Curriculum & Courses

The Doctor of Liberal Studies thesis is expected to demonstrate a level of competence and academic rigor in the field of interdisciplinary studies comparable to, though distinct from, the equivalent level of competence and rigor expected in a Ph.D. thesis in a disciplinary field. Topics are limited to the liberal arts and social sciences and must be approved by the DLS Director. The Doctoral Thesis represents the creative synthesis of primary sources and secondary materials. Students must follow the Graduate Liberal Studies Guidelines for Thesis Writers provided each student upon successful completion of the Qualifying Examination for steps and procedures in the preparation and defense of the Thesis Proposal as well as the submission, defense, and approval of the DLS thesis. The Guidelines are also online, liberalstudies.georgetown.edu/DLS students/resources/thesis. Additionally, the student must follow the “rules” of manuscript preparation according to the methods provided in A Manual for Writers, 8th edition, Kate Turabian, in particular, the choice of one of the two suggested styles for citations.

This course is only open to students in the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation Summer Institute. This course meets from June 13 - July 10, 2026

Science, Evolution and Impacts on Society In this course, students will focus on the scientific method and analyze scientific research that assesses how evolutionary and environmental factors impact humans and other living organisms today. Students will also learn anatomy and genetics as it relates to the material.

This course counts satisfies the MALS Foundational Social Science requirement.

The United States has been described as a nation founded on an idea, making it unique from other countries. The “idea” is commonly traced to the Declaration of Independence, considered the defining statement of our national identity and the moral statement by which we live as a nation. With the approaching 250th anniversary in July 2026 setting the stage, the purpose of this course is to identify the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence, their origin, their evolution, their expression in the Declaration, and their fate in the years following independence. Attention will be paid not only to the unfolding narrative of this critical period in our history, but also to the seminal documents and interpretations that contribute to our understanding of the ideas in the Declaration of Independence.

This course introduces the student to the history, rationale, and focus of graduate Liberal Studies as a doctoral field. It provides a framework for the entering doctoral student in terms of establishing the foundations and interdisciplinary focus of graduate work in the field. There are three stages to the course. (1) It begins with a broad overview of the pre-modern Western tradition, with guest lectures and readings from the classical to the early modern eras, designed to provide historical context for the emergence of modernity in the Western tradition. (2) In the second part, the emphasis shifts to methodology and research as a way of preparing the entering doctoral student for graduate Liberal Studies at Georgetown University. Readings and additional guest lectures help the student develop a fuller sense of how particular disciplines function within the context of interdisciplinary analysis. (3) The final section of the course involves an in-class workshop on research methods and then a final set of round table student presentations on their research topics for the term paper. The research topic will be chosen, in consultation with the professor, so the student can explore some aspect of his/her stated area of interest for the D.L.S

DLS students only.

Students in the DLS program are joining a centuries-long series of conversations and heated debates concerning the deceptively simple questions that lie at the heart of Liberal Studies, philosophical inquiry, and human values: How do we know? How do we make meaning out of the world and experience? How do we represent reality? How do we interpret reality? How do we form and rewrite traditions of knowledge, language, and power? What does it mean to live a good life? In the third DLS core course, “Reading through Time” students will continue to explore how these questions have been posed and answers have been attempted in pre-modern, modern, and postmodern critical contexts, in which positivist, humanist outlooks upon the world have radically shifted to deconstruction and “posthuman” perspectives. We will explore these questions through a series of paired readings in fiction and critical theory, divided into interrelated thematic units. Our readings will focus on works that question and rewrite master narratives, and explore the nature of subjectivity, the limits of self and others, and history and fiction. At the end of the semester, students will be familiar with some of the major currents in critical theory.

DLS students only.

