‘Immersive and transformative’: UChicago’s master’s in arts and humanities

Interdisciplinary programs offer students a rigorous and impactful experience

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of stories featuring master’s degree programs at the University of Chicago.

After working at an arts nonprofit after graduation, Francis Feng wanted to complement her undergraduate degree in music business with a graduate degree that could offer the deep, critical thinking she needed to grow professionally and personally.

She decided to pursue a master’s degree in Digital Studies—the newest program in the Division of the Arts & Humanities at the University of Chicago—where she discovered a unique combination of computational methods and humanities research.

UChicago student Francis Feng

“On the one hand, you get to do research projects surrounding literature, music and history; on the other, we learn about natural language processing, machine learning and data visualizations,” said Feng, a first-year student in the program that specializes in digital texts and culture. “That’s what interests me about the program—the nerdy, technical aspect plus my love for humanities. The program provides a great balance between the two.”

UChicago has been at the forefront of humanities education since its graduate division—the largest in the U.S.—was established in 1930. With a commitment to interdisciplinarity and academic rigor, the division brings together disciplines to investigate the bigger questions through its Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH), Master of Digital Studies of Language, Culture, and History, Master of Arts Program in Middle Eastern Studies, and Master's of Fine Arts.

“It really comes down to the core principles of an arts and humanities education,” said Sarah Brock, director of enrollment strategy and recruitment in the Division of the Arts & Humanities. “They’re often called the soft skills, like critical thinking, synthesizing large amounts of information, making connections across materials and disciplines, and they are extremely transferable.”

“The humanities show up all over the place in the world that we live in,” added Hilary Strang, director of the MAPH program. “We have alums who go to work in museums, in education, in advocacy. We also have alums who work in the corporate world, in consulting or banking.”

Learn about some of the unique programs below:

Masters of Arts Program: Exploring interdisciplinary interests

The Masters of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) is an exemplar of an interdisciplinary UChicago master’s degree. The rigorous program allows students to focus within a specific discipline—with extensive offerings including art history, English, cinema and media studies, creative writing, French, Italian, Spanish and more—or to explore their interdisciplinary interests. Students refine their ideas throughout the year—a process which culminates in a master’s thesis supervised by a UChicago faculty member.

“This is a place where students work really hard in conversation with a wide and super interesting array of intellectuals and academics,” said Strang, who is a senior instructional professor in the Arts & Humanities. “It’s immersive and transformative, and it asks you to inquire not only into the work that you’re doing, but into who you are and why you are doing it.”

MAPH helps students entering a new professional field, or returning to their current career, with developing writing and research skills. MAPH alumni go on to careers ranging from publishing, policy and media to marketing, arts management, nonprofits and more.

“The most enduring element of my experience at UChicago is the connections it has fostered,” said Christian Pizarro Winting, a 2014 MAPH graduate who now serves as editor of U.S. politics and political theory at Palgrave Macmillan. His master’s experience gave him “a mark of certification” that helped launch his publishing career, he added.

As he grows that career, Winting engages with MAPH alumni or others familiar with the program’s virtues, he said.

“In this way, the program garners a level of respect and continues to open doors that I doubt other programs would,” he said. “For this, I am continually grateful.”

Masters Program in Digital Studies: ‘The digital age is yours’

The Masters Program in Digital Studies is particularly distinctive for enabling students with backgrounds in the arts and humanities to develop data analysis and coding skills—including Python, JavaScript, HTML and SQL—and to apply them to humanities projects. In formats suited to students’ professional goals, the program advances research and writing acumen while fostering new insights about what it means to be human in our digital age.

Jose Hernandez, AM’23

“It was super exciting,” said Digital Studies alum Jose Hernandez, AM’23, a digital humanities technology specialist at Florida State University’s Research Computing Center, who was a history major as an undergraduate. “In this program I realized that it’s not impossible for a humanities professional to move to highly technical fields and projects.”

Hernandez helps create digital humanities curriculum and workshops at the University of Puerto Rico and is working on a quantum computing project with the University of Rhode Island.

“If it weren’t for the Digital Studies program, none of this would have been a possibility,” he added. “It’s really tough for people in the humanities to gain these skills, and UChicago provides you access to this knowledge. If you’re in history or English or linguistics, you can study here and learn the tools you need. The digital age is yours.”

Academic rigor and personalized support

Students in the Arts & Humanities master’s programs have enjoyed the flexibility to take classes across fields of study at UChicago. Feng said that the space for electives has helped guide her toward a new career in art and cultural institutions and museums, especially as she is applying to jobs and internships.  

“For me, this program is not only a platform for me to equip myself with technical skills,” she said, “but also a place for me to actually think about how I can benefit the community or society with what I learn. I really like that aspect of my studies. I think that’s transformative.”

UChicago master’s programs are designed with deep student-facing support, including opportunities for one-on-one academic advising and professional support, social events and workshops on writing.

“That personalized, tailored support to help students navigate the transition from graduate program into a career path is one of the most critical factors in what makes our students—and program—so successful,” Brock said. “We help them understand how to translate the language of a humanities degree into job description language. All of that is really intentional.”

Added Strang: “We’re really committed to building community and making sure that our MAPH students are having a year that’s intellectually challenging and is helping them connect with their goals. But we also want it to be a place and time where students feel part of something larger than themselves and are making real and significant connections to each other.”

First-year Middle Eastern Studies graduate student Yelnura Tynysbekova experiences it daily.

“The life that I’m building here in Chicago, I feel a lot happier and fulfilled,” said Tynysbekova, who came to UChicago after completing her undergraduate degree in Kazakhstan. She studies and works as a social media ambassador in the division. “UChicago helped me rediscover myself but also achieve everything that I have been dreaming about.”