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School of Arts, Humanities & Education

Humanities

Online Master of Arts in Humanities (MA)

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About This Program

American Military University (AMU) offers a master’s in humanities online program inspired by the Great Books tradition, based on history’s acclaimed literary works, ideas, and thinkers.

AMU’s master of arts program in the humanities examines humankind’s evolution from ancient times to the present day. This interdisciplinary online humanities master's degree is an opportunity for in-depth study of the human race through courses in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences. It emphasizes skills in:

  • Advanced research
  • Writing
  • Critical thinking
  • Problem solving

Faculty enrich your learning with their real-world experience as authors and scholars.

What You Will Do

  1. Critically analyze literary works
  2. Write about ideas that stem from the great works of human thought
  3. Apply classical logic to past and present issues of human behavior, society, and civilization
  4. Study the human experience from antiquity to modern times through the perspective of leading authors and works of each age
  5. Analyze the concept of individualism as it applies to tradition, power, society, and culture

View Program Outcome Assessment Results

Degree at a Glance

Number of Credits
36
Transfer up to 15 credits
Cost Per Credit
$370 | $250*
*with military grant
Courses Start Monthly
Online
and vary from 8 to 16 weeks

Program Requirements Printable Catalog Version

This is the first course in the graduate humanities program. It is designed to introduce the student to the theory, concept, and general approach to a program of study centered on civilization’s great works, authors, and ideas. Course topics include how to approach study of the great works, authors, and ideas; a philosophy grounded in the classical/liberal tradition; and the university and curricular concepts centered on the great ideas. Students are expected to use this course to orient themselves for the remainder of the graduate humanities curriculum, prepare for a life of focused and purposeful study based on fundamental concepts and a particular modus of thought and reflection, and apply themselves within a general framework of knowledge acquisition and application. Readings for this course include Adler and Van Doren's How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading.

Course ID: 3633

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This is the first course in the graduate humanities program. It is designed to introduce the student to the theory, concept, and general approach to a program of study centered on civilization’s great works, authors, and ideas. Course topics include how to approach study of the great works, authors, and ideas; a philosophy grounded in the classical/liberal tradition; and the university and curricular concepts centered on the great ideas. Students are expected to use this course to orient themselves for the remainder of the graduate humanities curriculum, prepare for a life of focused and purposeful study based on fundamental concepts and a particular modus of thought and reflection, and apply themselves within a general framework of knowledge acquisition and application. Readings for this course include Adler and Van Doren's How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
12/28/21 - 06/03/22 06/06/22 - 07/31/22 Spring 2022 Session D 8 Week session
01/25/22 - 07/01/22 07/04/22 - 08/28/22 Summer 2022 Session B 8 Week session
02/22/22 - 07/29/22 08/01/22 - 09/25/22 Summer 2022 Session I 8 Week session
03/29/22 - 09/02/22 09/05/22 - 10/30/22 Summer 2022 Session D 8 Week session
04/26/22 - 09/30/22 10/03/22 - 11/27/22 Fall 2022 Session B 8 Week session

Course ID: 3525

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This course acquaints students with the Hebrew Scriptures and the world of the ancient Greeks. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and other peoples to whom the Hebrews and Greeks are indebted are also considered. Among the topics to which the course attends are the human experience of the divine, man's struggle with human and natural forces, warfare and the meaning of justice, the development of logos as human reason or cognition, and the emergence of science, technology, and artistic experience. Readings for this course include The Epic of Gilgamesh; The Bible; Homer's Odyssey; Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War; Aeschylus' The Oresteia; and Plato's The Republic.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
01/25/22 - 07/01/22 07/04/22 - 08/28/22 Summer 2022 Session B 8 Week session
03/29/22 - 09/02/22 09/05/22 - 10/30/22 Summer 2022 Session D 8 Week session

Course ID: 3526

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This course addresses the possibility of the existence of a proper way or path through life. Texts are chosen based on their ability to clarify moral values in the middle ages and antiquity, and are loosely grouped around themes of devotion, consolation, and the otherworld. Primary texts will be read in conjunction with historical background information. Readings will include selections of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Anchorene Wisse, the letters of Abelard and Heloise, Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, Old English stoic literature, Chaucer’s “Book of the Duchess,” and examples of journeys to the otherworld including Aeneus’ journey to Hades in Virgil’s Aeneid, selections of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Beowulf’s decent into Grendel’s mere, faerie ballads, and The Pearl.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
12/28/21 - 06/03/22 06/06/22 - 07/31/22 Spring 2022 Session D 8 Week session
02/22/22 - 07/29/22 08/01/22 - 09/25/22 Summer 2022 Session I 8 Week session
04/26/22 - 09/30/22 10/03/22 - 11/27/22 Fall 2022 Session B 8 Week session

