SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
Discover your next passion project in Penn’s Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts
The Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts (MPhil) at the University of Pennsylvania is an advanced interdisciplinary graduate degree that invites you to explore your intellectual interests across disciplines—and to find meaningful connections among different subjects that ignite your academic curiosity. Ideal for students and professionals who have already completed a master’s degree, the MPhil degree requires five courses and an independent study that forms the basis of your thesis—a final research paper or creative project that applies interdisciplinary knowledge and methods to a project of your own design.
Meet three students who dove into their coursework with an exploratory attitude—and, in the process, discovered new inquiries to explore, new talents to develop, and endless new stories to tell.
The documentarian
James pursued an MPhil degree to supplement his previous graduate work with liberal arts and humanities courses to support his goal of teaching college classes on evenings and weekends. During his coursework, which explored subjects from international film to fashion and gender, James was surprised to learn he had a talent for writing. “I just started writing about all the things that I had experienced and what I had observed and what I had to deal with within a 30-minute period of traveling to work,” he recalls. James works as the climate manager for a middle school in Kensington, the epicenter of the opioid crisis in Philadelphia. Through his writing, his classmates got a first-person perspective on a troubled neighborhood and widespread social challenges that are often only discussed in the abstract. This would become the kernel of his MPhil thesis project: a multidisciplinary study of Kensington combining history, research data, and his written reflections connecting everything together.
James coaches his middle school students to be solution-minded when they encounter conflict or obstacles, but felt that the same approach was not appropriate for the scope of his project. “I don’t really have any solutions, because the problem is so much more than what one person can provide. But I’m very happy that I’m working in conjunction with other organizations,” he says. “Penn is just unlimited in the things that they have available to their students. You can always find answers to questions you pose within your research.”
The science philosopher
A biogeochemist and professor of earth sciences, Alain knows that environmental studies is more than science; it includes social sciences and the humanities. “I appreciated and valued that, but now I have a better understanding of the humanities as a practice and as a voice in the conversation,” he says of his time in the MPhil program. “Coming from science to the humanities has given me access to a completely different mode of operation than I’m used to.”
In this liberal arts degree, Alain took courses in world philosophy and indigenous science as well as an independent study on environmental ethics. “I think it’s important for scientists to understand what kind of questions they’re asking, how those questions get answered, and what are the implicit biases that go into the work we do,” explains Alain. Taking graduate-level philosophy courses as an MPhil student gave him opportunities to reflect on his own academic practice—and opened up a new line of questioning for his upcoming MPhil thesis. “What is our relationship to the environment, as humans? Where did we inherit that from? Other societies have different relationships with the environment; what other ways of knowing exist in the world? What new relationships can we build?” he asks. “This all started out of a personal curiosity, but I’ve benefited a lot from the flexibility in being able to formulate my curriculum. The MPhil was a place where I could explore and draw together a lot of things from a lot of different places.”
The ethnographer
When she became Professor Emeritus of Health Administration, Law and Ethics, Heidi had more free time to explore and discover new topics. The Master of Liberal Arts degree gave her a wide open field to discover new subjects—so wide that her advisors told her she could do anything she wanted for an MLA capstone. “That’s actually quite difficult!” laughs Heidi. “I’m used to checking off every box. I didn’t think there would be so much emphasis on individual creativity and new ways of knowing.” Heidi ultimately gravitated toward the theory of narrative identity, which studies how our sense of self is formed by the stories we tell. Heidi interviewed a geographically diverse group of men and women of all ages, and asked them to identify a turning point in the story of their lives. “I found extraordinary stories,” she says. “It was really just incredible.”
After completing her MLA, Heidi decided to continue her studies in the MPhil program, which would allow her to broaden and deepen her subject matter expertise in narrative identity theory; she is interested now in looking more closely at how cultural context influences the stories a person hears and tells about their own life—and when they take control of their own narrative. “One is never too old or too young to have a turning point in life. You are never too young or too old to move in a new direction,” Heidi muses.
What can you do with a Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts?
The real question is: what do you want to do? In the MPhil, you set the curriculum and choose your courses on a full- or part-time basis; you design the project of your dreams and draw from world-class resources to bring your research to life. Contact our program director, Dr. Christopher Pastore, to schedule an appointment to review your current research and explore your options for pursuing a Master of Philosophy in Liberal Arts at Penn.
(215) 898-7326
lps@sas.upenn.edu
www.upenn.edu/mla-mphil
