| Location | Email Address | Program Website |
|---|---|---|
| 239 Vanier College | gpahuma@yorku.ca | yorku.ca/gradstudies/humanities/ |
The Graduate Program in Humanities offers advanced training leading to the MA and PhD degrees. Drawing upon the demonstrated expertise of a wide range of faculty members within York University’s Department of Humanities and related areas of study at York, the program aims to provide highly qualified students with a unique opportunity of doing specialized academic work in the diverse, cultural expressions of humanities. Humanities is a program of study whose very basis is the dynamic interaction between text and context in historical and comparative perspective, and whose methodology is explicitly and systematically interdisciplinary. It thus draws upon the interdisciplinary interests and approaches of much contemporary scholarship which is increasingly informed by general theoretical frameworks and issues that cannot be contained within the bounds of conventional disciplines. Within these broad dimensions, the Graduate Program in Humanities addresses critical issues involving western and non-western humanist traditions in contexts that are both historical and contemporary. The program’s mandate is to produce graduates equipped to utilize the rich tools afforded by interdisciplinary scholarship in humanities within a broad range of pursuits not only within a university setting but also outside it.
The program fields are:
This field critically engages questions of boundaries within the humanities. It locates analyses among and investigates the intersections between linguistic, national, geographic, temporal and medial boundaries. Theories and methods are drawn from a variety of both well-established and emerging fields of study, such as history, philosophy, comparative literature, gender studies and cultural studies. Similarly, this field approaches cultural texts–written, oral and visual–from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives. Areas of particular interest include processes of cultural exchange and appropriation between “East” and “West”; hemispheric approaches to literature and culture; the interplay between dominant and marginalized culture(s); the contours of alternative histories; displacement and cross-cultural performance; transnational perspectives on historical, philosophical, political and aesthetic developments; cultural encounters through translations; relationships and tensions between the local and the global and between “elite” and “popular” cultures; critical perspectives on globalization and cultural production; and the social construction of the very notions of borders and boundaries. The program offerings reflect current interdisciplinary approaches to the study of culture, such as hermeneutics, social theory, deconstruction, post-colonialism and feminism.
This field explores diverse understandings of childhood and youth across cultures, geographies, and histories. The stream foregrounds research exploring young people’s lives and unique cultures in a multitude of ways, including addressing children and young people’s pursuits of social justice, human rights, and cultural expression and self-representation. The stream draws on a range of analytical perspectives including rights-based perspectives, social construction, intersectionality, and sub-cultural theory. Depending on your area of research specialization, methodologically you will be investigating the lives of children and young people using qualitative tools, participatory research methods and textual analysis.
As a part of this stream, you will explore issues of rights, culture and social development of children and young people from an interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspective that draws on a multitude of fields. These include geography, sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, critical race studies, literature, digital humanities, gender and sexuality and history. Similarly, this stream approaches cultural texts – written, oral and visual – by, for and about children and youth – from this robust range of multidisciplinary perspectives.
Areas of scholarship that you can pursue as a student of this stream include cultures of children and young people in the majority and minority worlds; children’s and young people’s cultural production and consumption; and historical and contemporary children’s and young adult literature. Graduate research on the history of children’s literature in English and on minority world constructions of childhood are supported by York University Library’s special collection of historical children’s literature, housed in the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections (CTASC).
This field explores the contributions interdisciplinary Humanities scholarship and research make to critical understandings of the cultural, socio historical, political, economic, and ethical contexts of social justice, which are based on the promotion of equality and equity between communities and social groups. Using interpretative methods, theoretical approaches, and interdisciplinary perspectives, the projects and courses in this field examine, from a contemporary, comparative, or historical perspective, the production, circulation, and reception of cultural and artistic texts and practices to interrogate their engagement, contributions, and impact on forging a just and sustainable world.
Areas of particular interest include intersectional approaches to culture and media justice, Indigenous studies, critical race theory, engaging anti-blackness, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia, and social justice approaches to digital and natural environments. Through the lens of broadly constituted Humanities approaches, students explore power relations, resistance, protest and solidarity in topics such as: the contributions and engagements of classical or canonical texts with current social justice issues; the ethical imperatives and negotiations of social movements; the intersections of democracy, media, education, consumerism, and the law; cultures of structural racism; definitional and transformative issues of what constitutes the “human,” “subjectivity,” “identity,” and the “citizen”; globalization and ecojustice; cultures of exclusion and marginalization associated with disability, age, gender, poverty, sexuality, racism, violence, class, speciesism and the environment; imperialism, colonialism, and post-colonialism; cultures of privilege assumed by hegemonic constructions of social identities (White, Male, Cisgender); and the accessibility and impact of digital cultures on the human condition.
