Graduate Programs
The information shared here is intended to provide an overview of Georgia State's offerings. For details on admissions requirements, tuition, courses and more please refer to the university catalogs.
Search results are alphabetized
Digital Filmmaking, Virtual Production & Visual Effects Concentration, M.F.A.
Creative Media Industries Institute
The Georgia State program in Virtual Production and Visual Effects provides advanced post-production technology and content creation training for media professionals.
Housed at the Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII), the program provides students access to the most advanced motion and performance capture technologies in industry use and opportunities to create multimedia content in virtual production tools.
Students will create polished, finished products through advanced coursework in video editing, game design, volumetric and motion capture software packages. A key focus of the concentration is its emphasis on the examination of real-time workflow models, including production work connected to LED and virtual previsualization technologies, which are available to students in the new CMII production studios.
The benefits of close industry collaboration and advanced production tools
The special effects used to capture performances for games and film/television are technologically aligning. For example, the software most commonly used in game design, Unreal Engine, was also used to accomplish virtual preproduction and animation work in the film Lion King, in The Mandalorian and Ford v Ferrari. The Creative Media Industries Institute trains students in the high-end content creation technologies now central to big-budget filmmaking and game development.
The M.F.A. in Digital Filmmaking offers two concentrations. The Visual Effects & Virtual Production concentration is offered through the Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII). The Filmmaking concentration is administered through the School of Film, Media & Theatre. Applicants applying for the Filmmaking concentration should visit the School of Film, Media, & Theatre.
English, B.A., English Education, M.A.T.
English, B.A., English Education, M.A.T.
Georgia State University's Dual Degree (or 4+1) program allows students to earn a B.A. in English and an M.A.T. in English Education in as little as five years, saving time and tuition dollars.
The English education master's program is designed for students who seek an initial teaching certification in secondary English (grades 6-12). This program leads to a master of arts in teaching (M.A.T.) and a clear and renewable (T5) induction certificate in the state of Georgia.
English educators are responsible for constructing learning environments that support students’ development in reading literature, writing for multiple audiences, expressing ideas and opinions in speech and interpersonal communication and exploring the potential of the arts in language arts.
This program will allow you to build a foundation to transform your passion into a professional career, providing an initial certification for teaching English language arts for 6th-12th grades, and recognition of master’s level proficiency in the subject area, putting you into a higher pay grade in Georgia school systems.
At the undergraduate level, the accelerated program is designed for English majors concentrating in Pre-Education.
English, B.A./M.A.
English, B.A./M.A.
Students interested in earning a bachelor's and master's in English at Georgia State University can save time and tuition dollars through the dual-degree program. Qualified, full-time students can complete both programs in just five years. The accelerated path to a graduate degree affords graduates an advantage in competitive career fields and a richer grasp of their chosen specialty. The dual-degree program also offers students interested in earning a Ph.D. intensive preparation for doctoral study.
The department offers two dual-degree programs:
— Dual B.A./M.A. in Literary Studies
— Dual B.A./M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition
Both programs allow English majors to enroll in graduate courses late in their undergraduate program and apply the coursework toward both the bachelor’s and master’s programs.
English, M.A., Literary Studies
The M.A. program in Literary Studies fosters an environment of critical engagement with the most pressing questions in contemporary literary and cultural studies. Students work with some of the profession’s most talented and productive teachers, scholars and theorists in the fields of American, British and world literatures, cultural studies and folklore.
Students in the M.A. program:
- Undertake coursework that exposes them to the breadth of literature in English from the Middle Ages to the present and to the methods and theories that have shaped literary criticism and scholarship
- Regularly deliver papers at international, national and regional conferences
- Gain valuable professional and organizational experience through participation in the South Atlantic Modern Language Association, an organization of teachers and scholars in modern languages and literatures that is headquartered in the department
- Work as editorial and research assistants with the department’s academic journals, Studies in the Literary Imagination and Eudora Welty Review
- Gain pedagogical and leadership experience through tutoring positions in the department's Writing Studio
- Pursue interesting internship opportunities with local businesses and nonprofit organizations
- Receive preparation for further graduate study in prestigious national and international doctoral programs
English, M.A., Rhetoric and Composition
We offer the largest Rhetoric & Composition program in the Southeast, with eight specialized faculty members in rhetoric, composition, digital media and communication, writing center theories and pedagogies, and language studies.
Within our distinctive curriculum, students can combine areas of interest across historical periods, current composition studies, rhetorical theory, visual and digital rhetoric, new and emerging media, advanced academic writing, language studies, writing center studies, writing program administration, and professional writing. No other university in Georgia offers these comprehensive graduate academic programs in rhetoric and composition. We provide internship opportunities for graduate students with our department publications, nonprofits, and other Atlanta-based organizations, and we offer mentoring and training in the teaching of writing and writing program leadership.
The Writing Studio is an on-campus tutoring and teaching site serving Georgia State students from all majors and providing our graduate students with an active academic research site where they can pursue theses in writing center strategies and pedagogy. Graduate student staff members have presented conference papers, published articles, book chapters and book reviews, and have received International Writing Center Association Research Grants.