This section of DLS Qualifying Exam Prep is intended for students who have enrolled in the program primarily on a part-time basis (3-6 credits per semester) and who intend to complete their DLS Qualifying Exam at a similar pace. This section counts as Half-Time Status. Notes: DLS students only. 36 hrs completed. Student provides exam checklist to Asst. Dean by Sept. 15th. Course certifies half-time status Repeatable course Fall and Spring terms with DLS Director approval

DLS students register for this course after completing all 36 credits of coursework. This course must be successfully completed before students can progress to DLS Thesis Proposal and DLS Thesis Writing. Please reach out to program team in order to register for this course.

After completing the DLS Qualifying Exams (LSHV 990), students are required to register for DLS Thesis Proposal (LSHV 995) before moving on to DLS Thesis Writing (LSHV 996) the following semester.

DLS students must complete this course before progressing to DLS Thesis Writing.Please reach out to program team in order to register for this course.

The Doctor of Liberal Studies thesis is expected to demonstrate a level of competence and academic rigor in the field of interdisciplinary studies comparable to, though distinct from, the equivalent level of competence and rigor expected in a Ph.D. thesis in a disciplinary field. Topics are limited to the liberal arts and social sciences and must be approved by the DLS Director. The Doctoral Thesis represents the creative synthesis of primary sources and secondary materials. Students must follow the Graduate Liberal Studies Guidelines for Thesis Writers provided each student upon successful completion of the Qualifying Examination for steps and procedures in the preparation and defense of the Thesis Proposal as well as the submission, defense, and approval of the DLS thesis. The Guidelines are also online, liberalstudies.georgetown.edu/DLS students/resources/thesis. Additionally, the student must follow the “rules” of manuscript preparation according to the methods provided in A Manual for Writers, 8th edition, Kate Turabian, in particular, the choice of one of the two suggested styles for citations.

This is the final step in the DLS thesis process. Students must register for this course in both fall and spring to remain active while writing the doctoral thesis. Please reach out to program team in order to register for this course.

Continuous Registration must be taken by MALS candidates who have an Incomplete in Thesis Writing. No scheduled classes. Final Thesis approval due date is Nov. 1. Course certifies 1/2 time status.

During the MALS Thesis Proposal course, students work directly with the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies faculty director to produce an annotated bibliography (including the state of the question and the 20 most important works on the topic) and thesis statement, which prepare students for thesis writing in the subsequent semester. Students are expected to attend all class sessions, meetings with the University librarians for research consultations and any additional meetings determined by the faculty director.

This is the first required course in the MALS thesis process for students who matriculated during or after fall 2019. Students must successfully complete this course before advancing to the final required course, MALS Thesis Writing (LSHV 7991).

The MALS Thesis Writing course must be taken upon completion of the MALS Thesis Proposal course (LSHV 800) in the subsequent fall or spring semester and is the final curricular requirement for the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree. In the MALS Thesis Writing course, students will work directly with their appointed thesis mentor to produce a master’s thesis and participate in a thesis defense. Students are expected to work directly with their thesis mentor and library representatives to actively write and produce the thesis argument. At the commencement of the thesis writing semester, students will develop milestones in consultation with the thesis mentor to ensure consistent progress.

This course is required for all MALS students and can only be taken after the completion of all coursework and MALS Thesis Proposal. This is the final MALS course.

This course looks at the geographical, cultural, and political notion of a "Global South" through the lens of literature and film. The term "Global South" is a geographical reference to regions that have large inequalities in living standards, life expectancy, and access to resources. However, should the Global South just be reduced to a metaphor for underdevelopment and poverty? To answer this question, we will explore the ways in which the Global South, especially its politics, is represented and described in literature and film from regions as diverse as the Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, and Oceania. We will examine whether literary and cinematic representations reinforce, transform, or disrupt notions of a developing Global South. In doing so, we will also consider and interrogate the idea of a “developed” Global North.

