Home
Program Description
Degree Requirements
Admission Requirements
Qualifying Paper
Individualized Program
Independent Study
Course Offerings
Faculty
Student Resources
Master of Liberal Arts Program
811 Anderson Hall
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA 19122
215-204-1644 (phone)
215-204-9611 (fax)
Jayne K. Drake
Director, MLA Program
mla@temple.edu
215-204-7743 (phone)
Michael Szekely
Assistant Director, MLA Program
mszekely@temple.edu
215-204-6704 (phone)
Stephanie Morawski
Coordinator
morawski@temple.edu
215-204-1644 (phone)
MLA courses are usually offered in small seminar settings (7 to 12 students) which provide opportunities for lively engagement and exchange of ideas among the students and the professor. As with most graduate courses, students may be expected to give oral presentations and to submit written assignments, often including a substantial end-of-term paper.
Most MLA courses are usually offered during the evening at Temple University’s Center City campus at 1515 Market Street, very close to City Hall. A typical course meets once a week, from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. Some online or "blended" courses, with variable meeting times, may also be offered.
In addition, a number of other graduate courses in the College of Liberal Arts and across the University are offered on Main Campus, typically during the day or early evening. The MLA program may also offered "cross-listed" courses with other academic departments.
Registering for courses:
For general information regarding registration, please go to: http://www.temple.edu/registrar/students/registration/info.asp
NON-DEGREE SEEKING students interested in registering for MLA courses need to first contact the Office of Continuing Studies (see especially "Graduate Students" section).
NEWLY ADMITTED DEGREE SEEKING will be registered by the MLA program during the first semester of enrollment (to include, barring any complications, MLA 8011 Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies).
After the first semester of enrollment, all CONTINUING DEGREE SEEKING students should be able to register on their own via Self-Service Banner in TUportal.
General questions or concerns? Contact Dr. Michael Szekely, Assistant Director/Advisor, at mszekely@temple.edu
Summer I
MLA 8130 Topics in Visual Culture: Communication and Relationships through Theater and Film
Gayle Smith
TUCC
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
In this class we will focus on the nature of relationships and how people communicate using film and theater as the basis to examine the relationships. The relationships will take many forms. For example, in Venus in Fur, the relationship of writer/actress will be examined. The shifting balance of power and how it occurs will be dissected. In Heroes we will view how age and memory affects relationships. Other theater and films will be chosen to examine how the balance of power in relationships may shift depending on gender, race, disability, etc.
Gayle Rosenwald Smith (J.D., University of Miami). Ms Smith’s teaching interests in the MLA program include cultural studies, theater, film, literature, and the arts. She also teaches English and Public Speaking at the Community College of Philadelphia. In addition to being a Philadelphia Barrymore judge and a practicing attorney, Ms Smith is the published author of two non-fiction books, What Every Woman Should Know About Divorce and Custody (Perigee 2007) and Divorce and Money: Everything You Need to Know (Perigee 2004), essays, and op-ed pieces on such subjects as Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett, C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham, and Braque and Picasso, which have appeared in such periodicals as The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine, Chicago Tribune. She has also appeared on television stations and radio shows (including the local NPR show Voices in the Family with Dan Gottlieb) around the nation in promotion of her books. Ms Smith has always been passionate about and enjoys teaching.
********
MLA 8120 Topics in Cultural Studies: The Arts in Their Contexts
Dr. Michael Szekely
ARRANGED-Blended Online course with on-campus activities
TUCC
Tentative schedule for 4 classroom meetings: May 22, June 5, June 19, July 3 (all Wednesdays, 6:00-8:30pm)
What is the relationship between the arts and society, the arts and ethics (for example, does artistic freedom allow for the crossing of moral and ethical thresholds?), the arts and politics (for example, should the arts demonstrate some sort of political commitment? Or, on contrary, should they not wear their politics on their sleeves?).How close, or separate, are they?How close, or separate, should they be? Do the arts “communicate”? Is that part of their “purpose”? Or have we already prescribed too much for the arts in saying this?
