Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Dramatic Arts, English, and Religion

In this proseminar, students develop the skills necessary to produce graduate-level research on a topic relevant to a humanities-related field. The course is thematically grounded in environmental literature and invites students to examine how literary, philosophical, and cultural texts have represented, interpreted, and contested relationships between humans and the natural world. Students learn to formulate research questions, situate their work within relevant scholarly contexts, and develop arguments that balance close reading with historical, cultural, and disciplinary awareness. Apart from expository writing prerequisites, this is the first course that prospective Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) candidates should take toward the degree. While not designed to be a thesis or capstone proposal course, this course does serve as a foundation for eventual work on the thesis or capstone.