Geography (MA)
Department website: http://liberalarts.utexas.edu/geography/
The graduate curriculum in geography enables students to obtain an understanding of the heritage and philosophical foundations of the discipline, of contemporary thought and practice in its various subfields, and of the theories, analytical tools, and techniques currently used in geographic research.
Faculty and graduate students have contributed in many ways to understanding and managing the earth’s diverse cultural and physical environments, ranging from local to global scales across the full range of human history. Current clusters of faculty research include space, place, and social worlds; environmental changes and surface processes; and digital landscapes.
Faculty associated with the space, place, and social worlds cluster investigate how socio-cultural and political-economic processes such as urbanization, agricultural transformation, industrialization, poverty, health care, migration, and mediated communication interact to produce diverse socio-spatial realities across urban, regional, national, and global scales.
Faculty associated with the environmental changes and surface processes cluster study biotic, climatic, geomorphic, and anthropogenic factors and processes.
Faculty associated with the digital landscapes cluster explore the theoretical and applied issues associated with the acquisition, measurement, representation, analysis, simulation, and visualization of digital geographic information.
The faculty has a strong international orientation and is well prepared to guide students in research in Latin America, South Asia, Southern Africa, and Europe, as well as in the Southwestern and Western regions of the United States. The department encourages interdisciplinary and collaborative work that takes advantage of the University’s extensive scholarly resources.
Graduate Handbook
Graduate handbook information is updated and maintained by each program. Graduate handbooks are available within each program's office and online. Please contact the program with concerns or questions.
Admission
Students typically earn the Master of Arts in the course of work leading to a doctoral degree, rather than as an end in itself. The department does not admit students solely for a master’s degree.
Total Hours Required: 30
Hours required for Thesis option: 30
Hours required for Report option: 36
Requirements
Thesis Requirements:
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| GRG 390K | Issues in Geography | 3 |
| GRG 390L | Research in Geography | 3 |
| Hours chosen from: GRG Courses | 12 | |
| Hours chosen from: a minor subject | 6 | |
| GRG 698 | Thesis | 6 |
| Graduate Liberal Arts Requirements | ||
| Graduate University Requirements | ||
| Total Hours | 30 | |
Report Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| GRG 390K | Issues in Geography | 3 |
| GRG 390L | Research in Geography | 3 |
| Hours chosen from: GRG Courses | 21 | |
| Hours chosen from: a minor subject | 6 | |
| GRG 398R | Master's Report | 3 |
| Graduate Liberal Arts Requirements | ||
| Graduate University Requirements | ||
| Total Hours | 36 | |
Additional Requirements
Students who wish to substitute courses in another field for geography courses must demonstrate that these substitutions are appropriate to their program of study and must have the consent of the graduate adviser and the supervising professor for the courses substituted. All students must also demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language or in a quantitative or qualitative method. The student’s supervising committee and the graduate adviser oversee fulfillment of this requirement.
Each student must enroll in at least two organized courses in geography during their time in the graduate program. These courses must be taught by different full-time faculty members within the department, as approved by the graduate adviser. GRG 390K, GRG 390L, GRG 397, and GRG 398T may not be counted toward this requirement. GRG X97 Conference Course in Geography, may be counted only once toward the degree. By the middle of the second semester, the student should have chosen a supervising committee.
When all course requirements and the language or methods requirement have been fulfilled, the student completes the degree by presenting independent research in the form of a thesis or report.