What makes us human? How much of this is a part of our “nature” (e.g., biological hardware, chemistry, and physiological changes) and how much of it is due to how we are nurtured (our socialization, cultures, and social interactions)? This course explores some of the most central aspects of the human condition and asks, “What makes us tick?” The class explores competing paradigms derived from a combination of studies and research from biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, archaeology, and historical observation. The structure of the course is inspired by the concept of a “hierarchy of needs”—beginning with essential “lower order” aspects of the human condition moving up toward the problems and issues that are more often the focus of life once the essentials of life have been obtained. The course challenges the notion that 21st century human beings are all that different from those that existed in 100, 1,000, or even 10,000 years ago. It also seeks to understand how human behavior can vary so much across cultures now. Reading material for the course also includes a combination of original source excerpts from the world’s religious and legal texts, and philosophers and scientists such as John Locke, René Descartes, B.F. Skinner, John Watson, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, Sun Tzu, Niccolò Machiavelli, Edward O. Wilson. Lecture and the course readings are supplemented with suggested journal articles including current research as well as multimedia excerpts on each week’s topics.

What makes us human? How much of this is a part of our “nature” (e.g., biological hardware, chemistry, and physiological changes) and how much of it is due to how we are nurtured (our socialization, cultures, and social interactions)? This course explores some of the most central aspects of the human condition and asks, “What makes us tick?” The class explores competing paradigms derived from a combination of studies and research from biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, archaeology, and historical observation. The structure of the course is inspired by the concept of a “hierarchy of needs”—beginning with essential “lower order” aspects of the human condition moving up toward the problems and issues that are more often the focus of life once the essentials of life have been obtained. The course challenges the notion that 21st century human beings are all that different from those that existed in 100, 1,000, or even 10,000 years ago. It also seeks to understand how human behavior can vary so much across cultures now.

Transhumanism is the belief that technology can allow us to improve, enhance and overcome the limits of our biology. More specifically, transhumanists believe that by merging man and machine via biotechnology, molecular nanotechnologies and artificial super intelligence, one day science will yield humans that have increased cognitive abilities, are physically stronger, emotionally more stable and have indefinite life-spans. This path, they say, will eventually lead to "posthuman" intelligent (augmented) beings far superior to man - a near embodiment of god. This course is intended to give students an overview of a number of hot topics at the intersection of technical, scientific, ethical and religious debates in our society. Specifically, by the end of this course, students should be able to understand the major facts about the accelerated development of scientific concepts and technologies.

This course will also satisfy the Science and Society MALS Foundational Requirement.

This seminar examines cross-cultural thinking about the nature of knowledge. In Western philosophical terminology, this is a matter of epistemology, which determines the methods and criteria for attaining reliable knowing. In turn, epistemology is significantly determined by ontological assumptions or the determination of what actually exists when one gets beyond mere appearances to view the world correctly. A comparative examination reveals very different ways cultures have approached the nature of knowledge, revealing that there are different ways of defining it. We will explore these different ways of framing knowledge through Western and East Asian Daoist and Buddhist sources. The first half of the course lays out fundamental differences between them, particularly as applied to the realms of social theory, aesthetics, and theories of personhood. The second half of the course looks at how these comparative epistemological traditions play out in the contemporary debate about religion and science, and whether or not they are compatible. This examination triangulates between the voices of Christian theology, contemporary Western philosophy, and Buddhism. ,br> The examination of two different cultural approaches does not presume a neat division between them. Rather, comparison brings out innate tensions within Western tradition itself, which the perspective of a different cultural system helps to highlight. For that reason, comparative study enables greater understanding of one’s home tradition, in addition to expanding one’s knowledge base.

Understanding the philosophical basis and ethical responsibilities of research are critical to developing an appreciation for the tenor, methods and conduct of scholarly investigation. What is a hypothesis? What is a thesis? What is a theory, and how do we know that theories are valid? What evidence can we bring to bear to support or refute them? What are possible alternate explanations for the phenomena we observe? And fundamentally how is research engaged in ways that are technically right and morally “good”? This course will introduce students to the basic philosophy of research as a scientific endeavor, and will ground the methods and conduct of such enterprise to an understanding of its apt effort as a human “good”. Concepts of inquiry, investigation and formal analyses will be discussed. Constructs of validity, reliability and value will be addressed. Obligate elements of responsible conduct of research will be detailed, and key ethico-legal issues and problems – and their avoidance and resolution will be provided.

