Master of Arts

Admissions Essay

As you complete this essay, we encourage you to share with us some personal insights about those experiences and influences that have shaped you.

Write a personal statement indicating how you think your desired degree or certificate will enhance your career plans. What impact would you like to have on your colleagues, organizations, and the world? What experiences have you had that form the foundation for these goals? Try to be as specific as possible in answering these questions.

Your statement should be between 400-500 words, double-spaced, and typewritten in Microsoft Word format. Save your document once complete. The online application includes a section to upload your statement. If you have already submitted your application, email it to ruadmissions@regis.edu ensuring your first name, last name and academic program are included on the document.

Creative Writing Specialization

Character development. Image and sound. Narrative and form. Do the elements of all modes of writing attract you? You’ll dive into the foundations of everything from novels to personal essays by studying others’ works and experimenting with new approaches. If you want to learn about the publishing industry, use your writing for social change, and discover inspiring works of literature, this master’s degree is for you.

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MACW 614: Writing as Social Action

In this course, you’ll develop sophisticated strategies for reading, writing and teaching for social change. By closely reading critical essays and texts in the four major literary genres by writers such as bell hooks and Audre Lorde, you’ll discover a variety of rhetorical and stylistic approaches to addressing the social justice issues that concern you most.

MACW 632: Literature III

Designed as a culminating experience of the Master of Arts that supports your career goals and next steps, the emphasis in this class is on professional development and publishing. Throughout the term, we will discuss our expectations about writing as a facet of professional academic life, while exploring a range of writing occasions and publishing opportunities.

MACW 618: Creative Writing in the Literature Classroom

Examine how the critical imagination and creative research methodologies overlap. In this class, you’ll develop a major creative project that requires a wide range of research approaches, such as archival, first-person, or interdisciplinary research.

Meet the Faculty

J'Lyn Chapman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Master of Arts in Creative Writing Specialization

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Elisabeth Kinsey, Ph.D.
Lead Faculty
Master of Arts in Creative Writing Specialization

Raised in San Jose, California, Elisabeth's Italian and Jewish immigrant grandmothers figured largely in influencing her identity. She received a teaching fellowship to obtain her Ph.D. from the University of Denver in literary studies. Her field of study, besides creative nonfiction and memoir, focuses on European women authors starting with Bridgettine nuns that inspired women’s coteries to write about their lives. She can be called upon to lecture on Divorce, Northern Italian cooking, and Star Trek (all renditions).

Literature Specialization

Are you inspired by the works of English-language authors? You will explore the fundamentals of fiction, nonfiction, plays and poetry, by analyzing these works for their form and function. By studying literature in its period of time, you will gain a deeper understanding of history and how literature continues to influence culture.

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MALW 631: Literature II

This course takes inspiration from the notion "that the world is being reconstituted as a single social space” (Timothy Brenna 879). As you investigate the world’s literature, you’ll rethink the ‘canon’ by considering the ways in which literature expands beyond the contexts in which it was written. Thinking through the implications of the local vs. the global, you’ll consider how globalized forces shape local culture.

MALW 636: Literary Criticism and Theory

This course provides you with critical approaches and vocabulary for your work with literary and cultural texts. The course will have a theoretical focus, but it is also a historical survey of critical engagement in English literary studies.

MALW 630: Literature I

In this class, you’ll be asked to consider how time affects the written word. Discover the origins of writing styles, how genres are formed and the approaches scholars take to works from the past. Explore how genre, style and publishing transform over time and examine how our understanding of literature both affects and is affected by its contexts.

Meet the Faculty

J'Lyn Chapman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Master of Arts in Literature Specialization

More About J'Lyn >

Elisabeth Kinsey, Ph.D.
Lead Faculty
Master of Arts in Literature Specialization

Raised in San Jose, California, Elisabeth's Italian and Jewish immigrant grandmothers figured largely in influencing her identity. She received a teaching fellowship to obtain her Ph.D. from the University of Denver in literary studies. Her field of study, besides creative nonfiction and memoir, focuses on European women authors starting with Bridgettine nuns that inspired women's coteries to write about their lives. She can be called upon to lecture on Divorce, Northern Italian cooking, and Star Trek (all renditions).

Nawal Nader-French, MFA
Affiliate Faculty
Master of Arts in Literature Specialization

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Religious Studies Specialization

Religious traditions are rooted in history, yet in the modern world, they are constantly affected by the forces of globalization and social change. Enrich your global perspective by pursuing a Master of Arts degree with a Religious Studies specialization. We encourage our students to seek truth, to live purposeful lives and to use course content to continuously examine and attempt to answer the question: "How ought we to live?" You will have the opportunity to analyze broad questions about culture, social justice and radically divergent ways of life by studying how religions are and have been expressed, perceived and practiced.

