Jul 12, 2025  
2025 - 2026 Graduate Catalog 
    
2025 - 2026 Graduate Catalog

College of Liberal Arts


Samantha A. Morgan-Curtis, Ph.D., Dean 
112 Crouch Hall 
615-963-1536 
scurtis@tnstate.edu 

The College of Liberal Arts offers academic programs designed to engage students in the study of human experience and human potential and to equip them for creatively, critically, and collaboratively shaping their lives, careers, and communities. At the graduate level, the College offers a Master of Criminal Justice degree. The College also offers courses in English, Geography, History, Music, and Political Science for students pursuing advanced study in these disciplines in association with graduate programs in Education. 

Core Values 

Integrative Learning: Liberal Arts programs recognize education as an inherently connected, cumulative, and student-centered experience in which learning occurs across courses and across disciplines. 

Creativity: Liberal Arts programs value and nurture originality, imagination, discovery, the active creation and appreciation of beauty, and the unique voice of each student. Rather than providing “training”, they seek to inspire students and draw inspiration from them. 

Responsibility: Liberal Arts programs recognize the development of integrity, ethical thinking, and social and environmental awareness as essential goals of a college education. 

Critical Thinking and Reasoned Judgment: Liberal Arts programs recognize discourse and the construction of knowledge as human activities requiring the questioning of assumptions, logical reasoning, analysis and synthesis, the appreciation of multiple perspectives, self-awareness, empathetic capacity, and civility. 

Professional Competency: Liberal Arts programs value, model, and cultivate excellence in written and oral communication, task organization, collaboration, quantitative thinking, and literacy in information technology, equipping students with transferable professional skills. 

Student Service and Support: Liberal Arts programs recognize the quality of the individual student’s educational experience as the primary measure of their effectiveness and are committed to the highest standards of service for both traditional and non-traditional students in curriculum design, course offering, instruction, learning assessment, co-curricular activities, and academic and career advisement. 

Accreditation 

Individual academic programs in the College of Liberal Arts are accredited by the national, regional, and state agencies that accredit programs. The Music program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). All teacher certification programs in the College are approved by the Tennessee Department of Education, and the teacher certification program of the University is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). 

 

Department of Criminal Justice

Jonathan Odo, Ph.D., Chair
315 Hubert B. Crouch Hall 
615-963-5962
jodo1@tnstate.edu  

Michael Montgomery, Ph.D., Program Coordinator 
309 Hubert B. Crouch Hall
615-963-5588 
mmontgomery@tnstate.edu 

Major: Criminal Justice 
Degree: Master of Criminal Justice 

The requirements for the Master of Criminal Justice include the successful completion of thirty-six (36) hours of graduate coursework.  The thesis or non-thesis (comprehensive examination) will be supervised by faculty designated at the time of admission to candidacy.  

Graduate Faculty  

Department of History, Political Science, Geography, and Africana Studies 

Adebayo Oyebade, Ph.D., Chair 
216 Hubert B. Crouch Hall 
615-963-5471
aoyebade@tnstate.edu 

The Department of History, Political Science, Geography, and Africana Studies offers graduate courses in History, Political Science, and Geography.

Graduate Faculty  

Department of Music

Richard Todd, Ph.D., Interim Chair
104 Performing Arts Center
615-963-5341
rtodd@tnstate.edu

The Department of Music offers graduate courses in Music. Students may earn a Music concentration under the M.Ed. degree in Curriculum and Instruction. See the M.Ed. requirements in the College of Education.

 

Programs

Department of Criminal Justice

Go to information for this department.

Department of History, Political Science, Geography, and Africana Studies

Go to information for this department.