Course ID: 3527

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HUMN530 provides an overview of major works of the Renaissance, and offers a detailed study of its primary thinkers. Issues include the birth of rationalism, individualism, skepticism, and emergent secularism. Questions address the inherent tensions between intellectual tradition and change, and the increasing dominance of the sphere of science. Readings for this course include: Petrarch's Selections from the Canzoniere and Other Works; Elizabeth I’s Poems; John Donne's Selected Poems; Machiavelli's The Prince; Francois Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel; Michael de Montaigne's Essays; Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's Don Quixote; Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus; Shakespeare's Sonnets and The Tempest; Edmund Spenser’s “Letter to Raleigh” and The Mutabilitie Cantos.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
01/25/22 - 07/01/22 07/04/22 - 08/28/22 Summer 2022 Session B 8 Week session
03/29/22 - 09/02/22 09/05/22 - 10/30/22 Summer 2022 Session D 8 Week session

Course ID: 3510

|
HUMN541 provides an overview of major works of the Enlightenment, and offers a detailed study of its primary thinkers. Issues include the birth of rationalism, skepticism, individual liberation and emergent secularism. Questions address the inherent tensions between intellectual tradition and change, and the increasing dominance of the sphere of science. Readings for this course include: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women; Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; Rousseau's Confessions; Thomas Paine's Common Sense and other Political Writings; and Ekaterina Dashkova's Memoirs.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
12/28/21 - 06/03/22 06/06/22 - 07/31/22 Spring 2022 Session D 8 Week session
02/22/22 - 07/29/22 08/01/22 - 09/25/22 Summer 2022 Session I 8 Week session
04/26/22 - 09/30/22 10/03/22 - 11/27/22 Fall 2022 Session B 8 Week session

Course ID: 3529

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This course is a study of issues related to genetics, the human nervous system, and artificial intelligence. Course topics include computers, computation, and its limitations; natural and machine intelligence; and the ethical responsibility of the scientist, the politician, the philosopher, and the artist as they relate to emerging issues. Philosophical, ethical, and scientific points of view will be discussed. Readings for this course include selected works of Mary Shelley, Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Paul Churchland, and Edwin O. Wilson, among others.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
12/28/21 - 06/03/22 06/06/22 - 07/31/22 Spring 2022 Session D 8 Week session
03/29/22 - 09/02/22 09/05/22 - 10/30/22 Summer 2022 Session D 8 Week session

Course ID: 3996

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In this course, students will explore diverse representations of nineteenth century literature. Students will seek to critically identify and analyze literary meanings from interdisciplinary perspectives. They will question how the works discussed reflect and impact a range of cultural issues in the nineteenth century-- a time of radical social change. Through the lens of literature students will look at social upheaval in terms of national identities, urbanization, science, music, class, popular culture, gender, industry and, in the U.S, slavery.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
01/25/22 - 07/01/22 07/04/22 - 08/28/22 Summer 2022 Session B 8 Week session
03/29/22 - 09/02/22 09/05/22 - 10/30/22 Summer 2022 Session D 8 Week session

This course explores the history of expressive and material cultures around the world, with emphasis on industrialized nations. Topics include aesthetics, social identification, and production, consumption, and reception of cultural forms. Using literature, films, pictures, and music, students study theories of popular culture and aesthetic hierarchy; explicate historical contexts of artistic movements; discuss cultural imperialism; address problems of cultural appropriation, creativity, and identity; and examine cultural expressions of social difference and deviance. Topics also include the social history of culture in the age of mass society, including popular arts and the culture of consumption.

Course ID: 3507

|
This course explores the history of expressive and material cultures around the world, with emphasis on industrialized nations. Topics include aesthetics, social identification, and production, consumption, and reception of cultural forms. Using literature, films, pictures, and music, students study theories of popular culture and aesthetic hierarchy; explicate historical contexts of artistic movements; discuss cultural imperialism; address problems of cultural appropriation, creativity, and identity; and examine cultural expressions of social difference and deviance. Topics also include the social history of culture in the age of mass society, including popular arts and the culture of consumption.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
12/28/21 - 06/03/22 06/06/22 - 07/31/22 Spring 2022 Session D 8 Week session
02/22/22 - 07/29/22 08/01/22 - 09/25/22 Summer 2022 Session I 8 Week session
04/26/22 - 09/30/22 10/03/22 - 11/27/22 Fall 2022 Session B 8 Week session

Course ID: 3079

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This seminar explores past and recent historiographical approaches within the history of science. Students examine a wide variety of topics primarily from the 17th through the 21st centuries, to include the fields of physical sciences, natural history, and medicine. Emphasis is placed on deciphering various theoretical approaches; the pros and cons of different research questions, subjects, and sources of evidence; and what makes the history of science valuable to our understanding of global change.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
12/28/21 - 06/03/22 06/06/22 - 07/31/22 Spring 2022 Session D 8 Week session
03/29/22 - 09/02/22 09/05/22 - 10/30/22 Summer 2022 Session D 8 Week session

