MA

IN

THE

HUMANITIES

Admissions for the 2025–26 academic year will open in the fall.
Request an application to be notified when the new admissions cycle launches.

are

seeking

extraordinary

students

the

hard

thinking

our

time

demands.

Overview

Ralston College’s MA in the Humanities charts its course through Western civilization, from the Greek world of Homer, to Ancient Rome and Medieval Europe, into the Renaissance and up to our modern era. The setting of our four terms parallels this arc by beginning in Greece and then moving to Savannah, Georgia. The curriculum unites the most profound and provocative works of literature, philosophy, and art, inspiring and challenging students to approach the human condition with fresh eyes.

Yet to cover this ground in a single year of intense intellectual study requires careful steering and selection. For 2025–26, that focus will be provided by a theme that our multidisciplinary curriculum will trace through philosophy, music, architecture, art, and literature. In previous years, the program has focused on such themes as the self, the whole, and nature.

Previous themes

Program Structure

Term

I:

Greece

The Greek language and the spirit of Hellenism are the very threads that run through the Humanities, in all of their forms, as expressed across every epoch of the Western tradition. For centuries, the ability to access the foundational texts of this inheritance directly—without translators, commentators, or other intermediaries—was a nearly universal prerequisite for the meaningful encounter with, and entry into, its cultural inheritance. It is for this reason that our program begins with an intensive language residency in Greece.

This innovative pedagogical module, which approaches every form of the Greek language simultaneously, enables the study of Greek texts over the three subsequent terms. Undertaking this ambitious project in Greece itself not only allows for complete linguistic immersion but also helps forge deep friendships through communal life as a cohort and through group excursions to some of the major cultural centers of the Hellenic world.

Terms

II,

III,

IV:

Savannah

Three terms in Savannah will then follow: we will focus first on the ancient world, then turn to the Middle Ages, and finally consider a range of achievements from post-medieval Europe through to our modern world. We will explore how various concepts develop and unfold across time as we consider works of philosophy, theology, and the creative and imaginative arts from each period.

Intense scrutiny of specific works will be paired with ambitious, wide-ranging surveys. We will supplement our studies with concerts, symposia, guest lectures, and other events that will enrich our main curricular program. Taken together, the academic itinerary of these terms and their chronological sequence will provide integrated knowledge—and experience—of the West’s intellectual, spiritual, and historical trajectory.

COURSE CATALOG 2023—24 (PDF)

Our

MA

Students'

Own

Words

Explore the intellectual journeys of four recent graduates of our MA in the Humanities program. In the following videos, students reflect on why they enrolled, what they learned, and those they met along the way, revealing how Ralston’s curriculum spoke uniquely to their circumstances and interests.

Aims

While this MA year of course enables further advanced study and careers in a wide range of fields, it aims at something more fundamental still: to provide its participants with the depth of knowledge, analytical acuity, and enriched imagination that are the basis for both individual flourishing and the renewal of our culture at large. Indeed, the intellectual effort that this demanding program of study entails—extensive reading, intense discussion, and deep thinking—will necessarily prepare its graduates to meet the great challenges of our time.

Every civilization needs sympathetic interpreters who are capable of prizing the cultural treasures that form its foundations; a world in need of renewal requires a vital and synthetic vision, combining materials from different moments in new and unexpected ways. By fostering friendships with mentors and peers in the present, and with the writers, thinkers, and artists of the past, Ralston’s MA in the Humanities will help recreate the conditions of human flourishing—precisely by incorporating its graduates into the very tradition which they themselves will go on to transmit.