College of Arts and Humanities

Dr. Pauline Gagnon, Dean
678-839-5450
http://www.westga.edu/coah

The College of Arts and Humanities is charged with the responsibility of providing instruction not only to students majoring in traditional arts and humanities disciplines, but also for providing general education components of business and education programs. It does so with the realization that in order to prepare students to face the ever-changing, complex society in which we live, it is necessary to do more than teach them a number of facts and train them in a variety of skills. The faculty of the College of Arts and Humanities is dedicated to providing an education that will enable students to meet the future, not merely to live in the present.

The University of West Georgia’s College of Arts and Humanities is committed to the academic success of our students.

Degrees Offered

The Master of Arts degree is offered with majors in English and History. The Master of Music degree is offered with majors in Music Education and Performance. Satisfactory scores on the verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing sections of the Graduate Record Exam are required for the English and History degrees. Applicants to the MA in History and in English with an undergraduate GPA of 3.5 and above are exempt from the GRE requirement. Some programs may accept the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). Contact the College of Arts and Humanities for more information.

Language Requirement

Students seeking the Master of Arts degree must satisfy the Department of International Languages & Cultures and their major department with a reading knowledge of an approved language. Alternately, students may secure approval from their major professor, department chair, and the Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities for the substitution of a working knowledge of computer science. The language requirement may be satisfied by testing (passing a standardized test administered by the campus Testing Office) or by completion of specified courses under the direction of the Department of International Languages & Cultures. A student receiving credit as an undergraduate at West Georgia in a language 2002 course with a grade of B or better within five years of admission to the Graduate Program at the University of West Georgia shall be deemed to have fulfilled this requirement. Students may also satisfy the requirement by passing an approved graduate level special topics course offered by the Department of International Languages & Cultures or the Department of History (for History students) with a grade of B or better. No course taken to satisfy the foreign language requirement will count as one of the 27, 36, or 45 hours of course work in the student’s program of study.

Students who wish to substitute computer science for the foreign language requirement must have their proficiency certified by the Department of Computer Science. Proficiency in computer science will be certified when a student makes a grade of A or B in CS 1301, Computer Science I, or a student can be certified by earning CLEP credit for “Information Systems and Computer Application.” A student who has earned proficiency in Computer Science with an undergraduate degree at West Georgia will be given certification of proficiency if a written request for exemption is received by the Department of Computer Science within five years of the date in which credit was earned. With departmental approval, students may also satisfy the language requirement by passing Sociology 5003 (Statistics for the Social Sciences) with a grade of “B” or better. In addition, History graduate students may also fulfill this requirement by receiving a grade of B or better in two 6000-level seminars in World History.

Thesis Requirement

Every thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree must involve independent study and investigation, explore a definite topic related to the major field, and conform to the format for research writing approved by the College of Arts and Humanities.

The following regulations apply regarding the completion of the thesis: the subject must be approved by the major professor and the department chair. The formatting of the thesis must be approved by the Format Reviewer. When the thesis is completed, required Content Pages approved, and the Format Review form is properly signed, a pdf of the final document and scan of the signed review form should be sent to edreview@westga.edu. After receiving the signed form and pdf, the student will be sent directions to the appropriate website to upload the final document to ProQuest. Students must adhere to the appropriate discipline style manual and the “Thesis and Dissertation Formatting Guidelines Handbook” of the University of West Georgia. Where conflicts between the Thesis and Dissertation Handbook and a style manual exist, the Thesis and Dissertation Handbook must be followed. Students must also comply with all institutional policies involving research.