News2017March
News from the Graduate Program in Critical & Creative Thinking
University of Massachusetts Boston16 March 2017
Student Matters
Registration for summer 2017 courses opens in early April. Current students may register through WISER. Courses are open to non-degree students as well, who may register here.
CRCRTH 611 Seminar in Critical Thinking (Theme: Design for Living Complexities); (hybrid; course meets Mon & Wed 5:00-8:00pm EDT from July 17-Aug. 24; face-to-face #1350, online #1270). For more information, see the course descriptions.
CRCRTH 612 Seminar in Creative Thinking (online class #1271; May 30-July 13)
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)
CRCRTH 627 Issues and Controversies in Antiracist and Multicultural Education (online class #2358; May 30-July 13)
CCT Community
CCT student, Wipa Khampook, looking for leads to locate an inexpensive room to rent for 1-3 months for her sister from Thailand who is studying English in Boston.
Contact dowchompu@gmail.com
CCT Events
Spring 2017 Dialogues on Reflective Practice in a Changing World
Please join us for one or more of these events, free and open to the public.
Attend in person, or online through Google+ Hangout. RSVP to cct@umb.edu and look for additional details in future newsletters.
Upcoming event: Monday, April 3, 2017, 7:00pm: Public Dialogue on "Reflective Practice to Build Resilience Through Life Transitions"
Future events:
Monday, May 1 and Tuesday, May 2, 2017: Students Presentations (completion of Critical and Creative Thinking Synthesis projects, and Reflective Practice projects).
Overview: Reflective Practice refers to ways that people continually develop or change the practices that they use in their workplaces, schools, and lives. Through reflection, we examine our experiences and seek to understand how they can guide us to make those changes. In this series of participatory dialogues, we'll explore together how we might then relate our individual directions to the bigger picture -- the changing world around us.
Alum and CCT associates Notes
Kaylea Champion (CCT '16) & Olen Gunnlaugson (Instructor of CCT 616 Dialogue Processes) have recently published their article, Fostering generative conversation in higher education course discussion boards. Congratulations to Kaylea and Olen on their accomplishment.
Crystal King (CCT '04) has a new book, Feast of Sorrow, that will be launched at an event at the Cambridge Public Library on April 25, 2017 (7-9pm). Crystal will read selections from the book and sign copies after the event, and copies will be on sale on site by Porter Square Books.
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
Friday, May 12th, 2017
8:00am-4:00pm, UMB McCormack Hall, Ryan Lounge (3rd Floor), with concurrent sessions in various locations around campus.
UMass Boston 11th Annual Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Technology
Theme: Reaching 21st Century Students: Teaching Values, Teaching Practices
For more information and call for proposals, see the web site.
The Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality at MIT (GCWS) is pleased to announce our line up of graduate seminars in WGS for the 2017-2018 academic year. These classes are available to graduate students and advanced undergraduates in any discipline and degree program at all of our GCWS member institutions: Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Harvard University, MIT, Northeastern University, Simmons College, Tufts University, and UMass Boston.
For more information, see the web site.
Fall Application deadline: August 21st, 2017
Courses being offered in Fall 2017:
Workshop for Dissertation Writers in Women's and Gender Studies, Fall/Spring: Thursdays, 5:30 PM- 8:30 PM, September 7, 2017 - May 10, 2018
The Politics of Madness: Gender and Psychiatry through Film and Theory, Thursdays, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM, September 7, 2017 - December 14, 2017
The UMass Boston Center for the Study of Humanities, Culture, and Society (CHCS) announces several upcoming spring events. These events are free.
Tuesday, March 21, 2:30-4:30 - Walls: International, Institutional, Internal - Ryan Lounge, 3rd Floor McCormack
This symposium brings together experts on the subject of walls to make sense of the ways they operate around the world (from the Middle East to Boston suburbs) and in our minds. Additionally, students will present personal essays written to address the specific walls that they have faced as they pursued their diverse lives and experiences.
Wednesday, March 22, 2:30-4:30 - Mariposa & the Saint - Ryan Lounge, 3rd Floor McCormack
This performance addresses the issue of solitary confinement. In 2012, Mariposa was sentenced to fifteen months in solitary confinement. Through letters with longtime friend and current collaborator, Julia Steele Allen, Mariposa brings her experience to the stage. The production will be followed by a discussion of solitary confinement, including the playwright, advocates from Prisoners' Legal Services, and a person formerly incarcerated in solitary confinement.
The UMass Boston McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies announces its Spring 2017 Robert C. Wood Visiting Professor of Public and Urban Affairs Lecture:
"The Struggle for Black Dignity in the Age of Trump and the Era of Black Lives Matter"
Thursday, March 23 2017, 6 P.M., University of Massachusetts Boston, Campus Center, 3rd Floor, Ballroom C
Peniel E. Joseph, PhD founded the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts University, and is now at the University of Texas at
Austin, holding a joint appointment in the College of Liberal Arts and as a professor in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. He is the author of several books, including Stokely, A Life, a biography of Stokely Carmichael.
Register here.
