World Languages and Cultures

Website: https://languages.utah.edu/graduate/index.php

Phone: 801-581-7561

The Department of World Languages & Cultures offers an M.A. in World Languages & Cultures with specializations in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies (Comparative Literature), French, or Spanish. The degree requirements vary depending on which area a student chooses. See below for more information on each individual emphasis.

Comparative Literary & Cultural Studies (Comparative Literature)

Through the MA in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, students explore texts and meaning across world cultures. With its methodology based in the idea that new insights about our world traditions are illuminated when they are compared and contrasted, the program promotes cross-cultural and interdisciplinary analysis. Within the Department of World Languages & Cultures students have access to specialists who work in European, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern cultural traditions. We are also affiliated with richly interdisciplinary programs such as Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, and the Middle East Center. In their courses, faculty offer students various critical frameworks through which to link and/or interrogate national traditions. Our challenge is to overcome conventional national and linguistic divisions, and produce scholars with a new vision of world aesthetics. For more information please visit https://languages.utah.edu/graduate/masters-program.php.

French

Our distinguished faculty have a wide range of teaching and research interests, and together cover all periods of French and Francophone literature and culture and language studies. All of our graduate classes are discussion-based seminars, so students enjoy a communal approach to education and forge meaningful intellectual relationships with their professors. As a Teaching Assistant (TA), you will also be trained in the latest advances in second-language pedagogy. The University of Utah has an excellent research library, rare book collection, film and video collection, and Fine Arts Museum.

The French Studies program of the Department of World Languages & Cultures is committed to offering students a truly eclectic forum for the study of literature and culture. Our approach is multicultural and interdisciplinary. Graduate students in French work alongside students in German, Spanish, and Comparative Literature. We draw our diverse student population from North America, Europe, and Africa. For more information please visit

https://languages.utah.edu/graduate/masters-program.php.

Spanish

The Spanish graduate program provides intensive training in the analysis and research of Latin American and Peninsular literary and cultural studies and language pedagogy. The Master of Arts in Spanish Literature prepares students to approach texts and cultural production from a variety of methodological and theoretical paradigms, and to conduct research in the field. Students will acquire knowledge of a broad body of canonical and non-canonical texts from Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean from an interdisciplinary perspective. Skills and knowledge developed in the MA program prepares students for continued graduate work in the humanities and other professional disciplines. Faculty areas of expertise are diverse and consider national, transnational and post-national perspectives on research areas including Hispanic cultural history, Afro-Caribbean music, indigenous literary trends, subaltern, environmental, and queer studies.

All of our graduate classes are discussion based seminars, so students enjoy a communal approach to learning and meaningful intellectual relationships with the faculty. Teaching Assistants will receive training in language pedagogy. The University of Utah has an excellent research library, rare book collection, film and video collections and access to numerous electronic data bases and resources. For more information please visit

https://languages.utah.edu/graduate/masters-program.php.

Comparative Literature:

• All MA students holding a Teaching Assistantship (TAship) must attend a week-long teacher-training session immediately before each Fall Semester. Required sessions may differ depending on whether the student is teaching a language course, assisting in a CLCS course taught in English, etc.

French and Spanish:

• A bachelor’s degree in French literature and culture, or a strong undergraduate record in Humanities if the Bachelor’s degree was obtained in another academic subject.

• A cumulative GPA of 3.0. Liberal Education courses covering prominent works of literature and philosophy will strengthen an applicant’s eligibility.

• Significant deficiencies in this preparatory coursework must be made up before admission into M.A. status; for minor deficiencies, admission is possible but “make-up” courses may be added to the degree requirements.