Graduate Fields of Study

Naropa University faculty, under the direction of the vice president for academic affairs, has established requirements and criteria for graduation with the degree of Master of Arts, Master of Divinity or Master of Fine Arts. These include both the breadth and depth of study traditionally associated with the liberal arts tradition in higher education. In addition, the university's contemplative arts requirements effectively unite classroom learning with personal awareness disciplines.

The Department of Contemplative Education was founded on a nonsectarian, yet distinctly Shambhala Buddhist, approach to teacher education. In addition to degree programs, it also offers an Alternative Teacher Licensure Program for aspiring teachers to earn their initial teaching license.

The newly designed Environmental Leadership program prepares the next generation of thinkers and practitioners to lead organizational and community transformation toward the creation of an environmentally just and sustainable society.

Two distinct Graduate Theater programs are offered: the Contemporary Performance program in Boulder and, in cooperation with the London International School of the Performing Arts, the Lecoq Based Actor Created Theater program in London.

Naropa University’s Graduate School of Psychology houses three vibrant departments offering academically rigorous and personally transformative programs at the cutting edge of psychology.

The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, which is comprised of the Department of Writing & Poetics and the Summer Writing Program, has as its mission the education of students as knowledgeable practitioners of the literary arts.

Graduate programs offered through the Department of Religious Studies are approached within the context of the individual, how religion operates in culture and how religion addresses questions of life's ultimate values.