Caspersen School of Graduate Studies
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At Drew’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, you won’t just listen to lectures—you’ll be guided by world- class faculty mentors, work in your field, hone your skills, and accelerate your career.
We offer an array of distinctive and flexible advanced degree programs that best fits with your professional goals at any stage of your career and are designed to meet the needs of your busy schedule.
Enjoy our beautiful campus while having access to life-changing experiences in the New York metropolitan area.
All programs are based on Drew’s renowned commitment to faculty-student mentorship, opportunities for out-of-the-classroom experiential learning, and facilitating a robust intellectual community. A graduate education from Drew cultivates a deep commitment to critical reflection and analysis.
We prepare students for the real world IN the real world.
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We welcome you to determine if Drew is the right fit for you. Join us for a personal consultation with our admissions staff to learn more about our many graduate programs, our faculty and the admissions process.
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Upcoming Events
Maternity & Care Colloquium
January 27, 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Ehinger Center, room 145 and online
Our #DrewU Caspersen School of Graduate Studies Open House is less than one week away, and you don't want to miss it! On Thursday, March 30 at 5:00 - 6:30 p.m., we will discuss exciting opportunities in #ArtsAndLetters, #HistoryAndCulture, and #ConflictResolution. Registration is in our Linktree.
#DrewU mourns the loss of longtime professor, Dr. Janet Burstein G'70, G'75. She passed away on December 20, 2022 at the age of 89.
Dr. Burstein began taking masters courses in English literature in the Caspersen School in 1967. She completed her masters in 1970 and began work on her PhD, which she received in 1975.
While pursuing her masters, Burstein began her teaching career at Drew in 1969. She was named Assistant Professor of English in 1978 and retired in 2004 as Professor of English. Upon her retirement in 2004, Dr. Burstein was bestowed the honor of Professor of English Literature, Emerita.
The resolution affirming Dr. Burstein as professor emerita noted her having “given back indefatigably to Drew as teacher, colleague, and University citizen” and “manifested an incomparable gentleness of manner and an inexhaustible strength of spirit in all her work at Drew University.”
She was an active participant in the school’s Jewish Studies program, and she taught courses on Victorian literature, women’s literature, Jewish American literature, and Israeli cinema. She guided many graduate students through their dissertations in her many fields.
Dr. Burstein was one of the founders of the Continuing Education for Women program in the CLA and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies in the Caspersen School, the latter of which has since evolved into the school’s Arts & Letters program.
Perhaps Dr. Burstein herself encapsulated it best in a frequent refrain heard by colleagues, “All the teaching was life for me.”
Thank you to Dr. Janet Burstein for the legacy she left at #DrewU, and may her memory be a blessing.
Are you interested in studying Arts and Letters? Maybe History and Culture is right for you? Or you could be interested in researching various methods within Conflict Resolution?
Join us for #DrewU's Caspersen School of Graduate Studies Open House on Thursday, March 30 on Drew's campus! We will meet in the United Methodist Archives and History Center to hear about faculty mentors, learn about the admissions process, and take personalized tours.
It's easy to join us by registering at the link in our bio! We hope you see you there as you determine your next move in furthering your education.
#DrewU celebrated Black History Month by welcoming Dr. Ruha Benjamin to share her work on racial justice with students, faculty, and staff. Her appearance was made possible by Drew’s Pan-African Studies program and the Center for Civic Engagement.
Dr. Benjamin is Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab, and the author of "Viral Justice: How to Grow the World we Want, Race After Technology, People’s Science, and Captivating Technology." As a gifted storyteller, she studies the social dimensions of science, medicine, and technology with a focus on the relationship between innovation and inequity, knowledge and power, race and citizenship, and health and justice.
“Viral justice is an admission—we are exhausted, discouraged, grieving. It’s a recognition that the most resolute and hopeful among us worry that our efforts are futile. We each have to figure out what our plot is. Whether digging deep or sowing seeds far and wide, plotting is about questioning the scripts that we’ve been handed and scheming with others for the collective good for all," she said. Read the full article at the link in our bio.
Make plans to join us later this month for #DrewU's 10th annual Dean Hopper conference! The theme is "Modes of Belonging: Kinship, Exile, and Translation," and it will be held on Friday, March 24.
Registration at link in bio.
Next week, the #DrewU MS in Data Analytics program will present a conversation in Abstract Mining with Dr. Ellie Small, the Norma Gilbert Junior Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Data Science.
The event can be accessed on Drew's campus in the Ehinger Center or online over Zoom. Registration can be found at the link in our bio.
#DataAnalytics #DataMining #DataScience #GradSchool #NewJersey #NJ #NYC
#DrewU’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies will launch a new Contemplative Professional certificate program today!
The 12-credit certificate program, which can be completed fully online, will be part of Drew’s Medical & Health Humanities (MHH) program. Students learn how to contribute to healthier and more humane care practices by starting with care for themselves as care providers. Drew creates a space for their self-care and self-reflection through the humanities and the arts.
