MA with a Major in World Arts

Degree Details

The MA with a major in World Arts prepares students to work cross-culturally alongside singers, musicians, actors, dancers, storytellers, and visual artists, researching the arts of their community. Using these insights, the student will be able to spark artistic creations with artists to respond to their community’s needs in community development, health education, justice issues, language and arts preservation, literacy, Scripture engagement and translation, worship expressions, and other areas.

This program will be of interest to people with artistic skills and sensibilities, curiosity about culture, a commitment to serious research, and a drive to see others create. Depending on prior background and training, as well as the specialization and application courses chosen, graduates will be prepared for careers such as the following:

  • Arts journalist
  • Community development worker
  • Ethnodramatologist
  • Ethnomusicologist
  • Orality consultant
  • Trauma healing consultant
  • Arts consultant for Bible translation projects, Schools in cross-cultural contexts, Non-governmental organizations, Multi-ethnic churches, Literacy projects, and sending agencies

Students must complete the general core requirements (15 credit hours) and concentration specific requirements (21 credit hours) to complete this 36 credit graduate degree.  Concentrations include Applied Arts, Arts & Islam, Arts & Scripture Engagement, and Linguistics.  For sample plans of study and more information about this degree please see our current catalog.

Persons interested in this program should apply for Graduate Admission to DIU.  If previously enrolled at DIU in anything other than “graduate admission status”, you will need to change your admission status. For more information, contact MA-WA-Coordinator@diu.edu.

Prerequisites

AA4370 Cultural Anthropology* is a prerequisite for several core courses in the World Arts program. AA4370 is offered every semester at Dallas International and online during the summers. Incoming World Arts students will be advised to take this course early in their studies.

In addition, prior to admission to this degree program, students are required to demonstrate competency in at least one artistic domain (music, drama, dance, visual arts, etc.).

*Students may petition to waive this prerequisite requirement if they have taken equivalent courses elsewhere.  Courses are evaluated on a course-by-course basis.

General Core Requirements

Degree Concentrations

 

The following are the requirements for the Linguistic Concentration with a thesis or non-thesis option.

Course Hours
Concentration specific courses: 15
AL5406 Field Methods
AL5207 Field Data Management
AL5312 Discourse Analysis
AL5315 Semantic & Pragmatics
Choose one of the following:
AL5316 Theory and Practice of Translation
AA5357 Oral Tradition and Literature
AA5333 Principles of Literacy
AA5355 Scripture Engagement Strategy and Methods
Thesis/Non-Thesis Options 6
Thesis Track
     Thesis (6 hours)
Non-thesis Track
     Electives (6 hours)
Total concentration hours 21