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MARS 600H: Understanding Religion

In this class, students consider a wide variety of social issues, lines of inquiry, theoretical approaches and current debates within the study of religion that equip students to thoughtfully approach the topic of religion in an increasingly pluralistic and religiously diverse society.

MARS 601: Mediterranean Religious History

Discover the religious history of the Mediterranean Sea region, from the Neolithic era to the modern day. Through experiential learning and site visits, this course reconceptualizes interconnections in Mediterranean religious history and practice.

MARS 663: Happiness and the Meaning of Life

Explore issues of happiness, meaning, destiny and human responsibility from both philosophical and psychological perspectives.

Meet the Faculty

Janet Rumfelt
Chair
Liberal Arts

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Erica Ferg
Religious Studies Specialization Coordinator

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Amy Balogh
Lecturer
Religious Studies

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Applied Psychology Specialization

Take a deeper dive into the science of human behavior, investigating how people cope and thrive in the modern world. You’ll study psychological theories and learn to apply them to your own life, taking what you learn to better the world and yourself through action. You will also gain a strong relationship with faculty experts as you work with them to design a formative academic experience for yourself.

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MAPY 608: Neuroscience of Human Relationships

Discover how our brains develop and change in response to our interpersonal relationships, while examining the basics of neuroscience related to communication, fear and conflict, emotions, love, attachment, empathy and cooperation.

MAPY 614: Positive Psychology

Examine theories and research used to understand and improve psychological well-being as you analyze topics such as happiness, gratitude, character strengths and the broaden-and-build model of positive emotion.

MAPY 625: Stress, Coping and Well-Being

Explore the psychological process of stress, the physical connection between stress and health, and research different coping interventions. Topics, including social support, chronic illness and aging, are examined through research and personal experience.

Meet the Faculty

Roberta Mancuso
Chair
Social and Behavioral Sciences

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Julie Hathaway-Nepple
Lecturer
Applied Psychology

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Environmental Studies Specialization

Address environmental issues and learn how to preserve our planet for future generations through a Master of Arts degree with a specialization in Environmental Studies. You will establish a well-rounded awareness of the nature of sustainability, unsustainable practices at the global level and a deeper understanding of the interdependence between people, planet and animals. You will study environmental challenges within an interdisciplinary framework that draws on science, philosophy, religion, psychology and communication, thus preparing yourself to participate more knowingly and meaningfully in effective environmental activism.

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MAAS 610: Science and Environment

Explore various aspects of the environment through scientific inquiry and application of scientific knowledge to understand and preserve natural resources.

MAPY 657: Environmental Psychology

Discover the relationships between humans and the physical environment, with a focus on theory, research and application related to the field. Issues include environmental perception, effects of the environment on behavior and the effects of behavior on the environment.

MARS 675: Our Common Home: Religion, Animals and the Environment

Engage in a comparative exploration of religious teachings with the aim of cultivating compassion and identifying our obligations to each other, the environment and animals in an age of exploitation, climate change and animal extinction.

Meet the Faculty

Janet Rumfelt
Chair
Liberal Arts

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Marni Pickens
Lecturer
Philosophy

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Communication Specialization

Fueling your passion by pursuing a Master of Arts degree with a Communication specialization will offer you opportunities for self-reflection, critical and creative thinking, community outreach and service learning. You will complete core studies covering graduate transformation and ethics, along with specialization courses that run the gamut from high-level theory to practical workplace skills.

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MALC 622: Emotions in Communication & Conflict

Examine how the latest brain research indicates the ways in which emotions contribute to the development and escalation of conflict, as well as how professionals manage the communication of strong emotions during conflict.

MALC 623: Persuasive Communication

Explore the practice of persuasion and rhetoric in interpersonal relationships, professional settings, sales and marketing, and the mass media. In this class, you’ll discover both theoretical explanations and practical application of persuasive communication.

MALC 629: Seminar in Interpersonal Communication

Discover an interdisciplinary and cultural approach to the study of interpersonal communication. This seminar examines communication across cultures, communication competencies, gender differences, power and language, and the impact of language on relationships.

Meet the Faculty

April Samaras
Communication Specialization Coordinator

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Janeen Gilligan
Lecturer
Communication

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