This section of DLS Qualifying Exam Prep is intended for students who have enrolled in the program primarily on a part-time basis (3-6 credits per semester) and who intend to complete their DLS Qualifying Exam at a similar pace. This section counts as Half-Time Status. Notes: DLS students only. 36 hrs completed. Student provides exam checklist to Asst. Dean by Sept. 15th. Course certifies half-time status Repeatable course Fall and Spring terms with DLS Director approval

After completing the DLS Qualifying Exams (LSHV 990), students are required to register for DLS Thesis Proposal (LSHV 995) before moving on to DLS Thesis Writing (LSHV 996) the following semester.

The Doctor of Liberal Studies thesis is expected to demonstrate a level of competence and academic rigor in the field of interdisciplinary studies comparable to, though distinct from, the equivalent level of competence and rigor expected in a Ph.D. thesis in a disciplinary field. Topics are limited to the liberal arts and social sciences and must be approved by the DLS Director. The Doctoral Thesis represents the creative synthesis of primary sources and secondary materials. Students must follow the Graduate Liberal Studies Guidelines for Thesis Writers provided each student upon successful completion of the Qualifying Examination for steps and procedures in the preparation and defense of the Thesis Proposal as well as the submission, defense, and approval of the DLS thesis. The Guidelines are also online, liberalstudies.georgetown.edu/DLS students/resources/thesis. Additionally, the student must follow the “rules” of manuscript preparation according to the methods provided in A Manual for Writers, 8th edition, Kate Turabian, in particular, the choice of one of the two suggested styles for citations.

Must be taken by MALS candidates who have an "Incomplete" in Thesis Writing. No scheduled classes.

During the MALS Thesis Proposal course, students work directly with the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies faculty director to produce an annotated bibliography (including the state of the question and the 20 most important works on the topic) and thesis statement, which prepare students for thesis writing in the subsequent semester. Students are expected to attend all class sessions, meetings with the University librarians for research consultations and any additional meetings determined by the faculty director.

This course is required for all MALS students and counts for half-time status. MALS students must complete this course before registering for MALS Thesis Writing.

The MALS Thesis Writing course must be taken upon completion of the MALS Thesis Proposal course (LSHV 800) in the subsequent fall or spring semester and is the final curricular requirement for the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree. In the MALS Thesis Writing course, students will work directly with their appointed thesis mentor to produce a master’s thesis and participate in a thesis defense. Students are expected to work directly with their thesis mentor and library representatives to actively write and produce the thesis argument. At the commencement of the thesis writing semester, students will develop milestones in consultation with the thesis mentor to ensure consistent progress.

This course is required for and is restricted to MALS students. Only students who completed MALS Thesis Proposal with a grade of "B" or better are eligible to register.

This course explores the philosophical foundations and ethical issues inherent to the development, engagement, and deterrence of biological warfare. Biological warfare, defined as the weaponization of pathogens, toxins, or biotechnological tools to cause harm, raises profound questions about morality, international law, and the boundaries of science. Students will critically examine the history of biological warfare, from ancient uses of disease as a weapon to modern concerns involving gene editing, synthetic biology, neurocognitive techniques and tools, and dual-use research of concern (DURC). Central to the course is the philosophical interrogation of what it means to weaponize life itself. Lectures will discuss just war theory, deontological and utilitarian ethics, virtue ethics, and cosmopolitan approaches to human security. Students will query whether biological warfare can be morally justified, and how nations should respond to adversaries who might pursue it. The course also emphasizes contemporary challenges, such as activities of proxy and non-state actors, and the risks of emerging technologies that blur the line between medicine and weaponry. Students will write policy briefs, and develop frameworks for ethical decision-making that consider both national security imperatives and global humanitarian concerns. Restrictions: INCLUDE - Graduate level; School of Continuing Studies college; MA in Liberal Studies degree and Doctor of Liberal Studies degree