MA Program in Engaged and Public Humanities

As the Director of Georgetown’s Master’s Program in Engaged and Public Humanities, I invite students interested in the study of the arts, and of culture, history, faith, and thought, to contribute to our reinvention of humanities education as a justice-driven, professional, and practical endeavor committed to making positive, and real, change in the world we all share. Human beings by our nature engage in the creative production of meaning, and of feeling, through an ever-expanding array of expressive objects, images, forms, and media, at the individual, relational, and collective levels. We also experience, study, and think with these processes of production, and with everything they create, and increasingly we do so beyond the spaces of pure critique and reflection that universities traditionally offer, taking the wisdom, insight, and invention fostered there to the world that shapes us and that we shape in turn. Our program’s model of a publicly engaged humanities contributes to this renewal through our intensive, synthetic mix of academic study and professional practice, offering each student optimal individual attention, as well as significant opportunities to work collaboratively with teams of mentors and peers. In doing so, we contribute to an emerging movement that hopes, and promises, to enliven the humanities, and enrich the world, for generations to come.

Ricardo Ortiz, Director, MAEPH