Do you crave intellectual stimulation?  Do you love books? Do you want to impress people with your knowledge of history, literature, and the arts?  Do you want to be a better conversationalist and more interesting person?  Do you want to improve your critical-thinking and writing skills?   

If you want to be a better thinker, writer, speaker, and more interesting person, the MLA degree is an innovative approach to graduate education that is just right for you!  Conventional master's degrees generally concentrate on a particular discipline such as history or literature. Your MLA experience, however, recognizes the value of a broad education.  All of your MLA classes combine elements of history, philosophy, literature, art, film, music, and more so that you can make important and insightful connections that would not be possible if you were in a conventional master’s program.

For example, your course on Ancient Greece might include discussions of philosophy, art, history, politics, theater, war, science, gender issues, and economics.  The result of such an approach is that you leave your courses with a well-rounded understanding of a particular topic.   Students in a traditional masters program often suffer from a narrow specialization that limits their understanding of the world.  As an MLA graduate, you can make connections and hold conversations on topics that will impress people.  

The MLA concept is not new.  The first interdisciplinary master's degree in liberal arts was first offered by Wesleyan University in Connecticut in the early 1950s. Since then, a variety of universities and colleges, including Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, Harvard, Tulane, LSU., and SMU., have initiated similar master's programs. Our MLA program was started in 1985.   We are a full member in the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs (AGLSP), a consortium of over one hundred colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada that offer interdisciplinary liberal arts master's degrees. 

The MLA program at Houston Baptist University is the first and oldest graduate liberal arts program in Houston!

 The new Academic Center at HBU, opened this fall 2008!