The Individualized Master of Arts is for students interested in pursuing a question, project, or career that is interdisciplinary and personally compelling. The holistic approach of the degree means that professional goals — whether for eventual doctoral study, a particular career path, a tangible product (like a publication or business plan), or particular skills — can be fully integrated into the degree plan.
Students embark upon an individualized learning journey in which they design study plans that analyze, synthesize, and interrogate knowledge and practices related to their specific projects.
Part of the Goddard Graduate Institute, the Individualized Master of Arts is a four-semester (48 credit) interdisciplinary liberal studies degree integrating personal vision and voice with radical thinking and engaged practice.
The mission of the program is to foster the development of knowledge, practices, and modes of inquiry that represent a genuine attempt to offer new perspectives, in a world affected by huge transformative forces.
The Goddard Difference
Our philosophy starts with the idea experience and education are intricately linked
A Word on Mastery
What is mastery? Students in the Individualized MA Program become living embodiments of this question.
We don’t offer a packaged curriculum where someone else has decided what constitutes knowledge, has organized that knowledge, weeded out what (and who) they deem unimportant, and emphasized what reinforces their worldview. Our students participate in shaping knowledge; they enter the collective conversation and move it in new directions.
Mastery begins with the process of constructing an interdisciplinary body of knowledge. This approach values:
- Self-Awareness and Personal Development
- Open-Mindedness and Critical Thinking
- Awareness of Context
- Rigorous and Imaginative Methodology and Creative Processes
- Participatory, Collaborative, and Experiential Processes
- Ethical, Relevant and Effective Practices