The UMass Boston Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance announces the THE 2017 Slomoff Lectureship: "Social Dominance and the Theory of Gendered Prejudice"
Monday, April 24, 4-5:30 p.m., University Hall, 2nd floor, Room 2120
In this politically divisive era, many of us are struggling to understand the forces at play in our communities and society that are driving us apart. Social psychologist and social dominance theorist Jim Sidanius has studied these issues for decades. He will speak on his new model, the Theory of Gendered Prejudice (TGP), which demonstrates that men and women exhibit distinctly different patterns of discriminatory behavior. Professor Sidanius presents his intriguing findings: 1) the tendency for males to display higher levels of xenophobia, discrimination, social predation, and dominance than females, 2) the tendency for discrimination to be directed more toward outgroup males than outgroup females, and 3) the differing motives for discrimination of each gender. Please join us as we explore these thought provoking analyses of intergroup relations.
Register here.
Opportunities
UMass Boston 11th Annual Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Technology Call for Proposals
Proposals due on March 27th, 2017 for conference on May 12th (see information above under Events). See the web site for additional details and instructions for submitting proposals.
Description: We invite proposals that demonstrate ways to reach 21st Century students through authentic learning practices and technologies. What are the particular design elements and practices/technologies that seem to reach students in your domain? How do they build capacity in the transferrable skills noted above? We encourage proposals for interactive sessions at every level that frame specific demonstrations in relation to the conference theme. We invite disciplinary or field specific presentations as well as how-to presentations relevant to the topic. We welcome faculty, instructors, staff, students, and administrators to share their experiences, classroom research and insights...read more
Opportunity for university students:
One Heart Source is currently accepting applications for our 2017 Experiential Learning Programs in Cape Town, South Africa. We are offering a variety of 1, 2, and 4-week volunteer programs and internships next summer. As an OHS Volunteer/Intern you will:
Gain international experience for graduate school and employment.
Develop skills in international communication, mentorship and community outreach.
Mentor students to achieve academic growth and cultivate lasting relationships.
Immerse yourself in local communities and broaden your global perspective.
Collaborate with groups of university students from around the world.
Apply here for our Volunteer Programs: 2017 Application
Next Application Deadline: March 17, 2017. Learn more about our Programs here. Also, see http://www.oneheartsource.org
NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program
Program Description: The NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from early-career faculty at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.
See the full description for more information and details about applications. Proposals are due around mid-July 2017.
Resources
Author Gretchen Rubin offers several resources for understanding how we create happiness in our lives through her web site, weekly podcast, and several books on these subjects. Please refer to these resources to learn more about her "experiments in the pursuit of happiness and good habits", including ideas about how to start your own happiness project. Her new book, The Four Tendencies: The Surprising Truth About the Hidden Personality Types That Drive Everything We Do , is available for pre-order to be released in September later this year, and she has been named on Fast Company's list of Creative Leaders.
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)
To Watch:
How Cities Make Us Sick (YouTube)
The impossible texting & driving test (YouTube)
To Read:
UMass Boston chancellor’s power curbed
PolicyEd: Educating the public about US Public Policy (PolicyEd)
A History of the World's Population (World Population History)
6 Ways Citizens Across the U.S. Are Using Science to Build a Better World (Yes Magazine)
Gaslighting and Mind Control Disable Rational Thought: How to Resist (PsychCentral)
All maps are wrong. I cut open a globe to show why (Vox)
Test meant to screen teachers instead weeded out minorities (Poughkeepsie Journal)
This Article Won’t Change Your Mind: The facts on why facts alone can’t fight false beliefs (The Atlantic)
There’s one key difference between kids who excel at math and those who don’t (Quartz Media)
The Permaculture Student 2: A Guidebook for the Future (Permaculture News)
The UK’s first food waste supermarket opens: in pictures (Independent UK)
Dad Tracks His Son’s First Words In Spreadsheets, Revealing Kids’ Astronomical Learning Curves (Good)
5 Unbelievable Neurohacks to Up Your Storytelling Game (Muse Storytelling)
Archive of "Forbidden Research" conference, MIT Media Lab, July 2016 (MIT Media Lab)
How to make your kid good at anything, according to a world expert on peak performance (Quartz Media)
Genetics provide powerful evidence of evolution (The Logic of Science)
The Death of Expertise (Neurologica Blog)
This Man Will Change the Way You Play Board Games (Slate)
I'll Never Take My Phone on an International Flight Again—Neither Should You (Alternet)
10 Examples of Settled Science that Are 'Controversial' (Big Think)
This Finnish Word Makes Your Sad Weekend Plans Sound a Little Cooler (NY Magazine)
Only 10 Countries in the Entire World Are Not Currently at War (The Antimedia)
Please Don’t Call Me a “Teacher” (Inside Higher Education)
Scientists are going to march on Washington. Here’s why that’s awkward (Vox)
jumpmath: Replacing math anxiety with a love of math in students and educators (JumpMath)
Audi creates diesel fuel from water and CO2 that leaves zero-carbon footprint (Minds)
There is no ‘rule of six’ – the truth about the science of queueing (The Guardian)
Professor Explains to Students: 'You Cannot Force Me to Respect You' (Minds)
10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2017 (MIT Technology Review)
Harvard scientist worries we’re ‘reverting to a pre-Enlightenment form of thinking’ (Washington Post)
Humor
The Life of An Artist (BoredPanda)