Plato believed the arts to be thrice removed from true knowledge. Paul Ziff suggests aesthetic appreciation might actually entail "anything viewed," including a pile of dung. R.G. Collingwood suggests that maybe the important thing about art isn't the end result at all, but rather the process of making art. Maurice Berger asks the question: "Are art museums racist?" Camille Paglia loves Madonna. Mary Devereux wonders if whether we can enjoy a documentary about the Nazis. Andy Goldworthy wants to "shake hands with the place" every time he makes art in and from nature. Joel Rudinow wonders whether white people can sing the blues.
Besides treating the major issues internal to the arts and their criticism (e.g., definitions of art and aesthetic experience, artistic expression, form, representation, critical interpretation and evaluation), the course also deals with wider questions of social function and value as it pertains to both particular artistic disciplines, including the visual arts, music, film, and literature, and social and cultural issues, including gender and race.
Michael Szekely (Ph.D., Temple University; Philosophy). Dr. Szekely's primary research and teaching interests are in Cultural and Critical Theory, Aesthetics (especially the philosophy of music), and Contemporary Continental Philosophy, with more particular interests in French poststructuralism (especially Gilles Deleuze and Roland Barthes) and the Frankfurt School (especially Walter Benjamin). He has published articles in such journals as Jazz Perspectives, Social Semiotics, Textual Practice, Rhizomes, Contemporary Aesthetics, Popular Music and Society, and the Oxford Handbook on Music Education Philosophy. Dr. Szekely is also a practicing musician and composer, with particular interests in collective improvisation and popular music.
********
Summer II
MLA 8120 Topics in Cultural Studies: Love and Sex
Dr. Michael Szekely
ARRANGED-Blended Online course with on-campus activities
TUCC
Tentative schedule for 3 classroom meetings: July 17, July 31, August 7 (all Wednesdays, 6:00-8:30pm)
Topics addressed may include: the varieties and forms of love (agapic, philial, erotic, romantic, etc.); the nature of sexual pleasure, sexual desire, and sexual activity; connections across sexuality, love, friendship, and marriage; gender issues relevant to sex and love; sexual ethics and moralities of love.
Possible readings from Barthes, Bataille, Deleuze, Foucault, Freud, Irigaray, Kristeva, Nietzsche.
Michael Szekely (Ph.D., Temple University; Philosophy). Dr. Szekely's primary research and teaching interests are in Cultural and Critical Theory, Aesthetics (especially the philosophy of music), and Contemporary Continental Philosophy, with more particular interests in French poststructuralism (especially Gilles Deleuze and Roland Barthes) and the Frankfurt School (especially Walter Benjamin). He has published articles in such journals as Jazz Perspectives, Social Semiotics, Textual Practice, Rhizomes, Contemporary Aesthetics, Popular Music and Society, and the Oxford Handbook on Music Education Philosophy. Dr. Szekely is also a practicing musician and composer, with particular interests in collective improvisation and popular music.
********
MLA 9082 Independent Study
See "Independent Study" on this website for more information about this option.
******
MLA 9995 Master's Project
Reserved for qualifying paper/thesis research; consult with the MLA Advisor.
MLA 8011 Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies: Award Culture
Gabriel Wettach
Wednesdays, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
TUCC
N.B.: MLA 8011 is required for, and limited to (with rare exception), all newly matriculated Master of Liberal Arts students.
This course is designed to serve as an introduction to interdisciplinary studies in the MLA program and will focus on awards as a particular facet of the film industry. Through course readings and occasional, short screenings in the first half of the course, we will consider the complicated and complicating forces that dictate who and what wins an award and how critical praise is generated and disseminated throughout a number of media outlets. We will study the economic, ideological, and aesthetic characteristics that shape, for example, award winning films and performances, while also focusing on important, interrelated issues such as the male and female star body, the technological advancements of film, the management of fame, consumerism, and omni-mediated modes of Hollywood storytelling. Topics to be addressed include concepts such as “prestige,” “taste,” and the distinctions between “high culture” (art) and “low culture” (popular texts). This first half of the course focuses on particular strategies of reading and interpretation and emphasizes critical and analytical thinking, discussion, and writing the presence and impact awards have on American culture.
