrison, Eudora Welty, James Baldwin, and Zora Neale Hurston to study the art and craft of memoir. As a writing workshop, this course provides exercises and assignments designed to not only help you explore the mysteries that have shaped your own life and the lives of others, but to write vividly about them with techniques to manage detail, pace, and tone. Through these exercises, as well as close readings of published memoirs and reviewing the work of your workshop peers, you will write and revise several stories and essays throughout the semester.
Your ambition is the curriculum
Course offerings vary from term to term; these courses offer just a taste of the exciting, wide-ranging coursework that characterizes Penn’s Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts. Available on a full- or part-time basis, with evening and online courses to suit your schedule, this advanced graduate degree opens doors to ideas and engagement 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
