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19 August 1997
Degrees Offered
Master of Arts
Doctor of Philosophy
The University offers the following unique resources for research on America: the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, which includes celebrated rare book and manuscript collections in American and modern literature as well as the Gernsheim Collection, one of the world's largest archives of photographs, negatives, and books related to the history of photography, and the Hoblitzelle Theatre Arts Library, an important collection of materials related to the performing arts, movies, vaudeville, the circus, and the history of magic; the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, one of the world's great archives of materials about and from Latin America; the Center for American History, which contains the early archives of Texas, the largest collection now extant of historical manuscripts dealing with Texas, and virtually every book related to Texas and Southwestern history; the Mari and James A. Michener Collection of American Painting; the Texas Memorial Museum, an excellent laboratory for studying the geology, archaeology, and anthropology of the Southwest; and the Winedale Historical Center, an outdoor museum of restored nineteenth-century Texas buildings and a center for research in historic preservation and material culture.
Convenient to the University are other research facilities, including the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, the State Library and Archives of Texas, the United Daughters of the Confederacy Library, the Catholic Archives of Texas, the Episcopal Archives of the United States, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Museum, and a United States Geological Survey research library.
American civilization is an area studies program focused on the cultural and intellectual life of the United States of America. Its students analyze the American past and present from the perspectives of several disciplines, learn to synthesize their knowledge, and acquire the habits of mind needed for cultural analysis.
The program offers concentrations in American intellectual, cultural, and artistic life; the West and its role in American culture; museum studies and material culture; medicine, science, and technology in American life; the public arts and popular culture; the foreign relations of American culture; and environmental studies. The program also invites students to do research in women's studies; and, in conjunction with the Center for Mexican American Studies, the Center for African and African American Studies, and the Center for Intercultural Studies in Folklore and Ethnomusicology, in African American and Mexican American studies.
The courses that American civilization students take outside the program train them in areas of expertise relevant to their central interests. With the approval of the graduate adviser in American civilization and in the area chosen, these courses may be in any University department (for example, anthropology, art and art history, English, government, history, radio-television-film, sociology), program (African American studies, folklore, Latin American studies, Mexican American studies), or professional school (architecture, business administration, communication, education, fine arts, law, public affairs).
The American civilization program seeks students of demonstrated ability and ambition. In general, students entering the program have a strong undergraduate record--a grade point average of 3.50 in upper-division or major-related coursework and a combined (verbal and quantitative) Graduate Record Examinations General Test score of 1250. These scores are by no means absolute minimums, however, and students who have proven they can do excellent work in some way not reflected by grade point average and test score are encouraged to apply. All applicants must have three letters of recommendation sent directly to the graduate adviser.
Degree Requirements
Master of Arts
The student's program must total thirty semester hours of credit and must have the approval of the graduate adviser. Requirements are twelve semester hours in American civilization, consisting of six hours in the research course (American Civilization 390) and six hours in the required methodology courses (American Civilization 393 and 394); six semester hours in a field of concentration outside American civilization; an additional six semester hours in that field, another field or fields, or American civilization; and a six-semester-hour thesis requiring interdisciplinary research in the general area of American culture.
In lieu of a master's thesis, a student may, with the permission of the graduate adviser, submit a research report, special fieldwork, or an experimental project. The six hours of credit otherwise earned in the thesis course must be made up in additional coursework, and the student must also take American Civilization 398R, raising the master's degree requirement under this option to thirty-three hours.
Doctor of Philosophy
To obtain the doctoral degree, a student must demonstrate reading competence in a foreign language, pass the American civilization oral qualifying examination, and write and defend a dissertation that is an original contribution to knowledge about American culture and involves interdisciplinary research.
A student prepares for the qualifying examination by taking courses in American civilization and other disciplines of interest; these courses must have the approval of the graduate adviser. Through such coursework, the student masters four fields in different disciplines; these fields, one of which must be American civilization, are those on which the student is questioned in the oral qualifying examination.
While preparing for the oral examination a student with a master's degree or the equivalent must take courses that include at least twelve semester hours of American civilization beyond work done for the master's degree. Six of these hours must be in research courses; the other six must be methodology courses, American Civilization 393 and 394, unless the student has already taken such courses while working on the master's degree. The graduate adviser may require additional courses beyond the twelve-hour minimum, depending on the student's preparation.
Campus address: Garrison Hall (GAR) 303, Phone (512) 471-7277, Fax
(512)
471-3540
Mailing address: Graduate Program in American Civilization, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
E-mail: lcgriffith@mail.utexas.edu
URL: http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/ams/
Chapter Four
Graduate Catalog
Contents
Chapter 1: Graduate Study
Chapter 2: Admission and Registration
Chapter 3: Degree Requirements
Chapter 4: Fields of Study
Chapter 5: Members of Graduate Studies Committees
Appendix: Course Abbreviations
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