The second half of the semester will lay the groundwork for your final seminar paper. It will be necessary to work on a number of research and writing assignments, to present and explain your research at various stages, to read and critique the work of your peers, and to receive feedback and integrate it into your final paper. All of the assignments in this half of the semester should help you to further reflect on your ideas as well as to continue developing the research and writing skills necessary for the successful completion of a sound, graduate level seminar paper. Course members will work together to help one another to probe ideas, shape points of interest, and draft (and finalize) your seminar paper.
Gabriel Wettach (Ph.D., Purdue University; Theory and Cultural Studies). In addition to teaching in the MLA program, Dr. Wettach is also currently the Advising Coordinator of Undergraduate English at Temple University. His primary research and teaching interests are in film and television studies and cultural criticism. Courses taught include: Television Studies, Stars and Stardom, Celebrity Culture.
******
MLA 8110 Topics in the Arts and American Culture: Popular Music and Contemporary Theory
Michael Szekely
ARRANGED-Blended Online course with on-campus activities
TUCC
Tentative schedule for classroom meetings: 8/27, 9/24, 10/29, 12/3 (all Tuesdays, 6-8:30pm)
This course will explore the artistic, cultural, historical, industrial, philosophical, political, and technological (did I leave something out?) attributes of popular music. In doing so, we might first need to grapple with our sense of what exactly we mean by “popular.” In music, for instance, is “popular” the same as “pop”? If not, what’s the difference? And why does that difference matter? In a broader sense, we will also explore the role of theory in the context of popular music (e.g. as part of what in academia is called “popular music studies”), not to mention in the context of music in general. That is, what are some of the possibilities and limitations of theorizing something like music, which is, at once, so ubiquitous and yet so context-specific? Gendered musics. Sexualized musics. Cultural musics. Technological musics. Commercial musics. Sports music. Generational musics. Could there ever be a “music in itself”? Should we just leave folks to their stereos, iPods, and downloads? Do these technological advances contribute to a privatization of music for our own autonomous listening pleasure, or are they paving the way toward a further democratization of music? Can/should popular music also be transformative in the socio-political sphere?
Michael Szekely (Ph.D., Temple University; Philosophy). Dr. Szekely's primary research and teaching interests are in Cultural and Critical Theory, Aesthetics (especially the philosophy of music), and Contemporary Continental Philosophy, with more particular interests in French poststructuralism (especially Gilles Deleuze and Roland Barthes) and the Frankfurt School (especially Walter Benjamin). He has published articles in such journals as Jazz Perspectives, Social Semiotics, Textual Practice, Rhizomes, Contemporary Aesthetics, Popular Music and Society, and the Oxford Handbook on Music Education Philosophy (forthcoming), and is currently writing a book on Barthes and music. Dr. Szekely is also a practicing musician and composer, with particular interests in collective improvisation and popular music.
******
MLA 8120 Topics in Cultural Studies: Perspectives on Liberty
Phil Yannella
Thursdays, 6:00-8:30pm
Main Campus
A study of contemporary trends that arise from and are shaped by ideas of liberty. The course will begin with an examination of the idea of liberty in a few classic texts. It will then focus on how different ideas of liberty have been manifested in large-scale social and political movements and trends of the last seventy years (e.g., anti-colonial uprisings, communism/socialism, anti-communism, youth rebellions, civil rights and women’s liberation movements, liberalism and conservatism, liberation theology, and libertarianism). Finally, the course will focus on how ideas of liberty have been expressed in some literature and film. The premise of the course is that various definitions and manifestations of liberty have been fundamental in the development of modern thought and behavior.
