Wright State University
Master of Humanities Program
Winter 1999 Newsletter
The Master of Humanities Newsletter is published quarterly by the Master of Humanities Program, College of Liberal Arts, Wright State University, for the purpose of providing information to graduate students in the Program, to Faculty, to Administration, and to Alumni. While all submissions are welcome, emphasis and priority are given to articles of interest to those associated with the Program and to articles pertaining to Liberal Arts. Please forward submissions to the Graduate Assistant.
Graduate Assistant Diane Dunham
Program Secretary Joan Mullins
Director: Dr. Charles Taylor
Phone - 937-775-2740
Prospectus Submission
Two program meetings are scheduled for this Winter Quarter. Any student wishing to submit a prospectus for consideration should do so one week before any of the following meeting dates:
Thursday, February 18, 1999 - 3:00 - 4:00 pm
(Submit by Thurs. Feb. 11 - Humanities Office, 400 Millett)Thursday, March 4, 1999 - 3:00 - 4:00 pm
(Submit by Thurs. Feb. 25 - Humanities Office, 400 Millett)
Thesis/Project Submission
For March 20, 1999 Commencement, submit by March 19, 1999
For June 12, 1999 Commencement, submit by June 11, 1999
For December 4, 1999 Commencement, submit by December 3, 1999
Please notify the Humanities Office of any change of address
Breakfast in Bed
Mary Cassatt
Call for Applicants
The Master of Humanities Program will be accepting applications for the graduate assistantship in the program for the academic year 1999-2000. The graduate assistant works with the program director in producing the Master of Humanities newsletter, as well as other tasks in support of the program. Desktop publishing skills are desireable. Graduate assistants are required to enroll for a minimum of 8 credit hours for fall, winter, and spring quarters. The assistantship pays a stipend of $5000.00 per academic year plus tuition.
Those interested in applying for the position should see the program secretary, Joan Mullins, in the Humanities Office, 400 Millett Hall for an application form. Applications should be completed and submitted to the Humanities Office by Wednesday, April 4, 1999.
BeulahÕs Baby Primrose McPherson Paschal
Women's Studies Emphasis
Graduate Certificates from the WomenÕs Studies Program at Wright State University can be earned by students in the Masters of Humanities Program who wish to emphasize WomenÕs Studies in tandem with their Humanities degree.
This 20-credit hour certificate requires that the Master of Humanities student take 4 credit hours in a core requirement course and 16 credit hours in approved electives. Core courses are Feminist Political Theory (PLS 605), WomenÕs Studies through Literature (ENG 720), or an equivalent feminist theory course. Four electives chosen from the list of graduate courses approved for WomenÕs Studies must also include one course from the category of international/cross-cultural studies. Master of Humanities students can substitute one elective with 4 credit hours of HUM 730 provided the focus of their thesis is WomenÕs Studies-oriented. Courses approved for elective status in WomenÕs Studies are posted quarterly in the WomenÕs Studies Office in 401 Millett Hall.
If you have already earned a graduate degree (in any area), the WomenÕs Studies Graduate Certificate can still be earned independently of a degree program. Contact the WomenÕs Studies Program at (937) 775-4818 or 2123 for further admission requirements and information.
On March 5, 1999, the Wright State University WomanÕs Studies Program will hold its annual International WomenÕs Day Luncheon in conjunction with International WomenÕs Day (March 8). The WomenÕs Studies Program takes this occasion to award one undergraduate and one graduate student for their outstanding scholarship and participation within the program. One faculty member is selected each year for distinction as well.
In addition to the above, this yearÕs luncheon will feature a performance piece by Mary Donahoe and some of her students from the Theatre Department titled, ÒWomenÕs Voices of Struggle.Ó The featured speaker is Dr. Simona Sharoni, assistant professor of Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies at The American University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Sharoni, along with other participants from area universities, will join in a round table discussion tentatively titled, ÒWomenÕs Studies for Peace and Justice.Ó The luncheon is from noon until 2 p.m. and takes place in the Student Dining Room, Student Union.
Dr. Sharoni can also be heard the evening before the luncheon on March 4, at 7 p.m. in the Student Union, room W169 where she will speak upon ÒGendering Peace and Conflict in the North of Ireland and the Middle East.Ó A reception and book signing will take place after her talk.
