News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts Boston5 June 2019
Student Matters
Registration is still open for the following summer 2019 courses. See the descriptions, and enroll through WISER (current students) or here, for non-degree registration.
CrCrTh 618 Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Organizational Change
All-day workshops on Friday and Saturday over three consecutive weeks.
9:00am-4:15pm, July 12-13, July 19-20, July 26-27, 2019; Format: Hybrid (on campus, with option for online participation).
Register for class #2225.
CrCrTh 619 Biomedical Ethics
Online, July 15 - August 22, 2019. Register for class #2224.
Fall 2019 courses: please see this page.
Congrats to May/August graduates: Russell DeLuka-Kavanaugh, Casey Andrews, Lauren Taub, Azra Caus, Laura White, Charity Southworth, Totsaporn (Ted) Intarabumrung, (not shown: Janell Burley Hofmann, Courtney Moses, Philip MacDonald, Sandra McCollin)
CCT Community
The Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection provides abstracts and full-text versions of capstone projects by students finishing the MA degree. See the site for new additions and archives going back to 1980.
CCT Events
Journeys: Changing Our Schools, Workplaces, and Lives Works-in-progress from a conference-workshop to mark 40 years of the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking (A working paper created by participants of the CCT 40th Anniversary workshop).
All are invited to see this compilation of works-in-progress prepared for or during a conference-workshop to mark 40 years of the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The contributions illustrate how preparing for and participating in the conference-workshop provided an opportunity to reflect on ways that developing as a critical, creative, and reflective practitioner is like a journey into unfamiliar areas—journeying involves risk, opens up questions, creates more experiences than can be integrated at first, requires support, and yields personal and professional change.
Alum and CCT associates Notes
Crystal King (CCT alum, '04) released her new book, The Chef's Secret in February. Her second historical novel is set in Renaissance Rome and details the mysterious life of one of the most famous chefs in history and tells the story of Bartolomeo Scappi, the private chef to four Popes and the author of one of history’s best selling cookbooks. His nephew and apprentice, Giovanni, is on a quest to find out the truth about his uncle and the fifty-year love affair that the chef hid from the world. For more information about Crystal's work, see her web site.
Ashok Panikkar (CCT alum, '97) recently hosted a poster exhibition in Washington, DC, called "Inconvenient Questions & Unreasonable Posters", highlighting issues in democracy, critical thinking, culture, and open societies. Ashok's organization, Meta-Culture (Bangalore, India) is dedicated to making relationships more effective through conflict resolution and peacemaking engagement.
Catherine Weber (CCT alum, '99) is exhibiting her artwork until June 15th at the New Arts Center in Newtonville, MA. This exhibition, titled "Still -- Encaustic Paintings" includes work by Catherine and other artists who "are striving in their own unique ways to achieve a quiet stillness in their work…They observed a harmony, stillness, and tranquility that united their individual styles and expressions. Each artist explores texture, color, and shape to convey serenity, tranquility, and calm, often drawing inspiration from water and seascapes." See the exhibition web site for more information.
Dan Clawson, a founder of PHENOM and a key figure in public higher education advocacy for a generation, recently passed away. died suddenly early on Tuesday morning. Dan, a sociology professor at UMass Amherst, president of the faculty and librarian union at UMass Amherst, was a pioneer in developing the idea of an independent organization to advocate for public higher education. During a visit to Umass by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in 2006, Dan orchestrated the writing of a visionary statement of the goals for public higher education. Two months later, PHENOM was born. Read full article…
CCT alums and associates are encouraged to send items of interest to
the Critical and Creative Thinking community to be included in future
newsletters. Please submit events, announcements, and opportunities
through this form: http://bit.ly/CCTSICWi
Events
Creative Communities Exchange To be Held in
Montpelier, Vermont, June 6-7
CCX 2019 will gather New England leaders who are invested in the creative economy to network, share best practices, and devise long-range projects to spur development through the arts. The Exchange, a biennial event that rotates among different New England communities, serves as bridge between the creative sector and community development. For more information and to register, see the web site.
Seeking writers for The Artifice: The Artifice project is an online magazine that is built and maintained collaboratively by its writers and covers a wide spectrum of art forms, including Film, Anime, Comics, Literature, Games, and Arts. It is collaboratively built and maintained by the writers. Instead of recycling the same entertainment news stories or publishing commonplace editorials, The Artifice focus on unique topics that are intellectually stimulating and meaningful. We are currently expanding and we would like to provide an opportunity for your students and faculty to join our team of writers. Our writers range from undergraduates to emeritus professors. See the web site for information on joining our community.
Call for Proposals: 12th Annual Mentoring Conference: Towards The Science of Mentoring
Monday, October 21st - Friday, October 25th, 2019, Albuquerque, New Mexico
We are looking for proposals from researchers and practitioners that increase our understanding of mentoring evidence-based effective practices. We would like to expand the evidence and theoretical base from which attendees at the Mentoring Conference can draw, while also providing the groundwork for the transition of well-evaluated programs into scientific projects. Preference will be given to proposals that:
-Build on existing literature and/or research frameworks
-Propose new methodologies and/or evaluation models
-Promote diversity, inclusion, and cross-cultural relationships
-Spark fruitful conversation during and after the conference
Submit your abstract today at: https://mentor.unm.edu/conference/submit_abstract
UMB University Health Services offers a number of on-campus and public resources related to health and wellness, available to all students. Resources range from flu shots to counseling services to first aid training, and several other group meeting and workshop opportunities are available. See their web site for comprehensive listing of all resources and services.
Food for Thought
(additional web links and posts can also be found on CCT's Diigo pages. General critical and creative thinking focus: https://groups.diigo.com/group/ccreflect; Science in a Changing World focus: https://groups.diigo.com/group/sicwumb)
Video:
What it means to be a good ally in 2019 (Consider It)
Articles:
The 13 Best Diagrams To Unleash Your Teams' Creativity Through Design Thinking (Forbes)
Separated by Design: How Some of America’s Richest Towns Fight Affordable Housing (Mother Jones)
“I’m a Capitalist,” Says Warren…But Why? (Common Dreams)
A Fire at the Highlander Center Won’t Stop this Legendary Civil Rights Movement Training Organization (Teen Vogue)
The Radical Plan to Save the Planet by Working Less (Vice)
100 Most Creative People in Business 2019 (Fast Company)
Where Should Students Learn How to Think? (The Atlantic)
Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions (109 Models Explained) (FS Blog)
MassArt students create toys for elephants at New Bedford zoo (Boston Globe)
How healthy is the internet? (Internet Health Report)
Education, Equity, and Empathy: A Brighter Vision of the Future of VR (Joan Ganz Cooney Center)
Toward a New Frontier in Human Intelligence: The Person-Centered Approach (Scientific American)
Will Critical Thinking Save Us from Misinformation? (Psychology Today)
How One District Learned to Talk About Race (Cult of Pedagogy)
This is how you train your brain to be more creative (Fast Company)
Humor
Pictures of Walls: The best worst graffiti in the world