There’s a growing number of healthcare professionals who experience mental, moral, and physical stress, often resulting in compassion fatigue and burnout. The certificate offers courses focused on contemplation and reflection in professional practice. Professionals will find new ways to care by contemplating their own well-being and extending these insights to others who are suffering.
Read the full article at the link in our bio and join us this afternoon either on Zoom or on campus!
#DrewU PhD student Mary Cannaday G'22, G'24 worked with two CLA students in Drew's Special Collections and University Archives on an exhibit featuring floriography, the language of flowers.
Mary is in the History and Culture program of the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. For this exhibit, she researched the history of language of flowers, relevant poetry and literature, and book selection, and set up the final display.
“The hands-on experience and opportunity to add to my resume and CV is great,” Mary said. “These are things I did not have a chance to do during my undergraduate years, so I really appreciate the opportunity to hone these skills at Drew.”
The exhibit is on display at Drew's campus through May 8, and more information can be found in the link in our bio. For interest in the History and Culture program, check out Our Programs in our Linktree!
#History #Culture #GraduateSchool #GradSchool #Floriography #Flowers #SpecialCollections
#DrewU's Dr. Li Yu is featured in a recent publication of Focus on Faculty in which she discussed opportunities for women in STEM, being confident and open-minded, and how fun and rewarding it is to work in her field.
When asked about the changes in STEM in regards to the role of women, Dr. Lu said, "I think there are increasingly more discussions and awareness of the gender imbalance. With the rise of AI in the fields of computer science and data analytics, people realize that even computer programs can be discriminatory if there is a lack of diversity among the programmers who design these programs." She continued, "Unfortunately, women are still very under-represented in some of the areas that are considered more technical, but this also means that these fields really welcome women participants."
Read the full Focus on Faculty at the link in our bio!
#GradSchool #ComputerScience #Statistics #STEM #AI #NewJersey
Mallory Mortillaro C’13, G’15 has a curiosity that has led to two incredible discoveries in her work at the Hartley Dodge Foundation in Madison Borough’s town hall. Recently, she uncovered a portrait for President Abraham Lincoln.
Mortillaro previously authenticated a bust of Napoleon Bonaparte by Auguste Rodin. Now, she has authenticated this Lincoln portrait which is on a five year loan to Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.
“It is believed that Lincoln sat for initial sketches, which is incredible in itself, but the story only gets more interesting,” said Mortillaro. “The final painting was completed only a few months after Lincoln’s assassination. The piece was eventually loaned to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876. From there it went on to be displayed at the Capitol, among many other venues.”
Throughout history, the piece was forgotten and placed in storage multiple times. Mortillaro found that the U.S. government made several attempts to purchase it, but never completed the transaction. The portrait was eventually acquired by Percy Avery Rockefeller, a transaction that served as Mortillaro’s a-ha moment.
“It’s funny, when I was researching this piece and kept finding all of this incredible information about it, I kept saying to myself, ‘This can’t be our Lincoln, this story is too amazing, there’s no way it’s ours.’ But once I found the connection to Percy Rockefeller, I knew this was it. Mrs. Dodge eventually acquired the piece from her brother’s estate. All of those incredible things were about our portrait.”
Mortillaro points to her time at Drew as foundational to the success she’s had in her role.
“I’ve always loved learning,” she said. “Drew is an institution that fosters lifelong learning and learning through experiences. My natural curiosity and desire for knowledge was certainly fostered at Drew. I am so happy that I found a way to keep the momentum of my intellectual curiosity going even after learning Drew.”
Read the full article at the link in our bio.
We're on the road this week, and look at who we had the privilege of seeing today: Dean Marc T at the Millersville Grad Fair!
#DrewU's Dr. Jonathan Rose is the William R. Kenan Professor of History in the graduate department of History and Culture. He is an accomplished author, having published dozens of books, chapters, and articles on his research. His groundbreaking and award-winning book, "The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes," first published in 2001, is selling in its third edition and has been translated into multiple languages.
On his inspirations, Dr. Rose noted four authors and academics whose audiences reach the masses. "All of them were trying to build bridges between intellectuals and working people. Today, those bridges have been burned by (on the one hand) academics spouting opaque jargon and (on the other) populist loudmouths," he said. He then noted that history remains important because, in the words of William Faulkner, "The past is never dead. It’s not even past."
Dr. Rose is currently working on a forthcoming book with the working title, "Girls Liked It Too: Why Women Read Playboy." "Some women subscribed to the magazine, but more often they snatched it out of the hands of their husbands, brothers, and boyfriends," he said. "They enjoyed the hard-hitting journalism, the in-depth interviews, quality fiction by writers ranging from Ray Bradbury to Joyce Carol Oates, the naughty-but-clever cartoons, and the kind of sex advice you wouldn’t find in 'Ladies’ Home Journal.'"
Read more about Dr. Rose's work in the full article linked in our bio, and submit an interest form for the Master of Arts in #HistoryAndCulture to learn more from Dr. Jonathan Rose.
Are you interested in art, marketing, or the luxury industry?
The #DrewU Center on Religion, Culture, and Conflict will be launching Arts of Respect which will feature special guest, Shahzad Haider who is an academic, curator, and consultant.
