Arts & Letters

 

Arts and Letters

About Our Interdisciplinary Program

Arts and Letters is an interdisciplinary graduate liberal studies program designed with working professionals in mind. Our two degree programs (MLitt, DLitt) offer courses in seven concentrations that build on Drew University’s strengths in the humanities, the creative/performing arts, religious studies, and teacher education. Options include part-time and full-time study in an array of academic and creative fields. Small seminar-style classes meet in person, online, and in hybrid formats. Our faculty mentors work with students to customize each course of study tailored towards their individual goals. Internships and optional professional certificates assist students in transitioning to new professional opportunities in postsecondary teaching. Our graduates include language arts and history teachers, community college and university professors, creative writers, and directors of nonprofit organizations.

Arts & Letters at Drew is:

To read more about Arts & Letters programs and current student perspectives, take a look at the article published in Drew Stories in March 2023.

Now that I've graduated from the Arts & Letters program, I have connected with key members within the scholarly community surrounding my dissertation subject. I owe this to the scholarly transformation I experienced at Drew. I am now an authority of my subject and a part of a global conversation. ”
Andrew Clapham G'17
English Teacher, Seton Hall Preparatory School

Master of Letters (33 Credits)

The Master of Letters gives you the option of either completing ten courses (30 credits) and a 50–75 page master’s thesis (3 credits) or taking an additional course in lieu of the master’s thesis to complete a total of 11 courses (33 credits).

Doctor of Letters (45 Credits)

The program requires the completion of 12 courses, including two required seminars plus preparing and successfully defending a 150–220 page doctoral dissertation.

Drew's Graduate Certificate Programs: Value Added

Have you earned or are you looking to pursue a certificate at Drew in Conflict Resolution & Leadership or Teaching Writing?
As an MLitt or DLitt student, you may concurrently earn a certificate in Conflict Resolution & Leadership or Teaching Writing.

Already earned a certificate in Conflict Resolution & Leadership or Teaching Writing?
You may apply the credits earned directly towards your MLitt or DLitt program!

I imagined it might be difficult for me to break into nonprofit work, but the directors told me that my degree gave me indispensable curiosity, communication skills, research abilities and this willingness to do hard work to help and honor another life. I did not know that working in AIDS advocacy was the work that my Arts and Letters degree was preparing me for, but as it turns out, it has prepared me in unexpected and invaluable ways. ”
Jaclyn Harte, G'15
Youth Program Director, AIDS Resource Foundation for Children

Our Program Director

Dr. Leslie Sprout

Director of Arts & Letters
Professor of Music

Dr. Leslie Sprout’s scholarship focuses on music, modernism, and national identity in twentieth-century France. Additional research interests include the film music of Arthur Honegger and the engagement of European composers with American popular music and jazz between the two world wars. Dr. Sprout’s work has been published in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, The Musical Quarterly, and the New York Times. Her book, The Musical Legacy of Wartime France (UC Press, 2013), received the 2015 Béla Kornitzer Book Award for best faculty book at Drew University. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright program, the American Musicological Society, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris.

For more information, see Dr. Sprout’s website

You can contact her at lsprout@drew.edu

To learn more about the Arts & Letters faculty, click here.