Master's Program

Pictured, a bustling crowd of people traverse a busy outdoor plaza on UB’s North Campus, with a long windowed “skywalk” behind them that connects two buildings. Intentionally blurred to capture their movement, some people come toward the camera and others move away from it with a young, white-presenting person with short dark hair using a power chair in the center of the frame.

Master of Arts (MA) in “Humanities - Interdisciplinary” with a formal concentration in Disability Studies

Through an interdisciplinary curriculum, this innovative program provides students with the knowledge base and theoretical means to question conventional understandings of the “normal” body and mind. Both core and elective courses analyze disability and the lives of people with disabilities as they are represented in history, literature, sociology, anthropology, architecture and other humanities-based disciplines.

The program is a perfect complement to an education in the medical and clinical fields, for professionals and pre-professionals in fields such as rehabilitation science, occupational and physical therapy, nursing, social work, and various support services, as well as architecture and planning. The program will also be of interest to public school teachers and administrators developing curriculum for primary and secondary schools in disability-related subject matter; and to those graduate students in other disciplines who may be interested in thinking in complex ways about the body, gender, sex, sexuality, and race.

Degree Requirements

  • Students will be admitted to the program by the Director of the Center for Disability Studies acting in concert with an admissions committee.
  • Students will complete a total of 30 units of core and elective courses that have been approved by the Center for Disability Studies, plus 6 units of supervised project or internship.
    • Students will take 5 core courses (totaling 15 units) as part of the degree.
      • All students must take Introduction to Disability Studies and Disability History I during their first year in the program.
    • The remaining 3 core courses (totaling 9 units) may be taken anytime during the student’s tenure.
    • Students will take 5 elective courses (totaling 15 units) as part of the degree.
    • Students will take 6 units (1 course per semester) of supervised project or internship credit during their final year in the program.
  • Students will select their electives from the list of pre-approved elective courses within the Disability Studies Concentration.
  • Advanced students may petition the Director of the Center for Disability Studies to take elective courses that do not appear on the list of electives, but are directly relevant to their own interests within disability studies.

Applying to the program

For full consideration for fall semester, please submit all application materials by June 30. 

For full consideration for spring semester, please submit all application materials by October 31.

Admissions

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