Liberal Arts & Sciences
MFA candidates enroll in one graduate-level art history course and three graduate-level liberal arts and sciences elective classes from a broad range of topics. These course selections support advanced research, in-depth understanding of various topics, and writing skills for students’ thesis development.
Graduate students choose courses, in consultation with their graduate and advisors, that are relevant to their artistic practices and the subject matter of their studio-based work.
SMFA at Tufts allows students to take advantage of the community and resources of a Tier 1 research university though courses and collaborations across the schools of Tufts University, bridging research and leveraging a diverse set of skills to inform their work.
For example, Kenson Truong, MFA '18, explored themes of race, gender, sexual orientation, cultural context, and personal identity in his studio practice. Long enthralled by cephalopods and their exceptional capacity for camouflage and adaptation, as well as their cognitive ability to engineer escapes, he explored these themes throughout his work, which included visual devices of camouflage through text, light, and sculptural installation. In his words, "coming to Tufts and studying marine biology, learning the accurate language, analyzing data, and going deeper into the concepts and also philosophy has enriched my practice."