The Graduate Liberal Studies Program awards a Certificate in Great Books to the student who completes five Great Books courses.

Certificate Program Courses

The appropriate courses may be known in several ways. They might be among the core courses in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program. These will be interdisciplinary and team-taught, and new courses of this type are continually developed. They will have "Great Books" (or "Great Plays") in their titles. Examples are "Great Books in Philosophy and Theology" and "Great Books in History and Sociology."

The other way to identify courses which will count towards the Certificate in Great Books is that the course titles, and these in many Graduate Departments, contain the name of a recognized Great Books author, or even the book's title. Examples are a Theology course in St. Augustine, or an English course in Dickens, or a Psychology course in Wundt, or a Philosophy course in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit.

These authors of the Great Books, and the titles of their books, may be known, for instance, from Mortimer J. Adler (ed.), Great Books of the Western World, published by Encyclopedia Britannica and available in many libraries. You may also consult "A List of the Great Books," which is the Appendix (pp. 373-389) in Mortimer J. Adler, How to Read a Book (Simon and Shuster; NY, 1940). Other authors and titles may be approved by the LST Director before the course is taken.

Amount of Courses

• Apply for acceptance as a matriculated student in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program.
• Take five appropriate Great Books courses. (After acceptance into the program, with the advice of the LST Director.)
• For current bachelor's degree students need take only the five courses.
• Students with a bachelor's degree seeking the M.A. in Liberal Studies as their final goal can receive the Certificate in Great Books along the way by taking the five appropriate courses among the ten needed for the M.A.
• Students already possessing an M.A. or other graduate degree may receive the Certificate by taking five more courses chosen from those appropriate for this degree.