M.A. Programs
A Letter from the Director of MA Studies
Welcome to the MA Program at the University of Chicago Divinity School!
We are delighted and excited that you are considering joining us on this scholarly journey of rigorous intellectual conversation at the Divinity School. Here, we relish a community culture of intense engagement with traditions, foreign languages, theories, methods, and constructive projects. Critically and self critically, we pursue the academic study of religions as human phenomena.
Through close reading of texts, students become part of a way of life of debating and defending one's claims and arguments as public discourse. Through critical engagement of traditions, one begins to craft her or his own emerging scholarly voice. We are known for and enjoy challenging each other in faculty and student discussions, whether in an introductory course or in smaller seminar spaces.
Due to the key role that MA students play at the Divinity School, the faculty has created the Director of MA Studies especially so that each of our students in this program can have individual attention. As director, complementing assigned MA faculty advisors and the Dean of Students, I work closely with each student to discern her or his academic, curricular, and professional goals. We work together to meet your academic requirements, provide your specific choice of classes, and offer guidance and resources for your own post-MA degree career path.
The majority of our MA graduates pursue the PhD degree. However, because some students will follow their passions into other exciting careers, the MA degree at the Divinity School provides a strong foundation for a variety of other future possibilities. In short, we foster constructive thinking, persuasive writing, clear articulation, and discernment of the next steps in one's professional plans.
We hope you will take the time to browse the various MA web pages you will find in the description of this degree program.
MA students are important to our Swift Hall community. Your intellectual projects and your individual contributions to the Divinity School matter.
We invite you to have a conversation with us by email, phone, mail, or with a campus visit.
Dwight N. Hopkins
Director of MA Studies & Professor of Theology
For more information about the MA Studies Degree Program at the Divinity School, contact us at:
The University of Chicago Divinity School
Swift Hall
1025 East 58th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637
Phone: 773-834.0006
Fax: 773.702.8223
E-mail: dhopkins@uchicago.edu
Or contact the Office of the Dean of Students, Teresa Hord Owens (tdowens@uchicago.edu)