Writing Across the Curriculum is a faculty development program geared toward helping faculty use learner-centered, active pedagogical strategies for developing all students’ writing and communication abilities across the undergraduate curriculum. Its faculty participants have made significant contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning.
English, Ph.D., Creative Writing Concentration
The Ph.D. program in English, Concentration in Creative Writing, is one of the top 15 in the U.S., as ranked by Poets & Writers. The program offers graduate students the opportunity to work closely with our award-winning faculty while living and writing in Atlanta, an international city with a vibrant literary culture.
Our students publish—recently with Random House, Algonquin Books, St Martin’s, Alice James Books, Bloomsbury, Anhinga Press and Louisiana State University Press—and win important prizes and fellowships, including the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, the Walter E. Dakin Fellowship from The Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Georgia Author of the Year Award.
Our faculty include Danielle Cadena Deulen, Beth Gylys, John Holman, Sheri Joseph and Josh Russell. Visiting writers & editors enrich the program by giving readings and leading workshops and Q&As.
Students may qualify for teaching assistantships, editorial assistantships and fellowships.
English, Ph.D., Literary Studies
The Ph.D. program in Literary Studies fosters an environment of critical engagement with the most pressing questions in contemporary literary and cultural studies. Students work with some of the profession’s most talented and productive teachers, scholars and theorists in American, British and world literatures, cultural studies and folklore.
Students in the doctoral program:
- Undertake coursework that exposes them to the breadth of literature in English from the Middle Ages to the present and to the methods and theories that have shaped literary criticism and scholarship
- Become specialists in an area of literary studies, cultural studies or folklore and learn to develop a research agenda in their area of specialization
- Regularly deliver papers at international, national and regional conferences and publish essays in reviews in a variety of prestigious academic journals
- Gain valuable professional and organizational experience through participation in the South Atlantic Modern Language Association, an organization of teachers and scholars in modern languages and literatures that is headquartered in the department
- Work as editorial assistants with the department’s academic journals, Studies in the Literary Imagination and Eudora Welty Review
- Receive pedagogical, leadership and mentoring experience while serving as instructors of record in the Lower Division Studies program
English, Ph.D., Rhetoric and Composition
We offer the largest Rhetoric & Composition program in the Southeast, with eight specialized faculty members in rhetoric, composition, digital media and communication, writing center theories and pedagogies and language studies.
Within our distinctive curriculum, students can combine areas of interest across historical periods, current composition studies, rhetorical theory, visual and digital rhetoric, new and emerging media, advanced academic writing, language studies, writing center studies, writing program administration and professional writing. No other university in Georgia offers these comprehensive graduate academic programs in rhetoric and composition. We provide internship opportunities for graduate students with our department publications, nonprofits and other Atlanta-based organizations, and we offer mentoring and training in the teaching of writing and writing program leadership.
Lower Division Studies, unique to Georgia State University, offers training and mentoring opportunities for graduate students who teach many of the First-Year Composition and Sophomore Literature Survey courses as instructors of record.
Writing Across the Curriculum is a faculty development program geared toward helping faculty use learner-centered, active pedagogical strategies for developing all students' writing and communication abilities across the undergraduate curriculum. Its faculty participants have made significant contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Geographic Information Science, Professional Certificate
Geographic Information Science (GIS) technology is used every day, most often for mapping points of reference and data related to points on the Earth’s surface. GIS jobs are plentiful and growth in the industry is expected to continue in the coming years.
With the Georgia State GIS graduate certificate, you will be able to start or advance your career in:
- Urban and regional planning
- Environmental resource management
- Surveying, cartography and mapping
- Geospatial data analytics
The faculty and staff in the Georgia State University Department of Geosciences are well networked in GIS-related industries and firms in the Atlanta area and beyond. Through applied projects, students will gain real-world experience in utilizing mapping and geospatial technologies to address pressing social and environmental concerns.
Our faculty have expertise in GIS, geography and geology, and we specialize in the social and environmental dimensions of water, environmental geochemistry, global climate change and solving urban environmental problems.
All courses required to earn the certificate can be completed online. Courses are taught asynchronously. There may be opportunities for workshops or tutorial session on campus.
Geosciences B.A./M.S. and B.S./M.S.
Geosciences B.A./M.S. and B.S./M.S.
Georgia State University students can fast-track their education and save money on tuition by earning bachelor's and master's degrees in geosciences in as little as five years.
Students can choose from a B.A. or B.S. program, enrolling in graduate courses late in their undergraduate program that count toward both the bachelor’s and M.S. in Geosciences degree. Students in the 4+1 "Dual Degree" program can choose from a wide range of areas of study to match their interests and career goals:
- Bachelor of Arts concentrations are offered in geography and urban studies.
- Bachelor of Sciences concentrations are offered in geology, environmental geosciences, geography and urban studies.
- The Master of Science program offers concentrations in geography, geology and water sciences.
The Department of Geosciences includes a diverse faculty of scholars from the disciplines of geography, geology and hydrology. Research clusters in the department investigate pressing urban environmental issues, including water, from water governance to water quality and quantity, climate change and quantity, geochemical processes, and geographical information systems and informatics.