News2016April

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News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking

University of Massachusetts Boston
22 April 2016
Contents
Student matters, CCT community,
CCT events, alums, other events,
opportunities, resources,
food for thought, humor
 Other Links
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Student Matters
Registration for summer courses is open. Some courses are seminars with special themes - see additional course descriptions for details.
CRCRTH 611 Seminar in Critical Thinking (Theme: Design for Living Complexities)
hybrid format, July 18-August 25th, 2016; Class meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:00-8:00pm EST starting July 18. Face-to-face students: register for class #2138; online students register for class #2074)
CRCRTH 612 Seminar in Creativity (Theme: Overcoming Creative Blocks)
online format, May 31-July 14, 2016; Register for class #2075
CRCRTH 619 Biomedical Ethics
online format, July 18-August 25, 2016; Register for class #2076
CRCRTH 627 Issues and Controversies in Antiracist and Multicultural Education
online format, May 31-July 14 2016; Register for class #2077

The CCT program is hosting an Open Studios Tour on May 2, 2016. The tour includes visits to local graduates of the CCT program who will share perspectives on how their studies contributed to their ongoing work and projects. Current and prospective students and graduates are encouraged to contact cct@umb.edu if you would like to attend, as there is limited space available. For the day's schedule and details, see http://www.cct.umb.edu/CCTNetwork2May2016.html.

A number of small grants for current graduate students are available through the Graduate Student Assembly at UMass Boston. See below under Opportunities for full details.

Spring 2016 Commencement events take place the week of May 23-27. Graduate Commencement takes place on Thursday, May 26th at 3:00pm at UMass Boston campus, Clark Athletic Center. The College of Advancing and Professional Studies is hosting a Brunch celebration for graduates on Thursday, May 26th at 10:30am at the Bayside Building at 150 Mt. Vernon St.


CCT Community
Current CCT student Jill Corson Lake announces the launch of the Environmental Education web site, http://www.gufsee.org/, for the Garrison School (Garrison, NY). Jill's CCT study has involved work to collaborate with her local community in the development of environmental education and preservation of environmental resources connected to the Garrison Union Free School district.

Meghann McNiff (CCT '05) reflects on her CCT experience in a recent blog post, "How I Lost My First Book".

Luanne Witkowski (CCT faculty and graduate, '03) has a new solo art exhibit, "New Observations," on display at the Kingston Gallery, Boston, MA and is giving an artist talk at 2:00pm on Sunday, April 24th at the gallery. The talk is open to the public.

Professor Peter Taylor led a Dialogue and Collaborative Exploration series at the Cambridge Science Festival on Wednesday, April 20th in Cambridge, MA. Topics included "Science and policy that would improve responses to extreme climatic events", and "Genetic Purification or Biomedical Revolution?". The festival continues through April 24th. See http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/.

CCT Events
CCT Open House: Spring 2016 Student Capstone Presentations
Monday, May 2: UMass Boston Campus Center room 3540, 4:00-9:30pm EST
Tuesday, May 3: UMass Boston Campus Center room 2540, 4:00-9:30pm EST
Online participation possible via Google Hangout: RSVP to cct@umb.edu for instructions to join online.
Full schedule and details
Please join us for presentations from students completing coursework in the CCT program's Synthesis and Reflective Practice courses. Free and open to all, refreshments will be served. Students in the courses develop projects around a variety of topics, so this is a chance to see a range of the kinds of issues that are explored by students in the program.

Alum and CCT associates Notes
Recent CCT student Mary Lou Horn reports:
"I am employed part-time at a multi-service organization and work with adult learners preparing to test to earn a High School Equivalency. Everyday, I draw from my studies and learning in CCT. I still teach English at Middlesex for the joy of it - one course per semester."