Phil Yannella (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee; English/American Studies). Dr. Yannella has taught courses focusing on topics such as right and left wing radicalism, immigration, social class representations, and workplace issues and trends; he has also taught a range of courses focusing on American literature. For several years, he directed the United States Information Agency/Fulbright Program Summer Institute in American Studies, which brought teachers and professors from other countries to the U.S. for graduate-level discussions about how to teach America. Dr. Yannella has lectured and taught in the People’s Republic of China, Yugoslavia, Japan, and Israel. He was the recipient of his college’s Distinguished Teaching Award and of Temple’s Great Teacher Award. Among his publications are The Other Carl Sandburg (1996), American Literature in Context, 1865 to 1929 (2010), and American Literature in Context after 1929 (2010).
******
MLA 8210 Topics in Political Culture: Politics and Fiction
Joe McLaughlin
Thursdays, 5:30-8:00pm
Main Campus
Joseph P. McLaughlin, Jr. (Ph.D., Temple University; Political Science). Dr. McLaughlin is Director of the Institute for Public Affairs and assistant dean for external affairs for the College of Liberal Arts. He teaches American politics and public policy in the political science department and is director of the Pennsylvania Policy Database Project, a six-university effort to build a comprehensive policy database for the Pennsylvania General Assembly. McLaughlin joined Temple after a long career as a government official and urban lobbyist, working on major policy issues in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington DC. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English literature from Middlebury (VT) College and masters and doctoral degrees in political science from Temple University.
******
MLA 8250 Topics in Science, Technology, and Culture: Intersections of Law, Medicine, and Media
Gayle Smith
Thursdays, 6:00-8:30pm
TUCC
We will cover health issues including insurance and coverage, informed consent, some volatile issues such as abortion and rights of significant others who are not blood related in handling power of attorneys and making life decisions, biotechnology issues, and the power of pharmaceutical companies. The course will take a look at how the media covers or does not cover important health issues. Is it proper/necessary to advertise pharmaceuticals on television. What does the public need to know?
Gayle Rosenwald Smith (J.D., University of Miami). Ms Smith’s teaching interests in the MLA program include cultural studies, theater, film, literature, and the arts. She also teaches English and Public Speaking at the Community College of Philadelphia. In addition to being a Philadelphia Barrymore judge and a practicing attorney, Ms Smith is the published author of two non-fiction books, What Every Woman Should Know About Divorce and Custody (Perigee 2007) and Divorce and Money: Everything You Need to Know (Perigee 2004), essays, and op-ed pieces on such subjects as Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett, C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham, and Braque and Picasso, which have appeared in such periodicals as The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine, Chicago Tribune. She has also appeared on television stations and radio shows (including the local NPR show Voices in the Family with Dan Gottlieb) around the nation in promotion of her books. Ms Smith has always been passionate about and enjoys teaching.
******
MLA 9082 Independent Study
See "Independent Study" on this website for more information about this option.
******
MLA 9995 Master's Project
Reserved for qualifying paper/thesis research; consult with the MLA Advisor.
MLA 8011 Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies
This course introduces students to interdisciplinary graduate studies and to cultural analysis by looking at the kinds of questions that can best be answered through an interdisciplinary approach and with various available methodologies. Taking American culture as its primary focus, students read texts in areas such as Visual Culture, American Studies, Women's Studies, and the Arts and Society. Topics include, for example: cultural representations of gender and sexualities, and of race and "whiteness"; the social construction of space and place; technology and its construction of identity; boundaries of culture and consumption (high, low, middlebrow); museums and cultural memory.
MLA 8110 Topics in the Arts and American Culture
This course explores the relationship between the arts and American culture, with an emphasis on how music, literature, and visual arts have reflected social, political, and intellectual concerns. The levels of art, from high to middlebrow to popular, will also be considered, with attention to the cross influences from one to the other, and the question of audience.