This field is dedicated to exploring the complex ways in which texts in various disciplines across the humanities involve and express the interactions, past and present, among religion, values, and culture. Religious “texts” are understood in the broadest terms possible, as encompassing various media, genres and materials. Courses in this field examine different modes of culture–material, social, institutional, symbolic, and intellectual–in light of the values that are embodied in and presupposed by diverse religions and philosophies. In focusing on texts from one or more traditions, students have the opportunity to explore, in interdisciplinary and comparative contexts, the intertwined processes of religious, ethical, and cultural formation.
The living interconnection between religious and cultural values–the dynamic ways in which the religious both shapes and is shaped by society–are examined in light of issues such as the following: the interactions among religious, philosophical, and aesthetic expressions of cultural identity; the political dimensions of religious thought, including, for example, the interplay between religion and postcolonial theory; the ways in which perceptions of gender are rooted in our religious and philosophical heritages (and thus the ways in which religious movements have both shaped and been shaped by issues related to gender); the relationship between tradition and change in the modernization of religious identity; the role that interpretation (hermeneutics) plays in philosophical encounters with religious texts; the interrogation of the complex relations between the religious and the secular, the divine and the human, and faith and reason; the consideration of religious texts as both the creator and product of historical change, and thus of the paradox that, as these texts are interpreted by their readers, they equally interpret their readers. The study of the above and other issues encompasses not only different traditions but also different geographical locations and historical periods.
These four fields represent the significant areas of teaching and research strength of York’s Humanities faculty. The focus in each of the fields is the dynamic interaction between text and context.
Admission Requirements
The deadline for applications is published on the Admissions website.
Applicants must have:
- an honours BA in an area relevant to graduate study in humanities, or its equivalent, with a grade average of at least B+ in the last two years of study;
- three letters of recommendation;
- a statement of intention which provides a cogent rationale for undertaking interdisciplinary study of culture in humanities; and,
- a sample of written work relevant to graduate study in humanities.
The deadline for applications is published on the Admissions website.
Applicants must have:
- MA degree with a grade average of at least B+ in an area relevant to undertaking doctoral study in humanities, or its equivalent;
- three letters of recommendation;
- a statement of intention which provides a cogent rationale for undertaking interdisciplinary study of culture in humanities; and
- a sample of written work relevant to graduate study in humanities.
Degree Requirements
MA
The MA program is a one-year program of study whose purpose is to introduce students to graduate study in humanities. It is open to qualified students who do not or may not plan to pursue graduate study in the humanities or in other professional degree programs beyond the MA and also to qualified students who plan or may plan to continue their studies in the humanities at the doctoral level or in other professional degree programs.
All MA candidates are required to develop a plan of study in which they provide an integrated, coherent rationale for their studies as they relate to their course work, participation in the humanities graduate seminar, and major research essay. The plan of study must demonstrate interdisciplinarity in the study of culture in humanities and be approved by the Graduate Program Director. A preliminary plan must be discussed with the Graduate Program Director at the beginning of their first term, with the end of that first term as the deadline for a final plan approved by the Graduate Program Director.
The faculty member adviser for all MA candidates is the Graduate Program Director, who is responsible for ensuring that students complete their degree requirements in timely fashion and for providing students with general academic advice (with regard, for instance, to preparing their major research essay, participating in the graduate humanities seminar, and applying for scholarships and teaching fellowships in subsequent years if they intend to continue their study after their MA).
- Students are required to take the equivalent of three full graduate courses consistent with their plan of study;
- one of the courses must be Humanities 5100 6.0: Core Practices and Methodologies in Humanities Research;
- at least two of the three courses must be in the Graduate Program in Humanities; and,
- one of the three courses may be a directed reading course (Humanities 5000 3.0 or 6.0), as approved by the Graduate Program Director.
Students are required to demonstrate in a major research essay their grasp of a subject within the interdisciplinary study of culture in humanities. The major research essay may be related to the work that students have done in one or more of their courses, but it must demonstrate independent research. It is normally to be completed by the end of the summer of the first year of study. The major research essay is formally evaluated and graded by two humanities faculty members chosen by the Graduate Program Director in consultation with the student. One of these faculty members serves as supervisor, the other as second reader.
