News2017June
News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts Boston13 June 2017
Student Matters
All students should bookmark and refer to the following page during course planning, which indicates the master schedule for the offering of all CCT courses in upcoming years: http://www.cct.umb.edu/futureyears.html
Registration for summer 2017 is still open for the following courses. Current students may register through WISER. Courses are open to non-degree students as well, who may register here.
CRCRTH 618 Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Organizational Change (hybrid; course meets Friday, Saturday 9:00-4:15pm EDT on July 14-15, 21-22, and 28-29; face-to-face #1351, online #1272)
CRCRTH 619 Biomedical Ethics (online class #1273; July 17-Aug. 24)
Fall 2017 courses (see descriptions):
CRCRTH 601 Critical Thinking (hybrid, Tues. 4pm), CRCRTH 616 Dialogue Processes (online), CRCRTH 630 Criticism and Creativity in Literature and Arts (hybrid, Mon. 4pm), CRCRTH 650 Mathematical Thinking (hybrid, Thurs. 4pm), CRCRTH 651 Cognitive Psychology (hybrid, Thurs. 7pm), CRCRTH 692 Processes of Research & Engagement (Tues. 7pm)
CCT Community
Congratulations May and August CCT graduates Amy Seidl, David Kooharian, Kayla Faust, Brian Lax, Wipa Khampook (photo)
CCT is pleased to recognize two students to receive this year's graduation awards:
David Kooharian (Critical and Creative Thinking Award for Personal and Professional Development)
Brian Lax (Science in a Changing World Award)
Peter Taylor has two working papers uploaded and an online encyclopedia entry this month in the area of critical thinking about science in its social context:
- Genotype-phenotype distinction,
- Five Fundamental Gaps In Nature-Nurture Science,
- Heterogeneity, not randomness, sets challenges for quantitative genetics and epidemiology: A response to Davey Smith’s “gloomy prospect”
CCT Events
Fall 2017 New England Workshop on Science and Social Change (NewSSC)
Location: Arlington MA, USA*
Dates: October 2017, Fri 6th at 8:30am to Monday 9th at 5pm
(*a limited number can participate from a distance via google+ hangout)
"Most workshops are dysfunctional-this one wasn't!" read one evaluation from the first New England Workshop on Science and Social Change (NewSSC) workshop in 2004. Appreciative feedback like that may feel like validation for any workshop or collaborative processes that you facilitate, but how well can you articulate or support the principles or theory about personal and group change that underlie those processes? Moreover, how would you lead people who experience the dysfunction in many workshops, collaborations, conferences and meetings into making the effort to create something more fulfilling?
This four-day workshop is intended to allow participants to delve into the principles or theory that underlie their own workshop or collaborative processes and develop plans to make those processes more effective in some sense(s) that they deem important. Activities will, as they have at NewSSC since 2004, build on what the particular group of participants contribute and employ a range of tools and processes so as to support and learn from each other's inquiries. The topic means that the processes of the NewSSC workshop itself and the ways they make space for people to "connect, probe, reflect, and create" will end up being subject to compare-and-contrast with other approaches to workshops and generative group interactions...more
Alum and CCT associates Notes
Bertha Lucia Fries, a graduate of CCT, is both a victim of the Colombian civil war and a force for the reconciliation. This month she will tell her story at the Nobel Peace Center in Norway.
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
International Academic Training Program: 29 October - 04 November, 2017 (7 Days)
Sponsored by the Institute for Peace & Dialogue, Baar, Switzerland
Institute for Peace & Dialogue, IPD is one of the leading organiser of several successful annual international academic trainings and research programs in Switzerland in the field of peacebuilding, conflict transformation, mediation, security, intercultural dialogue and human rights which these events bring together state, private and public sector representatives.
The main goal of the 07 days international Academic Training Program is to strengthen the skills of the representatives of state organisations, business sector, INGOs/NGOs, education institutions, religious organisations, independent mediators and politicians through institutional global academic education in Mediation, Conflict Management, Leadership, Trauma Healing & Cross Cultural Communication.
Deadline for Applications: 07 August, 2017
Program Link: http://www.ipdinstitute.ch/International-Training-3-Month-CAS-Research-Program-October-2017-January,-2018/
Opportunities
Call for Papers: Thirteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society, held 27-29 June 2018 at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, Canada.
Founded in 2000, the conference offers an interdisciplinary forum for discussion of the role of the arts in society. It is a place for critical engagement, examination and experimentation, developing ideas that connect the arts to their contexts in the world-on stage, in studios and theaters, in classrooms, in museums and galleries, on the streets, and in communities.
We invite proposals for paper presentations, workshops/interactive sessions, posters/exhibits, colloquia, virtual posters, or virtual lightning talks. The conference features research addressing the annual themes. Submit your proposal by 20 June 2017.
For more information regarding the conference, use the links below to explore our conference website.