MLA 8120 Topics in Cultural Studies
This course examines topics relating to popular culture, media, and advertising, with an emphasis on how cultural representations reflect social and political interests. The approach embraces various competing disciplines (e.g., literature, anthropology, philosophy) at the intersection of aesthetics and politics.
MLA 8130 Topics in Visual Culture
An exploration of photography, film, television, and other visual media, in terms of the ways they interpret the world. Some of the issues considered will be: What are the elements of the visual? How are race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality represented in the media? How do visual media interact with one another?
MLA 8140 Topics in Performance Studies
Performance Studies encompasses dance, theater, and mixed media theatrical presentations, from street theater to happenings to public ritual. The course targets specific topics ranging from historical studies to the contemporary.
MLA 8150 Topics in Gender Studies
The changing constructions of gender are the subject of this course which will explore such topics as representations of masculinity; feminist theory and the academy; the sexual revolution; society and homosexuality.
MLA 8160 Topics in Environmental Studies
This course explores a wide range of environmental issues and the various factors that define those issues, encompassing physical, economic, political, demographic, and ethical considerations. Possible topics include groundwater contamination, suburban sprawl, river basin management, environmental justice, and the greening of abandoned urban spaces. It may also include an examination of the cultural meaning of the environment and its representation in art and literature.
MLA 8171 Intellectual Heritage, MLA
This course may focus on a number of diverse topics depending on the instructor: e.g., the Greek foundations of modern thought; the religious texts that provide an important underpinning for Western Civilization; the Enlightenment commitment to reason, science, and the essential goodness and individuality of man; Romanticism and its emphasis on feelings and the imagination; great thinkers of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first centuries.
MLA 8180 Ways of Seeing
Our educational system tends to neglect the visual world, despite our growing dependence on pictorial and visual information. Using methods from anthropology, psychology, communications theory, and art history, this course will explore nonverbal communication, the built environment, photography, film, and television as culturally conditioned symbolic systems.
MLA 8190 Modernism
Modernism was not a single movement but a multiplicity of cultural changes involving issues of perception, identity, memory, culture, and the nature of modernity itself. This course explores the terrain of culture and the arts (e.g., film, art, literature, Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism) within the context of historical and technological change.
MLA 8210 Topics in Political Culture
Public policy has often emerged out of a combination of legal struggle, political negotiation, private wealth, and public interest groups. This course focuses on American political culture, including such topics as civil rights, the conservative right vs. the left, government by plutocracy, national health care, the rights of the poor, and the fate of the middle class.
MLA 8220 Topics in Urban Studies
This course explores the way cities have been formed and continue to be formed in relation to parks and neighborhoods, suburbs, and regions. The emphasis is on the way urban culture is shaped through the design of space, architectural form, and through urban planning.
MLA 8230 Topics in International Studies
After World War II, with the independence of formerly colonial nations, a new world of independent nation states evolved, torn between the pressures of ethnic culture, global communications, and international economies. This course explores issues of cultural identity and cultural conflict, as they surface in literature and film, in global tourism, in efforts at global cooperation and global competition.
MLA 8250 Topics in Science, Technology, and Culture
The impact of science and technology on culture has been pervasive and can be measured in terms of social life and habits, the environment, the arts, and politics. Emphasizing the last hundred years, this course examines some of the more significant changes in science and technology, from the automobile to computers, and explores the ways the individual and society have been redefined.
MLA 9082 Independent Study
Students who wish to enroll for Independent Study must submit a proposal written under the direction of a faculty member who will supervise the student's work. This proposal must be submitted the semester before the Independent Study is to take place. The proposal should describe the project, indicate a) works to be read, b) frequency of student-instructor meetings, c) student writing to be produced, and d) means of student evaluation.
MLA 9995 Master's Project
Reserved for qualifying paper research; consult with the MLA Advisor.
"Through the professors, students, and material, the MLA teaches us about what it it means to be human by allowing us to engage in life in a more meaningful way."
Mark Rice, MLA student