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UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies

MA in American Studies

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATION FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2010/2011  IS 2nd JULY 2010

This is the first postgraduate programme in America Studies in Ireland. Because of the United States' unrivalled status in the world today, the debates on American values and the mission of American democracy have become a matter of global concern. This programme introduces students to advanced study of American culture and politics, in both domestic and international contexts. it is a multidisciplinary programme that promotes study of the interactions of cultural social and political factors. It aims to deepen and widen students' knowledge of major topics and issues as well as to enable them to develop a significant measure of expertise in the subject chosen for the thesis.

The MA programme draws on the expertise of UCD faculty across a number of departments, as well as that of the Professor of American Studies and the contribution of visiting scholars.  The full time  MA is taught over two semesters and students are required to take a number of assessed modules (four of which are compulsory) in addition to completing a research dissertation of 10,000 – 15,000 words.  The MA is worth 90 credits – 60 for taught work and 30 for the dissertation.  The part time MA is taught over two years, students take 40 taught credits in the first year, of which 20 must be made up of compulsory modules.

As it evolves, the Clinton Institute will keep its MA curriculum in constant review and will introduce new modules. The Institute is currently establishing partnerships with postgraduate programmes in America and Europe to provide candidates with the opportunity to pursue study abroad as part of this MA. Details will be posted on this site.

• Eligibility
• Course Outline
• Student Assessment
• Teaching & Tuition
• Fees & Funding
• Application Procedure
• MA Thesis

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Eligibility

Applicants for the MA should hold one of the following qualifications:

• A First Class or Second Class, Grade 1 degree in a relevant subject
• US or Canadian degree with a grade point average of 3.50
• 62% in the M.A. Qualifying examination (UCD students only)

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Course Outline 2009/10 - Provisional

This is a provisional list of modules that will be offered and is subject to final confirmation and scheduling arrangements. Some modules may also have a 'cap' placed on them.

• American & Globalization
• American in 21st Century
• American Studies Seminar
• The CIA & US Foreign Policy Since 1945
• Equality and the Media
• Research Skills and Methods
• Geopolitics
• Hollywood and the Blacklist
• Hollywood Cinema
• US Civil War
• American Theater: Structure and Strategies
• Postmodern Writing
• Contemporary American Fiction
• Nineteenth-Century American Writing
• Whiteness, Ethnicity and American Film
• US Politics: US Foreign Policy Survey

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Student Assessment

The Master's degree programme will be assessed by means of course work for the modules (largely by essay but this may vary) and a minor thesis of 10,000 to 15,000 words. Credit values varies for each module.

Students choose the thesis topic in consultation with the Professor of American Studies. The thesis topic will not be restricted to a specific area of the American experience and may reflect aspects of the Institute's broader research focus and academic expertise - as such, it may be supervised by the Professor of American Studies or co-supervised with another academic either within UCD or outside the university.

Supervisors monitor a student's individual progress and offer advice on the preparation and presentation of the thesis. The final mark for the Master's degree will be divided between the course work and the thesis.

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Teaching and Tuition

Each module tutor will provide students with documentation setting out the structure and content of the module.

Modules will normally consist of weekly two-hour seminars. These are group discussion classes where students are expected to bring up issues arising from their independent study.

Tutors will also be available to discuss individual students' written assignments.

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Provisional Fees 2009/'10                                                                                   

Applications Prodedure for MA in American Studies

Students can now apply online for the MA in American Studies, closing date 14th July 2009.

Students should forward the following documents to the application office - address below

• Two academic references will be required. It is the responsibility of the applicants to ensure that these are completed and returned in a sealed signed envelope.
• In all cases a 300-word dissertation proposal must be submitted.
• Non-University College Dublin applicants are required to submit the following additional documentation:
  • Original birth certificate.
  • A degree certificate or academic transcript (not a copy). If the degree result is pending at the time of the application this documentation should be forwarded as soon as the result in known.
  • Applicants whose native language is not English must provide a certificate of proficiency in the English language (e.g. TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge)

These documents should be returned to the

On Line Application Office
Tierney Building
UCD
Belfield
Dublin 4

If you have any questions on the process please contact
Catherine.Carey@ucd.ie or Tel +353 1 7161560

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M.A. Thesis

2006

Adrienne Brown 'Charles Ives and E.E. Cummings: American Voices from the Gilded Age to Early Modernism'

Christina Carey 'American Public Diplomacy Efforts in the Face of Moderate Muslim Discord'

Jennifer Daly 'Faith-Based Initiatives and the First Amendment'

Frank Dowling 'Between Reuters and Rap: What Forms the Opinions of Sixteen to Eighteen Year Old Teenagers in Ireland and the U.S on World Affairs?

Paulina Duch 'Shopping Malls in the United States as Centres of American Mass Consumer Culture, Achieved Through the Creation of an Oasis-like Environment'

Alessandro Guardamagna 'The March to the Sea and the Realisty of Sherman's Warfare'

Fiona Hearst 'Céad Míle Fáilte, Mr. President.  A Decade Divided: How Ireland welcomed Presidents Reagan & Clinton to her shores' 

Garret Maher 'The Northern Ireland Peace Process: An Irish-American Agenda'

Emer O'Connor 'Examination of the Identity of Vanity Fair's Imagined Community'

Jeanne-Marie Ryan 'A Study of the Experiences of Female Migrants in Kinship-Based Wagon Trains West on the Oregon and California Trails from 1841-1850

Ronan Tynan 'Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship'

2005

Simon O'Keeffe 'American Post Cold War Hollywood War Movies'

Barry Shanahan 'The Use of Music as an Ideological Tool in a Cinematic Representation of the Vietnam War, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket'

Paul Tighe 'Hollywood Representations of Current Affairs Coverage: TV News in the Watergate Scandal'

2004

Padraig Conaty 'The Bubbling Cauldron': An Analysis of Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives and Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

Ekaterini Georgoussi 'The Harlem Renaissance: Race and Politics in Langston Hughe's Poetry'

David Lonergan 'Masculinity, Ideology and the Myth of the Frontier in "Roger Malvin's Burial" and "The Man that was Used Up"

Sorcha Ní Fhlainn 'A Prism of Presidential Images'

Anthony Owens 'A Land Apart: American Nationality and Immigration Restriction in the Early Twentieth Century United States'

Richard Quillian 'Rock's Lost Cause: Identity and Memory In the Rock Music of The South'