Call for Papers, Themes, Presentation Types, Scope & Concerns, Become a Presenter, Conference History, Submit a Proposal,
CitizenDEMOS (incorporating Citizen Mediators) is an initiative that seeks to use the tools of conflict resolution and dialogue to strengthen the culture of democracy.
We are offering 6 months to 1 year Fellowships for graduates of the CCT program. The Fellowships could potentially lead to employment opportunities. For more information, please contact Ashok Panikkar of Meta-Culture (CCT graduate '97) at ashok@meta-culture.in
Resources
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:
Van Gogh on Dark Water (YouTube)
The Map of Chemistry (YouTube)
A Life-Saving Discovery at MIT (YouTube)
To Read:
What Is the Most Popular Superstition in America? (BigThink)
Have LEGO Products Become More Violent? (PLOS)
Barns Are Painted Red Because of the Physics of Dying Stars (Smithsonian Magazine)
Project to Turn Teachers into On-Demand Contractors for the Children of the Wealthiest 1 Percent (Alternet)
Alan Alda's Experiment: Helping Scientists Learn To Talk To The Rest Of Us (NPR)
Michel Foucault, Neoliberalism and the Failures of the Left (In These Times)
Ioannis Yannas looks back wistfully on the surprising discovery of artificial skin (Slate)
Scientists have observed epigenetic memories being passed down for 14 generations (ScienceAlert)
Why Can't Scientists Talk Like Regular Humans? (Scientific American)
Social Experiment Proves Hi-Vis Vest Will Get You Almost Anywhere (Vice)
What class is like for high-schoolers taking their courses online (Slate)
This infographic breaks down the top five misconceptions about evolution (ScienceAlert)
The Dangers of Reading in Bed (The Atlantic)
The Trouble with Medical "Voluntourism" (Scientific American)
Arctic stronghold of world's seeds flooded after permafrost melts (The Guardian)
Daryl Bem proved ESP is real. Which means science is broken (Slate)
This Simple Puzzle Test Sealed The Fate Of Immigrants At Ellis Island (NPR)
Bill Gates Pens An Essay For the Class Of 2017 (Good)
First Ever Study of Unvaccinated Vs. Vaccinated Kids, Pulled from Journal, Erased from Internet (Free Thought Project)
25 non-cliche pieces of life advice that will help you find happiness (Upworthy)
Breakthroughs in Epigenetics (New Yorker)
Tuition-free community college to become the norm in Tennessee as bill heads to Haslam (Tennessean)
Why am I so bad at math? You're not, you're just looking at it wrong (Quartz)
Alessandro Diddi - DeviantArt
Six Vintage-Inspired Animations on Critical Thinking (BrainPickings)
Changing minds on a changing climate (Yale Climate Connections)
Do You Have Any Idea What Other People Think of You? (New York Magazine)
An Rx for Good Health: Geisinger Launches Fresh Food Pharmacy (PR Newswire)
Pineapple sneaked into RGU art exhibition as a prank adopted as work of art (Press and Journal)
The Complete List of Student Loan Forgiveness Programs and Options (Student Loan Hero)
Journal of Radical Librarianship
Down With Little Free Library Book Exchanges! (Citylab)
The Perils of Perfection (New York Times)
Why Don't People Return Their Shopping Carts? (Scientific American)
These college majors are the most robot-resistant (CNBC)
A Mindset Shift to Continue Supporting the Most Frustrating Kids (KQED News)
The invisible women's labor behind every art monster in history (Slate)
The Surprising Benefits of Sarcasm (Scientific American)
How to Board Planes Faster (Thrillist)
Soft Watercolours Imagine Marge Simpson's Feminist Awakening (Creators)
Viet Thanh Nguyen Reveals How Writers' Workshops Can Be Hostile (New York Times)
The Upside to Teacher Resignation Letters Going Viral (NEA Today)
Checking Privilege Checking (The Atlantic)
The best way to break out of your filter bubble is to read more good news (Quartz)
Foucault That Noise: The Terror of Highbrow Mispronunciation (The Atlantic)
The Tipping Point of Perceived Change: Asymmetric Thresholds in Diagnosing Improvement Versus Decline (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)
Don't Call Me a Millennial I'm an Old Millennial (Science of Us)
Climate Science Meets a Stubborn Obstacle: Students (New York Times)
Design Thinking Needs To Think Bigger (Fast Codesign)
Your Visual Perception Skills Are Linked to Creativity, Study Finds (Big Think)
The 11 Ways That Consumers Are Hopeless at Math (The Atlantic)
An app that helps you sleep, built on cognitive science, that takes counting sheep to the next level (Quartz)
The neuroscience of changing your mind (You Are Not So Smart)
Happiness is a problem that can be solved (Quartz)
Chicago now has schools where online learning is all the kids do (Slate)
The Dutch are solving their obesity crisis in a unique way (Second Nexus)
Why Teachers Are So Tired (Teacher Habits)
There are diseases hidden in ice, and they are waking up (BBC)
People with creative personalities really do see the world differently
When Emotion Meets Thinking: An Untold Story of Creativity
Humor