Each semester, the Graduate Humanities Program engages the intersection of the arts, literature, culture, and history within an open, exploratory, and experimental educational environment.
Students enrolled in the Graduate Humanities Program explore broad interdisciplinary issues through a diverse array of course offerings. Most of these are offered in a virtual seminar format: discussion-based graduate-level courses focused on reading, open and regular dialogue, collaborative and interactive interpretation, research and writing.
While several seminars are discipline-specific (our core curriculum, for example), most are designed to go beyond individual disciplines and enlist students in the cross-disciplinary study of the humanities.
Click on the links below for registration information for individual seminars. You can find general registration information on the MU Registrar website.
For previous seminar schedules, see our “Previous GHP Seminar Schedules” site.
Before joining any of our seminars, familiarize yourself with the Program’s Seminar Rules of Engagement.
Spring 2026
A&S 600: Selected Topics – Arts in Appalachia (VIRTUAL) (Lassiter), Tuesdays, 7 — 9:50 PM
This course will explore the arts in Appalachia through historical, cultural, and ethnographic lens.
- Luke Eric Lassiter is director of the Graduate Humanities Program and professor of humanities and anthropology.
An introductory graduate course on aspects of disabilities (i.e. cultural, accessibility, and how disability impacts individuals). This course will focus on themes of disability and humanity and society, and will include foci on Appalachia.
Both MA in Humanities and Certificate in Appalachian Studies students are encouraged to take this seminar.
This seminar is part of a larger project to bring MA in Humanities students and Graduate Humanities Program faculty together to collaboratively co-teach courses on common interests. MA student Courtney Danielson and Marshall award-winning faculty Dr. Lori Howard are the co-instructors for this course.
- Courtney Danielson is an academic librarian at the University of Charleston and a graduate student in Marshall’s Humanities program. She has interests in fiction as a learning tool and disability and worker-class representation in fiction. Her publications include the short story, “No Need for the Green Knight” in Flame Tree Press’s Morgana Le Fay Antholo.
- Lori Howard is a Professor of Special Education at Marshall University where she has received the Pickens-Queen Excellence in Teaching award and two Hedrick awards for Team Collaboration for Teaching Innovation. Currently, she is the Co-Director of the Center for Healthy Aging Initiatives in Appalachia focused on the needs of older adults in this region.
HIST 600: Selected Topics – Appalachian Studies Research, Arranged (VIRTUAL) (contact Director)
For students enrolled in the Appalachian Studies Certificate who are working on research projects in the Appalachian region. Registration by permission only. Contact the Director.
HUMN 602: Historical Studies (VIRTUAL) (Lassiter), Wednesdays, 7 – 9:50 PM
Core course acquaints students with problems of historical knowledge, changes in the interpretation of history, nature of historical forces, and methods of historical research.
HUMN 680 – Independent Research Symposium, Arranged (contact Director)
A pro-seminar required of all Humanities degree students who are beginning the thesis or final project. Arranged with the Program Director.
LITS 600: Selected Topics – Memoir (VIRTUAL) (Pleska), Mondays, 7 – 9:50 PM
Memoir (from French meaning memory or reminiscence) is a collection of memories that an individual writes about moments or events that took place in one’s life. Memoir dates back to the writings of the Roman Seneca and St. Augustine’s Confessions, but it has only been in the last several decades that the genre has stepped up in its rightful place next to poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Memoir is one of the subgenres of Creative Nonfiction and this class will explore this literary, creative genre through major texts, shorter selections, and historical examples. No one needs extensive practice in writing memoir to take this course, but you will be asked what it means to remember, to reflect, and to shape those memories in your own voice. The students in this class will complete a “mini” memoir. Publication in this genre will also be covered.
- Cat Pleska is an award-winning author and teacher. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goucher College. Her first memoir, Riding on Comets was published in 2015 by WVU Press. The second memoir, My Life in Water, was published by Uncollected Press in 2024. Her personal essays and memoir excerpts have been published in many literary magazines. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Award twice and teaches Creative Nonfiction and Appalachian Studies courses.