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
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.
Geosciences B.S./M.S.
Geosciences 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 a 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 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.
Geosciences, M.S., Geography Concentration
Geosciences
The Master of Science in Geosciences with a Geography concentration allow students to specialize in urban studies, geospatial technologies or physical geography/environmental studies. Thesis and capstone tracks are available.
The Department of Geosciences is distinctive because it spans the social and physical dimensions of environmental and resource issues, with a special focus on urban communities.
Our faculty have expertise in the social and environmental dimensions of water, environmental geochemistry and global climate change. We are also expanding our Geographic Information Science research and teaching to better represent and describe the complexity of social and environmental concerns.
Joining forces with our students and community partners, we tackle the interrelated environmental and social challenges of the 21st century that involve the quality, quantity and sustainable use of our natural resources.
Geosciences, M.S., Geology Concentration
The Master of Science (M.S.) degree program with a Geology concentration offers a broad range of courses that prepare students for research and professional careers. Thesis and capstone option programs are offered. Research efforts are in the following broad areas: geochemistry (analytical, aqueous, environmental, igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary), mineralogy, hydrogeology, petrology, sedimentology, structural geology and geoinformatics.
The Department of Geosciences is distinctive because it spans the social and physical dimensions of environmental and resource issues, with a special focus on urban communities.
Our faculty have expertise in the social and environmental dimensions of water, environmental geochemistry and global climate change. We are also expanding our Geographic Information Science research and teaching to better represent and describe the complexity of social and environmental concerns.
Joining forces with our students and community partners, we tackle the interrelated environmental and social challenges of the 21st century that involve the quality, quantity and sustainable use of our natural resources.
Geosciences, M.S., Water Sciences Concentration
Employers in the public sector and private industry are hungry for people who understand aquatic systems. The M.S. degree program with a Water Sciences concentration provides students with a knowledge of the quality and quantity of water in the environment and modern techniques to assess, model and remediate aquatic environmental problems. Students can choose a thesis or capstone option.
The Department of Geosciences is distinctive because it spans the social and physical dimensions of environmental and resource issues, with a special focus on urban communities.
Our faculty have expertise in the social and environmental dimensions of water, environmental geochemistry and global climate change. We are also expanding our Geographic Information Science research and teaching to better represent and describe the complexity of social and environmental concerns.
Joining forces with our students and community partners, we tackle the interrelated environmental and social challenges of the 21st century that involve the quality, quantity and sustainable use of our natural resources.
Gerontology, M.A.
The Master of Arts (M.A.) in Gerontology program is designed for students preparing for leadership positions in the field of aging and those interested in becoming gerontological researchers.
The M.A. program offers an interdisciplinary curriculum that provides in-depth exposure to issues, knowledge and research about aging processes, older people and the needs of an aging population. Our program offers an intimate, nurturing and stimulating environment in which to learn.
Students choose one of two concentrations:
- Program Administration, which includes an internship in the field and a capstone project or
- Research, which culminates in a thesis.
About one-fifth of our graduates go on to earn a Ph.D. in gerontology, sociology or other related fields.
Heritage Preservation, MHP
The Master of Heritage Preservation (MHP) program offers compelling opportunities to pursue careers relating to the preservation and interpretation of cultural heritage. Based in the Department of History, the program and its faculty emphasize the theory and practice of protecting and communicating the significance of our tangible and intangible heritage. Much of the coursework involves collaboration with community partners and cultural organizations to produce practical learning experiences that take place outside the traditional classroom setting. The MHP program uses Atlanta and the surrounding area as a living laboratory from which our students obtain the skills to become future leaders in the field.
The MHP program attracts students from ages 21 to over 60, all with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests, creating an eclectic and energetic academic setting. Our students use their heritage preservation educations to teach, advocate, restore, interpret and plan for the preservation of historic resources and interpretations of history to a public audience.