Sheila Berger
The Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program (MALS) at the University at Albany, SUNY provides an excellent opportunity for students interested in pursuing graduate work in the area of gender issues. This program is a non-traditional, interdisciplinary course of study, designed to serve all qualified students with either baccalaureate or graduate degrees, but it is especially appropriate for mature students seeking to satisfy their intellectual interests and curiosity in a broad, innovative academic setting. The program does not emphasize training for a specific vocation; rather, it attempts to foster the personal and intellectual growth which are assets in any field. It is structured to deepen one's understanding of the social, scientific, and humanistic dimensions of modern society. Furthermore, it seeks to make the liberal arts accessible to adults from a wide spectrum of professions and occupations in a sophisticaed and integrated exploration of the liberal arts.
The MALS has several specific requirements, but also offers enough elective credits to permit and encourage students to create individualized programs. The requirements include three four-credit courses on topics in the humanities, in the social sciences, and in the natural sciences. The remaining fifteen credits, as well as a final research project, give students a wide range of opportunities. Gender studies courses, which meet the programs's multi-disciplinary objective, are among the obvious choices for these credits.
To date, several students have had a gender studies focus for their MALS degree. Two students combined the MALS masters degree with the certificate in Women and Public Policy-48 credits in all-to give themselves a particularly broad background in this area. Using this model, one could link courses such as "Family Law and Public Policy," "Feminist Thought and Public Policy," and "Families." Other students have drawn on different departments, staying within the MALS program, using courses such as "Literature on Feminism," "The American Renaissance Revisited," and "Black Women in U.S. History." A third graduate student developed an MALS independent research project on prostitution in the early American pioneer movement.
Thus, it is clear this graduate program offers the flexibility to study gender from the vantage point of several different disciplines simultaneously-a unique opportunity.