Discipline Coordinator

Larson Powell, (816) 235-1316, powelllar@umkc.edu

Click here to see Humanities faculty who are members of the doctoral faculty.

Humanities Consortium is a discipline in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program administered by the School of Graduate Studies.

Note: The discipline-specific requirements listed here are in addition to the requirements listed in Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Application Procedure and Minimum Criteria for Admission and Minimum Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Academic Regulations and Degree Requirements.

Discipline-Specific Admission Requirements

The Humanities Consortium is only available as a co-discipline option, not as a primary discipline.

Application dossiers for the Humanities Consortium must be complete by January 15 for fall admission or September 1 for spring admission. Dossiers should include:       

• an application for graduate study
• a brief statement of academic and professional goals (1 page)
• GRE scores
• three (3) letters of recommendation from individuals who are academically or professionally qualified to assess the applicant's ability to pursue doctoral work
• transcripts from all post-secondary schools attended
• a well-focused research proposal that demonstrates the applicant’s rationale for application to the Humanities Consortium as a co-discipline and the interdisciplinary nature of the plan of study (1 pages)
• a sample of academic writing (20 pages or less)

Qualifying Requirements for Full Admission to the Humanities Consortium

Applicants to the Humanities Consortium as a co-discipline will be expected to hold a master’s degree (MA, MFA, MM, or appropriate MS) or equivalent coursework in a Humanities-related field.

• a general verbal score on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in the 60^th percentile or better
• TOEFL minimum composite score of 550 or IELTS score of 6.0 (international applicants). Applicant should be able to demonstrate facility in English appropriate for graduate work
• a GPA of 3.5 or better in previous graduate study

Applicants who do not meet the requirements above may be granted provisional admission for one year by the doctoral faculty in the Humanities Consortium. An applicant admitted provisionally receives notification of deficiencies and of the conditions which must be met within the first year before the doctoral faculty will consider an applicant for full admission. At the end of the first year, the provisional admission will be reviewed.

Applicants are advised that meeting the criteria of the School of Graduate Studies and the Humanities Consortium does not automatically result in admission to the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program. When making admission decisions, the doctoral faculty of the Humanities Consortium considers other factors as well, particularly the availability of faculty qualified to work in the applicant’s area of interest and the availability of library resources and research materials.

Recommendations for admission are made by a sub-committee of the Humanities Consortium doctoral faculty which reviews all applications. Newly admitted students are assigned an interim Humanities Consortium faculty adviser, pending formation of their supervisory committee.

 

Foreign Language Study

Applicants must demonstrate competency in the foreign language or languages necessary to pursue the stated research plan (or describe a plan of study to achieve this facility). Students may be required, at the discretion of their dissertation committees, to demonstrate or acquire additional language skills to undertake or complete their dissertations.

 

Suggested Compatible Coordinating Disciplines

art history, Curriculum and instruction, English, history, and religious studies.

 

Core Program Requirements

As a means of introducing doctoral students to interdisciplinary work and to the various fields of inquiry in the Arts & Humanities, the Humanities Consortium Program of Study requires 15 hours of dedicated coursework.

The following three courses (9 hours) are required:
Humanities 5500: Introduction to Interdisciplinary Humanities (3)
Humanities 5510: Critical Theory in the Humanities (3)
Humanities 5520: Research & Creative Methodologies in the Humanities (3)

Two graduate-level courses (3 credits each, numbered at the 400 level or above) are also required, totaling 6 hours. The two elective courses may be in any discipline except the student’s primary discipline, but these courses are subject to approval by the student’s primary advisor, the Humanities Consortium Director, and the instructors of the chosen courses. No more than one course that is classified as independent study may be used as an elective course in the Humanities Consortium.

No grade below B in any course will be accepted to apply toward the Ph.D. degree.

Transfer credit will be at the discretion of the dissertation committee in consultation with the Humanities Consortium Coordinator. No more than 6 hours of transfer credit will be allowed.

 

Retention in the Doctoral Program

Students are expected to maintain a 3.0 GPA during their program of study. A student who falls below a 3.0 GPA, with the concurrence of the doctoral faculty in the Humanities Consortium, may be declared ineligible for further study. A student receiving the grade of F in any graduate course during the program of study will not normally be retained in the program.

 

Comprehensive Examination Guidelines

The School of Graduate Studies guidelines for the comprehensive examination can be found here.

Before advancing to Ph.D. candidacy, students in the Humanities Consortium will take a comprehensive examination that includes both written and oral components. Each student's dissertation committee will be charged, in accordance with SGS guidelines, with setting the requirements for the comprehensive examination and for evaluating the results of this exam.

 

Interdisciplinarity

Students in the Humanities Consortium will be expected to devise a program of study that demonstrates a commitment to interdisciplinary work and to develop a dissertation that illustrates interdisciplinary practices.