For more information on any of the above events, or the WomenÕs Studies Program in general, please contact the WomenÕs Studies Department at the number(s) listed above.
notes from underground
In last quarterÕs newsletter, I invited those students in the program who were working on or thinking about their theses to discuss the Òwoes and wondersÓ of the process with me by e-mail or in person. I guess IÕll have to hang out some thoughts on it myself. After all, weÕre busy. WeÕre scattered. WeÕre all over the place, as students of the Humanities.
Those of us who read this newsletter represent many different points in the thesis process: weÕve finished one; weÕre writing one; weÕre working on a prospectus for one; weÕre researching for a prospectus; weÕre trying to settle on an idea or weÕre just trying to come up with an idea. No matter the stage of the process in which we find ourselves, we are all in a position unique to Humanities students: truly diverse. Unlike most other graduate students in other disciplines, we are not all trying to fish our topics out of the same disciplinary pool, perhaps inclined to protect them like state secrets. A quick perusal of the completed projects listed at the back of the Master of Humanities Handbook bears this out: everything from ÒThe Function of Tragedy in the Philosophies of Hegel and NietzscheÓ to ÒFrench Foreign Policy in RwandaÓ to ÒBecoming Out: The Journey with a Gay Son.Ó As students of the Humanities, we may not be functional experts in each of these topics, but we surely know the kinship of our collective when we see it. It is part and parcel of what makes the Humanities so ineffably interesting to us all.
At the time of this writing, I fall into the middle of the aforementioned thesis process, and to the aforementioned list of completed theses I hope to add, ÒWill in Jazz: SchopenhauerÕs Philosophy of Music and the Aesthetics of Miles Davis,Ó currently under production. Sounds definitive now, but I had to go through HegelÕs Phenomenology of Spirit, HeideggerÕs Being and Time, six Dostoevsky novels, and brief flings with Buddhism and gender in language styles to get here. Does this multiplicity of interests sound familiar?
I remember well the featured complaint of so many of the freshman composition students I taught for my English degree: ÒI canÕt think of anything to write about,Ó they would say. ÒWhat interests you? Ò I would ask. ÒNot much,Ó they would answer.
ÒToo much,Ó the Humanities student will frequently say. When I entered the Program, I knew this about myself as well, so I decided to settle on a topic at the outset and stick with it in order to avoid this diffusion. In this way, I could direct my class selections and independent studies. I could perform ongoing research. I could forego the panic of rounding the fifth quarter of graduate school heading, empty-handed, for home. It was going to be Dostoevsky. It was going to be HegelÕs development of Spirit and the confession process of Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment.
No, wait. Confession itself. It was going to be the dynamics of RaskolnikovÕs confession along with the literary examples of St. Augustine and Rousseau. Yet, I wanted to take a phenomenological look at confession. Through Heidegger. Mistake. Now itÕs Heidegger and his concept of being-toward-death. It was being-toward-death and its concrete realization in the novels of Dostoevsky. Not just any novels, but The Devils and The Idiot. Yes, thatÕs it. HeideggerÕs being-toward-death in Dostoevsky. This was the topic I named in soliciting one professor to serve on my prospectus committee. ÒI can feel my blood sugar dropping already, Ò he said, accepting the challenge.
My blood sugar dropped, too. Not from the topic, but from the season of topic change. Vertigo had set in. Three quarters of graduate school had passed, and I was still waffling on my thesis. I began to wonder how it was possible to settle down to one thing, with a multiplicity of things interesting me. It was about this time that gender in language set in. And then feminist philosophy. Buddhism. The fundamental differences between eastern and western philosophy, and so on.
And it was about this time that I bought a ticket to go hear Wallace Roney play jazz trumpet at GillyÕs. Now you know the rest of the story. But you may not have heard the music. Wallace Roney did not just give me the idea of putting Miles and Schopenhauer together in Will, but he also showed me one other important thing. If he could sustain his particular musical insight throughout an entire eveningÕs performance, an entire career, I could certainly try to do the same with a particular idea for the duration of a thesis. And I imagine it will take but a fraction of the dedicated hours of labor that Wallace Roney has put in.
D.D.
