According to its website, Indiana University has announced a new joint, Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing and African American and African Diaspora Studies (AAADS). IU’s MA/MFA degree, a four-year course of study, is the first such program in the country. “The new degree is the result of strong interest shown by many of our students in combining their imaginative writing with traditional academic scholarship related to the African and African American experience,” said Samrat Upadhyay, director of IU’s Creative Writing Program. “The program allows students to synthesize critical studies of the African diaspora, especially in literature, with creative and original works of poetry and prose.” Examples of course offerings were given in the announcement: “Students in this program could take a fiction workshop along with a course on traditions in African American novels, a poetry workshop with a course of contemporary black poetry, or a course on Harlem Renaissance with a study of the theory and craft of writing.” Upadhyay stressed the benefits available to graduates of the program. “The joint degree’s emphasis on interdisciplinary and cross-methodological study and training will, inevitably, increase choices in career paths for its graduates,” said Upadhyay. “This is the triumphant realization of the mission of diversity shared by the Creative Writing Program, the Department of AAADS, and Indiana University.”