Join the CRCC for this event on Monday, January 30 at 11:00 a.m. Be sure to register today! For more information on studying Conflict Resolution, check out our programs at the link in our bio.
Happy spring semester, Drewids!
The #DrewU Medical and Health Humanities department will host a colloquium on Friday, January 27 at 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. in the Ehinger Center on campus and livestreamed via Zoom.
The colloquium will focus on Maternity and Care with Professor Inge van Nistelrooij. For more information about the event or to learn more about the program offerings in Medical and Health Humanities, reach out to the Office of Graduate Admissions at gradm@drew.edu.
Happy holidays from #DrewU’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies! We wish you well during our winter break, and you are in our thoughts of gratitude and remembrance during this time.
Drew University will be closed from December 23 - January 2. If you are in need of assistance, please email the Office of Graduate Admissions at gradm@drew.edu, and the team will respond when we reopen.
Have a wonderful holiday season, and we look forward to all that is to come in 2023.
#DrewU’s Dr. Kristen Hawley Turner, Professor of Education and digital literacy pioneer, has received the ELATE/NCTE Richard A. Meade Award for her co-authored article, “An Interconnected Framework for Assessment of Digital Multimodal Composition.”
The article introduces a new framework for multimodal writing assessment. For over 20 years, Turner has been researching how technology influences literary practices. She also recently published a co-authored article, “Digital Literacy (Still) Can’t Wait: Renewing and reframing the conversation” in English Journal.
Dr. Turner is the Program Director of Teacher Education in the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies at #DrewU. To learn more about our teacher education programs, check out the links in our bio!
#Teacher #Education #Writing #DigitalLiteracy #NewJersey #NJ #DrewTEACH
Joseph Ozurumba G’23 earned an undergraduate degree in computer science in Nigeria, his native country. To build upon and foster his passion for technology, he decided to enroll in #DrewU’s Master of Science in Data Analytics program.
“I chose Drew University because of the structure and content of its one-year accelerated program in data analytics and the gorgeous campus environment,” Joseph said.
He would like to pair his technical and data analytics skill sets with managerial experience to advance his career. “With data analytics, I will be able to draw insight from datasets using statistics and programming languages such as Python and R,” Joseph explained. “This program will definitely place me in a good spot when searching for a data analyst job.”
Read the full article on Joseph's #DataAnalytics studies at the link in our bio.
#DrewU’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies hosted its second annual Chief Risk Officer Summit roundtable discussion for students in the Master of Science in #Finance (#MFin) program, as well as undergraduate students interested or majoring in finance, business, and economics.
The roundtable featured Ken Abbott, distinguished lecturer at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business and former chief risk officer at Barclays Bank; Jason Hickey, global markets risk executive at Bank of America; and Gary Mandelblatt, managing partner at NextGen Strategic Partners and former chief risk officer at Nomura Americas.
The discussion was organized and moderated by Kerem Yaman, adjunct professor of finance and chief operating officer of global markets risk management at Morgan Stanley, and Steve Firestone, director of Drew’s MFin program.
The industry leaders provided in-depth and candid insights into the process of running a large risk organization and the key risks present in today’s market. Continue reading this article in our Linktree.
Josh Roberts C’22, G’23 declared anthropology as a major after taking a Business Anthropology course during his first year and “fell in love with it.”
Knowing he wanted to take advantage of #DrewU’s 4+1 Dual-Degree programs, Josh decided to build upon his degree in anthropology with a Master of Science in Data Analytics (MSDA).
“When I am observing data and representing it graphically, I can start to understand why the data is shaped the way it is. Anthropology is the study of culture and humans. As an undergrad, I took a lot of business anthropology courses that studied consumer culture and used ethnography to save dying businesses or look closer into how humans are reacting to certain aspects of a market,” Josh said regarding how his two degrees compliment each other.
“Having the knowledge to be able to study the culture surrounding say, NBA fans, I can look at trends in data and understand why an anomaly may exist or why trends of the data are the way that they are. Instead of making guesses or simply treating the data as numbers, I can look at ethnographies that have been written in the field and possibly learn more about the consumers than simply looking at just the data.”
Josh is also a member of the Drew Swimming team and continues to compete as a graduate student during an extra year of eligibility. Continue reading Josh’s story at the link in our bio.
#DataAnalytics #DataAnalysis #Data #GradSchool
Dr. Jonathan Golden is the #DrewU Director of Center on Religion, Culture, and Conflict. He is the Assistant Teaching Professor in Religious Studies, and he was recently featured by the Peace and Justice Studies Association.
In his interview, Dr. Golden spoke of the origins and mission of the Center as well as the current and future work planned on campus, regionally, and globally.
“New Jersey is one of the most religiously diverse spots on the planet. But there’s a key distinction between diversity and pluralism. Diversity is the fact of there being different people in the room, on campus, or in your community. Pluralism addresses what we do with that diversity,” he stated before posing a question. “How do we get people to engage and build something positive out of all that diversity?”
Dr. Golden’s full interview can be found in our bio.
#ConflictResolution #PeaceStudies #JusticeStudies #Anthropology