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
UMass Boston Annual Faculty Research Celebration
The Teaching Soul: Research and Mentoring
More information: https://www.umb.edu/news_events_media/events/the_teaching_soul_research_and_mentoring
April 27, 2016, 3:00–5:00 p.m.
UMB Campus Center, Alumni Lounge (second floor, Room 2551)
This event showcases faculty members working with students supported by the Beacon Student Success Fellowship Program. The fellowship provides UMass Boston students with financial support for unpaid experiential learning activities such as internships, service learning, civic engagement projects, and mentored research experiences in the summer. Faculty will describe their research and the value in research and learning that students gain from their experience as participants, researchers, and learners. Summer project participating students, under the auspices of the research and instructional faculty, will describe their experience as a learner, researcher, and/or mentee. The participants will also talk about the future of this type of learning and teaching community.

UMass Boston Conflict Resolution Program 30th Anniversary Celebration
Thursday, April 28, 2016; 5:00pm: annual Sylvia and Benjamin Slomoff Lectureship, Dr. Trita Parsi: "Iran After the Nuclear Deal: Implications for the Region". See this page to register.

Workshop: Critical Thinking for ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) Professionals
May 26-27, 2016 9:00am-5:00pm (day 1) and 9:00am-2:00pm (day 2, optional)
Location: Boston, MA; MWI, 10 Liberty Square, 4th floor
For more information and to register: http://tiny.cc/adr_critical_thinking
Presenter - Ashok Pannikar of MetaCulture, Bangladore, India
Description: The current field of conflict resolution valorizes the role that emotion plays and teaches ways to validate them, create empathy and manage emotions. While recognizing that working with feelings and emotions is an absolute necessity, many practitioners and theoreticians have undervalued the role of reason and critical thinking in creating effective resolution and transformation. In the process the field has opened itself to accusations of hyper subjectivity, political correctness and being manipulated by groups that do not wish to have their questionable and even arbitrary values and behaviors examined. Most of all by neglecting the role that critical thinking can play in problem definition, analysis and problem solving we have compromised our ability to create powerful processes that can seriously shift and transform conversations about ethnicity, religion, migration and climate change, among other issues.
It is our belief that practitioners of conflict resolution need a deep knowledge and appreciation of critical thinking. Participants in both the webinar and workshop will learn about:
The workshop will look closely at the material above and will also focus on ways to facilitate change and transformation by helping clarify the party’s unconscious thinking processes Challenging foundational assumptions, premises and world views that parties may hold that may be keys to their being ‘stuck’. Participants will also begin to develop the skills and dispositions needed to intelligently probe for information; see patterns and make meaning of available data without being influenced unwittingly by their own biases; and advocate objectively and more effectively. The integration of Critical Thinking processes in conventional conflict resolution processes will radically change the way in which you practice as a mediator and facilitator. It will also give you the tools and abilities to go beyond the emotional world of the client (valuable as it is) and into the realm of their philosophic and conceptual framework thereby allowing for a more complex, honest and robust communication.

Opportunities
Grants for Graduate Students (Graduate Student Assembly, UMass Boston)
See additional details at https://gsaumb.wordpress.com/programs-and-grants/

Resources
Teaching & Learning: The Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reflective Practice offers research findings, thinking, and insights into experience about reflective practice in areas of education and human services work. For current and past issues, see http://journal.und.edu/tljournal. Free to read online upon registration.

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)
The Danger of Making Assumptions About Privilege
How An 8-Year-Old Changed My Entire Approach To Design
Confirmation Bias in Action: Critical Thinking While Parenting
Syrian Artist Seeks College Education From an Unexpected Place
Organization is a Skill, Not a Trait
I called Sweden's official phone number, and this is what happened
13 apps that promote higher-order thinking standards
The Five Tenets of Personalized Learning
The Man Who May One-Up Darwin
Garbage Man Creates Amazing Trash Museum After 30 Years of Collecting What You Throw Away
Ancient Civilizations Couldn’t See the Color Blue
Live Each Day Like It's Your ... First?
Where College Admissions Went Wrong
Islam’s forgotten bohemians
Galileo’s reputation is more hyperbole than truth
Before-and-After Photos of the World's Best Street Designs
Testing for Joy and Grit? Schools Nationwide Push to Measure Students’ Emotional Skills
No, Wait, Short Conversations Really Can Reduce Prejudice

Humor
On finishing final graduate projects