Master's Degree
The Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
with one of the most successful graduate programs in the field, offers an M.A.
in a wide range of disciplines. The department's strong emphasis on research
and writing prepares students for entry into Ph.D. programs and for professional
positions in education and related fields. Its faculty is committed to academic
excellence and to the department's initial objective to promote interdisciplinary
study in three major areas: Culture (the arts and humanities), History, and
Society (social sciences). Students are guided in using innovative as well as
conventional methods of scholarship in a way that contributes to the development
of African-American Studies and to the diversification of academic disciplines,
communities, and institutions. To achieve that goal, the Department maintains
flexible models of study which can be adapted to fit individual student interests.
Students with an interest in pursuing a Ph.D. in either English or History might
be interested in applying to the Bridge Programs in English
or History, which allow a student who has completed
an M.A. in Afro-American Studies to move directly into one of those Ph.D. programs.
Requirements for the M.A. degree
Twenty-four credits of course work and successful completion of an M.A. thesis.
I. Course Work
Students must take at 12 of their 24 course credits in the Department of Afro-American
Studies. Because the graduate program emphasizes interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
study, we encourage students, with the approval of their advisors and the Graduate
Director, to take at least a portion of their remaining 12 credits in related
courses in other departments. While the department encourages independent work,
no more than 6 hours of directed study (AAS 699) credits may be applied toward
fulfillment of the M.A. course credit requirements.
Sample Schedule For The Two-year Graduate Program:
YEAR 1
Semester I: 9 course credits
Semester II: 9 course credits
YEAR 2
Semester I: 6 course credits. Students establish their thesis committees and
submit thesis proposals to the Chairs of their committees.
Semester II: Research and Thesis (AAS 790). Students should be submitting chapters
of their theses to faculty advisors and other committee members throughout the
semester.
II. Maintaining Satisfactory Progress in The Afro-American Studies
Program
Students in the graduate program are reviewed for satisfactory progress by the
Graduate Program Committee at the end of their second semester. Students who
do not meet all of the following criteria face the possibilities of being placed
on probation. Students who do not meet the required criteria for satisfactory
progress by the end of their third semester may be dropped from the program.
A. Students need to register for a minimum of 9 graduate credits (in courses
numbered 300 and above) each semester (excluding the summer semester), and must
maintain a minimum overall cumulative GPA of 3.25 at all times.
B. No more than 3 credit hours of incomplete work may be carried at any time.
Students must make up Incompletes by the end of the following semester during
which the student is registered. Students with incompletes will not be considered
for Teaching or Project Assistantships in Afro-American Studies.
III. Preparing to Write a Thesis
A. Establishing a thesis committee:
At the end of their first year of graduate study, each student chooses a faculty
advisor to direct his or her thesis and two additional faculty members to complete
the committee. One member of the committee may be a faculty expert from a department
other than the Department of Afro-American Studies. Students are responsible
for contacting the faculty members they wish to work with on their theses.
B. Selecting a Thesis Topic:
Since the Master's thesis should build on existing scholarship, the first step
that a student makes in selecting a topic is becoming well acquainted with the
literature that exists in his or her area of interest. This requires the student
to consult all relevant resources, including card catalogues, the most recently
published bibliographies in the field, indexes to major journals, periodicals,
and relevant electronic data bases before presenting the topic to her or his
major advisor for approval. The advisor offers guidance on how to prepare the
thesis proposal. We strongly urge students to have their thesis topics approved
by the sixth week of their third semester in the program.
C. The Thesis Proposal:
The thesis proposal is a five to seven page document outlining in detail the
thesis topic, the methodology the student will use to explore the project, and
the project's overall design, that is, its formal divisions-- preface or introduction,
number of chapters, conclusion, endnotes, and a preliminary working bibliography
of primary and secondary sources. (For further specific details on what is required
in a thesis proposal, refer to K. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term
Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th. ed., Univ. of Chicago Press). Following
the approval of the student's major adviser, the candidate submits the proposal
to the other committee members for additional comments.
IV. The Master's Thesis
The Master's thesis is a scholarly research project that on completion, the
student submits to the Department and to the Graduate School in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Master's Degree. Its purpose is to demonstrate that
the degree candidate has acquired the knowledge and skills to carry out scholarly
writing and research in his or her discipline, and to advance knowledge in the
field itself. The Master's thesis should provide the basis for a substantial
contribution to the scholarship that already exists in the candidate's area
of specialization. Students writing theses may enroll for as many as 9 credit
hours for research and thesis credit (AAS790).
The following general guidelines for the Master's thesis in Afro-American Studies
are applicable to each of the areas of specialization:
A. Critical position
Students must demonstrate an understanding of how their critical methodology
relates to current and historical trends in their areas. In most cases, this
constitutes an explanation of a student's critical position/perspective in the
first chapter of the thesis. The importance of the study should also be specified
in the first chapter.
B. Primary and secondary sources The thesis should reflect a thorough knowledge
of the primary and secondary texts discussed in the work. Students who choose
to write on a single subject or author which or who has received relatively
little critical attention should be able to demonstrate detailed knowledge of
the full range of critical material that exists on the topic or person. Students
writing on a subject or figure which or who has attracted widespread critical
attention will be expected to demonstrate detailed knowledge of the major works
and criticism that focus specifically on their topic. The quantity of required
secondary reading included in a thesis will be determined in a major advisor/student
conference following the student's submission of an initial working bibliography.
C. Writing
Students at the thesis-writing stage in their programs should have graduate
level writing skills. They should by then be attentive to such technical problems
as grammar, punctuation, and spelling throughout the writing phase of the project.
Should they have weaknesses in any of these areas they need to take immediate
intensive steps to remedy those flaws. The staff in the Writing Center, located
in the English Department, offers excellent one-to-one help to students with
writing problems. Students with good writing skills also need to visit the Writing
Center regularly as they proceed on their theses. Students at all levels of
graduate work and in all stages of writing, from beginning thesis proposals
to completing Ph.D. dissertations, benefit significantly from frequent consultations
with the experts in the Writing Center.
D. Avoid plagiarism
Students should pay special attention to proper quotation and citation practices
to avoid charges of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offense for which there
are severe penalties. (See Academic
Misconduct: Guide for Students.)
E. The Thesis Defense
The thesis defense is an oral presentation of an intellectual project where
students are expected to demonstrate their acquisition of in-depth knowledge
of the topic on which they have written. They will also be expected to establish
a context that shows the significance of their work toward advancing the field
of African American Studies broadly and narrowly. Students proceeding into disciplinary
Ph.D. programs should have further insights into how the knowledge they gained
could affect the directions they take in their future explorations of their
fields.
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