The Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) degree requires nine courses and a Master's Project for a total of 30 units of credit. 

Many students attend part-time, taking just one or two courses per semester, while continuing with full-time jobs or other responsibilities.  Depending on whether or not they take courses during the summer, such students typically graduate in three to five years.  (Six years is the maximum time allowed by the Graduate School.)

Others attend full-time, taking three or four courses per semester.  (Four courses per semester, or nine courses per year, is considered a maximum course load.)  Such students typically complete the degree in two years, although it is possible for some students to finish in three terms.

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We encourage students to take advantage of the interdisciplinary nature of the program by exploring in a range of academic subjects with a variety of Duke faculty.

Sample Student Pathways

Film Focus

  • LS SEMINAR: The Self in the World

  • LS SEMINAR: Human Rights Futures

  • LS SEMINAR: Composing a Life

  • Cinematography

  • Expanded Cinema

  • Experimental Filmmaking

  • Producing Docu-Fiction

  • Sound for Film and Video

  • Intro To Audio Documentary

Public history focus

  • LS SEMINAR: The Self in the World

  • LS SEMINAR: Death and Dying

  • LS SEMINAR: Migrations

  • LS SEMINAR: Reckoning with Inequality via Critical Family History

  • IND STUDY: US Public Lands History & Policy

  • GIS and Geospatial Analysis

  • Historical GIS

  • Oral History Methods

  • Interpretation in Historical Sites and Parks

Arts & AFRICAN AMERICAN Studies focus

  • LS SEMINAR: The Self in the World

  • LS SEMINAR: Death and Dying

  • LS SEMINAR: Human Rights Futures

  • LS SEMINAR: Who Can Recall? Writing and Drawing Time

  • Afam Gateway/Proseminar

  • Africa, Cuba, Brazil

  • Black Feminist Art

  • Black Marxism

  • Business Strategies for Arts

  • Sculpture

  • Intermediate Sculpture

Some students participate in graduate certificate programs to enhance their Liberal Studies degree with a specialty area; others value the opportunity afforded by the degree to chart their own course of study, perhaps ranging outside of traditional disciplinary and methodological boundaries.

The master’s project typically is not undertaken until all other courses are completed.  There are a number of prerequisites that must be fulfilled before submitting a master’s project proposal.  The student is responsible for finding an appropriate member of the graduate faculty to serve as supervisor. While some students enter the program knowing what they want to do for their master’s projects, most do not.  Many use the first half of their time in the program to explore, while using the last few classes to make sure they have the knowledge, skills and relationships in place for the sort of master’s project they decide to pursue.

Is Liberal Studies right for you?  Explore the menu to the left to find out more.