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Comparative Arts and Letters

Graduate Programs

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Comparative Studies (MA)

This degree allows for study of the humanities within a comparative context not normally found in single-discipline graduate programs. Students learn to combine analytical skills from various fields in order to critically assess a range of human intellectual and artistic products, including texts, film, material culture, and stage performances.
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Faculty

See a full list of Comparative Arts and Letters department graduate faculty

Courses

See all Comparative Arts and Letters graduate courses
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Contact

3008 JFSB
+18014224430
comparativestudies@byu.edu
Department Website

The term "humanities" (humanitas or studia humanitatis) refers to the study of human intellectual and artistic creativity, encompassing literature, history, philosophy, and the history and criticism of art, music, and dance. It involves critical study of intellectual history and aesthetics. The interdisciplinary fields within the Comparative Arts and Letters department—art history, classics, comparative literature, and interdisciplinary humanities—provide students with opportunities to pursue graduate education in the humanities, emphasizing foreign language skills, critical theory and practice, and scholarly rigor, and a focus on integration and interdisciplinarity.

One degree is offered through the Department of Comparative Arts and Letters, the Master of Arts in Comparative Studies. This program admits from nine to twelve students per year. The MA in Comparative Studies is designed as a two-year program, and most full-time students are able to complete the MA within two years, usually defending the thesis during spring or summer term of the second year.

Chair: Kerry Soper, 3008B JFSB, kerry_soper@byu.edu
Graduate Coordinator: Mike Pope, 3043 JFSB, mike_pope@byu.edu

Resources & Opportunity

Office of Digital Humanities serves as a hub for integrating digital technologies with humanities research and education. It supports students in exploring how digital tools and methods can enhance the study, teaching, and understanding of humanities disciplines, such as literature, history, languages, and cultural studies.

University Writing is available to assist students and faculty in improving their writing skills. Graduate students benefit particularly from critical evaluations of drafts of seminar papers and theses, and those with advanced writing skills may serve as interns in the center. https://universitywriting.byu.edu/

The BYU Museum of Art is located on the north side of campus. It is a four-story, modern facility of more than 102,000 square feet in size. The museum houses ten exhibition galleries, an auditorium, classrooms, a small theater, a print study room, security and administrative offices, as well as a gift store. Faculty and students engage collaboratively with the museum in projects that yield exhibitions, texts, documentaries, and other forms of presentation. Major exhibitions from its own collection of over 15,000 works and from other important collections are brought to the museum to provoke inquiry and to contribute to the university’s academic discourses. Lectures, conferences, performance, and other educational experiences occur regularly in the museum’s varied and versatile spaces. Link: https://moa.byu.edu/

For more information, see https://comparativeartsletters.byu.edu/comparative-studies-ma.

E-mail:comparativestudies@byu.edu.

Financial Assistance

Aid is available in the form of full or partial tuition grants, teaching and research assistantships, internships, and (for advanced students) some student instructorships. Upon admission to the respective programs, candidates will be considered for all of these possibilities based upon merit and availability of department resources. Financial aid is limited to two years.