Course ID: 3508

|
This course explores the historical development and central beliefs and practices of each of the major world religions. Students employ a multi-disciplinary approach to religious study (e.g., the use of literary criticism, anthropology, psychology, phenomenology and other tools) to examine the importance of religious thought and expression within each religion. The scope of the course is international, and each religious movement is approached from both a chronological and geographical perspective.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
01/25/22 - 07/01/22 07/04/22 - 08/28/22 Summer 2022 Session B 8 Week session
03/29/22 - 09/02/22 09/05/22 - 10/30/22 Summer 2022 Session D 8 Week session
05/21/22 - 11/04/22 11/07/22 - 01/01/23 Fall 2022 Session I 8 Week session

Course ID: 3528

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This course provides study of the logic and methods of science in relation to the development of the universe. It addresses the path by which scientific description of the universe has been made possible. It covers the origin of the universe, the nature of reality, and the relationship between observer and nature. Course topics include cosmology and the future of the human race. Readings for this course include Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and other emerging relevant contemporary documents.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
01/25/22 - 07/01/22 07/04/22 - 08/28/22 Summer 2022 Session B 8 Week session
04/26/22 - 09/30/22 10/03/22 - 11/27/22 Fall 2022 Session B 8 Week session

Course ID: 3519

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This course builds upon the study of distinctive perspectives of the social sciences. Course topics include the development of modern political and social understanding as it relates to the impact of economic issues on societies. Readings for this course include: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality; Max Weber, The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations; Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Works.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
02/22/22 - 07/29/22 08/01/22 - 09/25/22 Summer 2022 Session I 8 Week session

Course ID: 3522

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This course continues the study of the development of the individual in modern society. Readings for this course include: William James, Varieties of Religious Experience; Emile Durkheim, Elementary Forms of Religious Life; Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism; Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents; Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society; Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
01/25/22 - 07/01/22 07/04/22 - 08/28/22 Summer 2022 Session B 8 Week session
03/29/22 - 09/02/22 09/05/22 - 10/30/22 Summer 2022 Session D 8 Week session

This course provides the framework for students to assemble a culminating portfolio including representative work developed throughout the Humanities MA degree program and will guide students to develop additional assets that demonstrate mastery of institutional and program objectives through degree completion. NOTE: This course may not be taken until all other courses are COMPLETED and student has a 3.0 GPA.

Course ID: 4933

|
This course provides the framework for students to assemble a culminating portfolio including representative work developed throughout the Humanities MA degree program and will guide students to develop additional assets that demonstrate mastery of institutional and program objectives through degree completion. NOTE: This course may not be taken until all other courses are COMPLETED and student has a 3.0 GPA.
Registration Dates Course Dates Session Weeks
01/25/22 - 07/01/22 07/04/22 - 08/28/22 Summer 2022 Session B 8 Week session
02/22/22 - 07/29/22 08/01/22 - 09/25/22 Summer 2022 Session I 8 Week session
03/29/22 - 09/02/22 09/05/22 - 10/30/22 Summer 2022 Session D 8 Week session
04/26/22 - 09/30/22 10/03/22 - 11/27/22 Fall 2022 Session B 8 Week session

Courses Start Monthly

Next Courses Start Jun 6
Register by Jun 3
Apply Now Request Info

Admission Requirements

  • All AMU master's degree/graduate certificate programs require a bachelor’s degree (or higher) from an institution whose accreditation is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
  • Please read all graduate admission requirements before applying to this program and be prepared to submit the required documentation.
  • There is no fee to complete the AMU admission application. View steps to apply.

Materials Cost

Technology fee: $65 per course | $0 for active-duty military, National Guard members, and Reservists.

Need Help?

Selecting the right program to meet your educational goals is a key step in ensuring a successful outcome. If you are unsure of which program to choose, or need more information, please contact an AMU admissions representative at 877-755-2787 or info@apus.edu.

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Consumer Information

Department of Education and State Disclosures

For information on costs, median debt, state licensure requirements and more, view the gainful employment disclosures and the program disclosures for Maryland residents.

1Alumni Graduated with No APUS-incurred Student Loan Debt As of December 31, 2021

Includes alumni who graduated with an associate, bachelor's, or master's degree from APUS. Student loan debt is defined as student loans and private education loans used for tuition, fees, living expenses, and book costs associated with courses taken at APUS. Many APUS students receive military tuition assistance and veterans education benefits, which are not student loan debt.

*Cost Per Credit Hour

To minimize out-of-pocket costs, U.S. active-duty servicemembers, their spouse/dependents, National Guard members, and Reservists receive a tuition grant that caps undergraduate, master's degree, and graduate certificate tuition at $250/credit hour. In addition, a university book grant provides no-cost textbooks and ebooks for all undergraduates and military-tuition-grant-eligible master’s-level students.
See all military student benefits.