Program Overview

The Master of Arts in Critical and Creative Thinking (MA CCT) embodies the College of Arts and Sciences’ ongoing commitment to personal enrichment as well as to the practical application of analytical skills and knowledge in a diverse array of both for-profit and nonprofit professional environments. This interdisciplinary degree provides a unique opportunity to pursue both breadth and depth within the rich and diverse landscape of the liberal arts and sciences. Students pursuing this degree will enhance their career potential by developing advanced skills and abilities necessary for critical thinking, creativity, and leadership.

International Migration, Development and Citizenship Concentration

In this concentration, you'll examine the interconnection among local and global forces that shape the emergence of migration and refugee movements across national borders. You will consider the systemic impacts that such movements have on the economic and human development of nations and communities of origin as well as the destination.

Examining multiple depictions, in non-fiction and fiction, of the construction of borderlands and of the causes and consequences of migration and displacement-- particularly with regard to the United States, this concentration will promote critical analysis of migrants’ unequal access to political and other societal institutions. The socio-economic, spatial, linguistic, and cultural citizenship hierarchies that often result from these inequities will also be examined.

In each course, you'll explore the cultural creations, religious practices, political responses and different types of capitals (human, cultural and social) associated with past and present immigrant waves. Special attention is paid to the historical, intellectual, and social roots and consequences of immigration policies at the global, national and local levels.

Most generally, the concentration considers the factors shaping cultures and practices of “inclusion” and “exclusion” and the impact of both on second and subsequent generations.