About the MA in Women’s Spirituality
Description of Our Programs
The Women’s Spirituality movement offers many paths that support the pursuit of an authentic spiritual quest while simultaneously engaging with the core ecosocial justice issues of our time.
At CIIS, the Women’s Spirituality (WSE) programs constitute leading sites for the academic study of these phenomena. Our distinguished faculty includes several intellectual pioneers in Women’s Spirituality whose work is internationally known and whose methodology encompasses diverse epistemological traditions.
The WSE programs are based on the study of women and world religions. Scholarship in this area includes the philosophy, cultural history, and embodied wisdom found in diverse spiritual traditions; the “submerged” beliefs of subaltern cultures; and the emergent chorus of women’s voices from disparate postcolonial, sociocultural, and academic locations.
Epistemological frameworks utilized by our faculty and students include womanist, feminist, mujerista, and postcolonial worldviews.
They embody our belief in engaged spirituality, and in personal, social, and planetary transformation, as well as our commitment to an inclusive ecosocial vision of peace, justice, and sustainability.
We believe that the academic exploration of women’s spirituality is a fertile area within academia and a source of deeply needed insightful and critical work that is sorely needed by the world today.
MA in Philosophy and Religion, Concentration in Women's Spirituality
The Women's Spirituality MA degree in Philosophy and Religion explores the multicultural and transhistorical resources that are the foundation for bodies of knowledge and scholarship that address the diversity of women's spiritual experiences.
All MA students take PARW 6500: Contemporary Women's Spirituality, or its online equivalent, PARW 6786: Embodying the Present: Women's Spirituality. These two portal courses are the program's community-building courses, and we recommend that students enroll in them in the first semester possible.
MA students must also take the two foundational courses, PARW 7609: Womanist-Feminist Worldviews and PARW 7585: Spirit, Compassion, and Community Activism, a community service course.
A scholarly review of contemporary elements of academic research and writing modalities is provided in PARW 6027-01: Foundational Elements of Research and Writing (or its online equivalent PARW 6027-02), which is taken by all MA and PhD students.
MA students must take courses in Philosophy and Religion (3 units in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness; 3 units in Asian and Comparative Studies; and 3 units in Women's Spirituality).
MA students also take 3 units of coursework in Women's Mysteries, Sacred Arts and Healing, and 6 units from one of the 5 core areas of study. MA students who choose to write a thesis are strongly encouraged to take PARW 8012: Women's Spirituality Research Methodologies.
To receive the MA degree, the student must complete an MA Capstone Project. This may be a portfolio project, an advanced research paper or an MA thesis.
MA Areas of Study
Students select directed elective courses from the following five areas of study:
- Women and World Religions
- Feminist and Ecofeminist Philosophy
- Women's Mysteries, Sacred Arts and Healing
- Cultural History, Archaeomythology, and EcoSocial Anthropology
- Justice, Community, Sustainability/Peace and Partnership Studies
Community Service
Students are required to complete 60 hours of community-based, in-service learning with a nonprofit community organization, in conjunction with the Spirit, Compassion, and Community Activism course.
Some of these hours may be in-house service for the WSE program (for example, work on the OCHRE Journal of Women's Spirituality, or student coordination of the New Moon Forums).
Students choosing this option must consult with the program chair. For more specific details, consult the instructor, Susan G. Carter, and the syllabus. Though this course is offered for 1 to 3 units, WSE students are only required to take this course for 1 unit. Students wishing to take it for more than 1 unit must obtain the approval of their advisor.
Length of Study
It is possible to finish the course work required for the MA degree in four semesters or two years if the student is not planning to write a thesis and is enrolled on a full-time basis.
MA students who choose to write an (optional) MA thesis require at least one additional semester in order to complete their studies. However, full-time enrollment is not required by the program, and many students who work or who have other commitments choose to enroll part-time.
Most of these students will finish their MA degree in approximately three years.
Community Building
Orientation and community building for our semi-distance students takes place during the annual Nine-Day WSE Intensive in mid-August. It also occurs during the online, required, introductory portal course (Embodying the Present).
Semi-distance students who attend the Intensive are encouraged to stay an additional day for the CIIS New Student Orientation, which usually occurs on the day after the last WSE Intensive class.
WSE semi-distance students are encouraged to have face-to-face visits with CIIS staff in the Financial Aid office, the Library, and other relevant Institute departments and programs at that time, as well as to meet other WSE faculty.
When semi-distance students travel to CIIS to attend WSE weekend residential courses taught by the core or adjunct faculty, they are encouraged to have face-to-face advising sessions and/or meetings with other WSE core faculty whenever possible.
In addition, WSE semi-distance students are always invited to attend WSE program meetings or student presentations that may occur while they are at CIIS.
