AMERİKAN KÜLTÜR ve EDEBİYATI YÜKSEK LİSANS PROGRAMI
The Graduate Program in American Culture and Literature Program at Kadir Has University offers both the M.A. and PhD. Degrees. The Graduate Program provides students an opportunity to examine the cultural and literary life of the United States. While literature remains a core aspect of the program, our program retains an interdisplinary perspective and we encourage students to explore the life of the United States from a wide range of perspectives including, but not limited to: popular culture, cultural theory, gender studies, law, music and comparative studies.
The Program has an international faculty trained at some of the best universities in the U.S. which provides students with the guidance they need and access to individuals with an intimate knowledge of the cultural life of the United States. Offering both flexibility and a solid grounding in the field of American Culture and Literature, this program will allow students to advance in their current field or move on to pursue a Ph.D. Moreover, all classes are held in the evening to accommodate those students who choose to work while pursuing their studies. The University is also located in an historic district of the Istanbul where students can take advantage fo the many libraries, archives and other resources that a cultural capital such as Istanbul has to offer.
M.A. Program
The M.A. Program consists of 8 courses totaling 24 credits. The classes are listed below:
Required Courses
- Introduction to American Studies
- Defining America: Myths, Traditions and Ways of Life
- Critical Theory
- Directed Research
Electives
- Popular Culture
- Comparative American Studies
- Race, Class and Gender in America
- Special Topics in American Literature
- Feminists, Womanists and Guerilla Girls: Women’s Movements in the U.S.
- From the Outside Looking In: America From Abroad
- The City
- Empire for Liberty: The USA in the 19th Century
- Feminism, Law and Literature
- American Writers Right Now
- American Novel
- African American Literature
- Women’s Voices in American Literature
- Twentieth Century American Poetry
- The American West
- American Drama
- The Jazz Age
- Film in America
- Ethnicity and the Media
- On the Road: Traveling Across America
- American Travel Writing in Turkey
- American Movie Musical
- American Material Culture
- Documentary Form and Meaning
- Film, Culture, Identity
- Issues in Third World Cinemas
- Imagining Indians: Native Americans, Literature and the Media
- The History of Comics in the USA
- The Comic Mode
- Science Fiction
- American Regional Literature
- Realism and Naturalism from Europe to America
- The Culture of the “Sixties
- America in Jazz, Blues, and Folk Music 1920-1965
- American Drama and Film: Shakespeare in America
- Literary Odysseys
- The Harlem Renaissance
- Single-Author Seminar:(Plato, Melville, Morrison, etc.)
- Caribbean Literature
- Wit, Satire, and Humor from Mark Twain to R. Crumb
- The Beats
- Town and Country: Pastoral Literature from Theocritus to Thoreau
- The Lyric Tradition
- The Tragic Mode
- Images of Labor and Capital
- Native American Literature
- The Immigrant Experience
- The American Philosophical Tradition
Directed Research
The Directed Research course will take place in the third semester. In this course students will write a formal 5 page proposal of their thesis project. Students will also be required to present their proposal before a committee of the ACL faculty.
ADVISING
No later than the end of the first year, all students must choose an advisor for their thesis. Together with the advisor students will establish a schedule for the completion of the thesis proposal and thesis itself. Students are expected to meet regularly with their advisors. At anytime during the program we encourage students to seek the guidance of any of the ACL faculty.
THESIS TOPICS
By the end of the second semester, students should have some tentative idea for a thesis topic. We encourage you to be as creative as possible in choosing your topics and to consult with any of the ACL faculty at any time in developing ideas for the thesis.
THESIS PROPOSAL
By the end of the third semester, all students must submit a formal thesis proposal. This proposal needs to outline the project for the thesis including: the topic, the argument or central question to be dealt with in the thesis and the basic methodological approach for the thesis. The proposal should be approxiamately 5 pages long not including the bibliography. The proposal must also include a tentative bibliography. The satisfactory completion of the thesis proposal and the thesis proposal presentation will satisfy the requirements for the Conference Course.
THESIS PROPOSAL PRESENTATION
Before the actual writing of the thesis can begin, students must make a presentation of their thesis proposal before a committee of the ACL faculty. The committee will consist of the student’s advisor and at least one additional faculty member. The written proposal must be submitted to committee members at least one week prior to the presentation.
THESIS
In order to complete the M.A. degree, all students must write a thesis. The thesis should be between 40-50 pages long not including end matter. The thesis is intended to demonstrate mastery over a particular literature or topic.
ORAL DEFENSE OF THE THESIS
Once the writing of the thesis is complete, student will then “defend” their thesis before a committee of three faculty members. The committee should consist of the student’s advisor and at least two other faculty members. The oral defense will be schedule for a date within two weeks of the official submisson of the thesis. The defense will cover the thesis itself and any materials included in the “Works Cited” and “Bibliography The oral defense will last approxiamately one hour.