The MA program can be completed on a full- or part-time basis. Entry is fall term.
Full-time master’s candidates are expected to complete degree requirements within 12 months (3 terms) and must complete in 24 months (6 terms) or revert to part-time status. For those students who complete degree requirements earlier than 3 terms, they must register and pay fees for a minimum of the equivalent of 3 terms of full-time study. All requirements for a master’s degree must be fulfilled within 12 terms (4 years) of registration as a full-time or part-time master’s student in accordance with Faculty of Graduate Studies’ registration policies.
PhD
The PhD program is a multiyear program of advanced graduate study whose purpose is the training of students to become highly qualified scholars in humanities. The program culminates in the preparation of a dissertation that makes an original contribution to scholarship in humanities. The program is open to qualified students who want to obtain advanced scholarly training in the interdisciplinary study of culture in humanities.
All PhD candidates are required to develop a plan of study in which they provide an integrated, coherent rationale for their studies as they relate to their course work, presentation to the humanities graduate seminar, comprehensive examination and dissertation. The plan of study must demonstrate interdisciplinarity in the study of culture in a humanities context and be approved by both the student’s supervisor and the Graduate Program Director. Candidates discuss their plans with the potential supervisors and the Graduate Program Director at the beginning of their first term, with the end of the year as the deadline for finalizing the plan.
All PhD candidates must have a faculty member supervisor as agreed upon by the student, the faculty member, and the Graduate Program Director by the end of their first year in the program. Faculty member supervisors are responsible for ensuring that students develop an integrated, coherent plan of study and complete their degree requirements in timely fashion and for providing them with general academic advice (with regard, for instance, to participation in the graduate humanities seminar, preparing for their comprehensive examination; applying for scholarships and teaching fellowships; writing their dissertation; attending and contributing to scholarly conferences and learning how to prepare scholarly papers for publication in learned journals; and undertaking a job search which may require the preparation of a detailed teaching dossier).
- Students are required to take the equivalent of three full graduate courses consistent with their plan of study, as approved by their supervisor and the Graduate Program Director.
- At least two of the three courses must be in the Graduate Program in Humanities.
- One of the three courses may be a directed reading course (Humanities 6000 3.0 or 6.0), as approved by the student’s supervisor and the Graduate Program Director.
- Students are required to take Humanities 6500 3.0: Advanced Practices and Methodologies in Humanities Research as part of their course requirements.
Students are normally expected to take their comprehensive examinations by their third year, by their eighth term of registration.
Comprehensive Exams in the Graduate Program in Humanities serve to reflect a student’s major interests in the Humanities based on three primary and closely related goals:
- To define the student’s scholarly expertise in the Humanities
- To demonstrate a sound knowledge of the major scholarly works, actors, debates, and methodologies that define and illuminate this expertise
- To situate their knowledge within relevant scholarship, with a mind to future research and/or teaching and other relevant employment
There are two examinations, a General and a Specialized. These examinations equip students with the knowledge they need to conduct research for, or begin writing, their doctoral dissertation, to pursue subsequent research in their future endeavours, and to teach courses in existing or developing programs at universities, colleges, and private institutions.
Comprehensive Exams in the Humanities program follow the principles guiding the tradition of academic exams found in discipline-based departments but are distinct from them in form and method. The Humanities Program tests students on lists the students have created themselves. Thus, a student’s lists are unique, reflecting her/his projected work within selected fields of study. By “fields”, we mean areas of research that reflect debates, methods, themes, and tropes that exist in scholarship, drawn from traditional and/or contemporary approaches, from one or several fields across schools, and/or methods, and from discipline-based research such as philosophy, history, literature, etc., or
multi-disciplinary research areas such as cultural studies, environmental studies, biblical studies, media studies, etc.
Working with the Comprehensive Exams committee, students will create unique lists that are situated within scholarly study in the Humanities.
Knowing where and how the student’s work fits into existing scholarship is fundamental for creating two coherent lists, one for each exam. When building the lists, the student should consider several factors. The lists should reflect the topic, if not the thesis question of the dissertation, at least in part. The lists should be modelled for future employment, whether that will involve teaching in academia, carrying out academic research, or working in other environments. If teaching is the goal, for example, lists that reflect existing programs in university departments will allow the student to form concrete ideas about where she/he can start applying for work after completing her/his degree.
Finally, the lists should consider expertise acquired at the undergraduate and Master levels. Advice on how to incorporate, build on, or otherwise account for this past expertise in the lists, can be sought from members of the Committee, the Program Director, and/or faculty members.
For each exam, the student is expected to supply a list of works along with written material. The list of works for the General exam must aim to describe the larger vista of the field and/or fields of study in which the student will claim expertise. The list for the Specialized exam is more narrowly defined. It provides focus to the student’s research, which may involve isolating an aspect or theme of the larger area of research, highlighting a method or school of scholarship, or applying some other formula for circumscribing knowledge. In some cases, the Specialized list contains the material upon which the student’s thesis is based.
Examples of past lists and written submissions are available for viewing in the Graduate Program Office. Students must prepare their lists and materials so that individuals unfamiliar with their research areas can readily understand them.
For the General exam, students must provide the following materials:
- Students must provide a list of approximately seventy-five works, with a title, student information, and supervisory and comprehensive supervisory committee information. The list of works may include articles, books, films, and other appropriate sources, that are either scholarly or primary sources where appropriate Each work should be a significant contribution to the scholarship for which the student will claim expertise
- The works should be organized thematically and provided minimally three months prior to the comprehensive examination allowing the student time to finish studying and prepare the written submission
- Students must provide a written submission of approximately 3,500 words, defining the comprehensive field, and discussing the important works, debates, and methodologies informing the field. The committee then decides whether the written submission plausibly sets out a field of study and is examinable
- The written submission must be provided a minimum of three weeks prior to the comprehensive examination.
In the comprehensive examination, students will be examined on both the list and the written submission.
For the specialized exam, students must provide the following materials:
- Students must provide a list of approximately fifty works, with a title, student information, and supervisory and comprehensive supervisory committee information The list of works may include articles, books, films, and other appropriate sources, that are either scholarly or primary sources where appropriate. Each work should be a significant contribution to the scholarship for which the student will demonstrate expertise.
- The works should be organized thematically and provided minimally three months prior to the comprehensive examination allowing the student time to finish studying and prepare the course syllabus.
- Students must provide a twelve-week half-course syllabus at the 4000 level that focuses more directly upon the area of research of their dissertation. This course syllabus will include: A course description that sets out with clarity the focus and methodology of the course.
- A weekly class schedule that specifies the topic and reading assignments for each week, and a paragraph detailing the nature, rationale and overall place within the course of each class.
- The course syllabus must be provided a minimum of three weeks prior to the comprehensive examination.
In the comprehensive examination students will be examined on both the list and course syllabus. The first half of the examination will focus on the list and the second half on the syllabus. Students will normally be expected to take both examinations by the second term in the third year of their program of study or the eighth term of study.
The lists of works for each comprehensive field are to be submitted and approved by the supervisor and the comprehensive supervisory committee, and by the Graduate Program Director, minimally three months before the comprehensive examination. Students must meet with their comprehensive supervisory committee prior to approving the final version of the list. Once the list is approved by the committee, students are to submit the list together with approval confirmations to the Graduate Program Office. Only once the written material has been submitted will the proposed comprehensive examination date be finalized. Students should discuss with their supervisor and the GPD any accommodations that are required or any accessibility issues.
The written submission for the general comprehensive examination or the course syllabus for the specialized comprehensive examination are to be approved by the supervisor and the comprehensive supervisory committee, and submitted to the Graduate Program Office, minimally three weeks before the comprehensive examination. Once the written material is approved by the committee, students are to submit the material together with approval. Only once the written material has been submitted will a comprehensive examination be scheduled.
Once the written material for the comprehensive examination has been submitted, the Graduate Program Assistant will schedule the examination. Each examination committee will be comprised of four faculty: the Program Director or his/her representative; the student’s supervisor; and the two further members of the comprehensive supervisory committee. Students or supervisors should never attempt to schedule comprehensive examinations; these must always be scheduled by the Graduate Program Assistant. Students are normally provided at least 20 business days’ notice of the examination date.
Each examination takes two hours. Candidates may choose to take both examinations in one day or to take them on separate dates, as agreed with the members of the examination committee.
Candidates will be required to demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of the designated fields in the examination. Evidence of such comprehensive knowledge will be assessed on the basis of the candidate’s competence in providing answers to questions during the examination that address the material in relation to significant critical, theoretical and methodological issues. Examiners will want to know that candidates have a firm idea of each of their fields: what are the key questions raised in these fields; what methods of investigation are appropriate in each field; how is this field connected to related fields; and who are the influential scholars, both past and present, who helped define the fields?
Candidates will also be examined on the construction and understanding of their fields of research and the relationship between their fields of research, existing academic fields or disciplines and the study of the humanities. In general, the examination will focus on the critical interpretation of texts and methods of inquiry.
Each examination will last two hours. Before the examination begins the chair will send the candidate out of the room. The committee will agree on the length and order of the questioning. (Usually the supervisor goes last). It is the chair’s task to ensure that members of the committee stay within the time allotted. Once the committee is ready to proceed with the examination, the candidate will then be invited back into the room.
General comprehensive examination:
The candidate will be asked to give a five minute presentation addressing the main issues and problems within the field. The examination will then proceed through two cycles of questioning, in which the examining committee will ask questions regarding the comprehensive list and the submitted written work.
Specialized comprehensive examination:
The examination will be broken into two parts. The candidate will be asked to give a presentation situating the specialized comprehensive field within the general comprehensive field, as well on the rationale of the course syllabus. In other words, what is the logic of the coherence and sequencing of the course. The examining committee will then proceed through a cycle of questioning.
Each exam will be assessed separately. In each examination, once the questioning has come to an end, the student will be asked to leave the room so that the committee can make their decision. The committee can choose to pass or to fail the candidate, or to pass the candidate subject to revisions to the written materials. Such revisions can take the form of an essay on a neglected topic or an annotated bibliography. The members of the committee must sign the standard comprehensive examination form that records their decision and allows them to make comments. The candidate is then invited back into the room and the committee’s decision is announced.
A student will have been assessed to have passed their comprehensive exam if they are able to demonstrate:
i. a critical interpretation of the texts and the related methods of inquiry associated with their given fields; and
ii. a keen understanding and explanation of
- the key questions raised in the fields.
- who the influential scholars are and how.
- the relationship between their fields of research, existing academic fields/disciplines and the study of the humanities more broadly.
Students who fail a comprehensive examination will be permitted to re-sit the examination only once, and the re-examination is to take place within three months of the date of the first examination. A second failure on a re-sat examination will require withdrawal from the Program.
Successful candidates will have their results submitted to FGS in order to update their degree milestones. Following this step, the next milestone is the thesis proposal.
The executive committee of the program will undertake a review and assessment of the format for the exams every five years and make adjustments when it is deemed necessary.
Students who are working in an area where they only need English must demonstrate to the members of their supervisory committee that they are able to read one language other than English. The minimum standard expected is that students should have a reading knowledge of that language; i.e., that they should be able to read in that language with a dictionary.
Students working in an area where a language or languages other than English are necessary for their research must demonstrate to the members of their supervisory committee that they have the ability to read primary sources and/or scholarly literature in the relevant language or languages. Students in this category will demonstrate their knowledge of the language or languages either by completing a language course or by some other means as recognized by the supervisory committee.
Students are required to prepare a dissertation in which they make an original contribution to humanities scholarship in the interdisciplinary study of culture. The completion of the dissertation must involve the following four steps:
- the establishment of a supervisory committee of three members, at least two of whom will be members of the Graduate Program in Humanities. The third member may be appointed to a graduate program other than Humanities;
- the preparation of a dissertation proposal, which must normally be approved the supervisory committee within three months of completing the final comprehensive examination, and approved by the Graduate Program Director and the Faculty of Graduate Studies;
- the thesis/dissertation can take a variety of forms, including monograph, manuscript-based, complex digital, or multimodal, in line with Faculty of Graduate Studies Regulations.
- the holding of an oral examination, centred on the dissertation and matters related to it, and presided over by an examining committee recommended by the Graduate Program Director for approval and appointment by the Dean of Graduate Studies (Faculty Regulations: “Dissertation Examining Committee”).
The PhD program can be completed on a full-time basis. Entry is fall term.
The length of time required to complete the PhD is normally five to six years (15 to 18 terms). Doctor of Philosophy students must register and pay fees for a minimum of the equivalent of six terms of full-time registration. All requirements for a doctoral degree must be fulfilled within 18 terms (6 years) of registration as a full-time or part-time doctoral student in accordance with Faculty of Graduate Studies’ registration policies.