Overview

For detailed information, please see the Graduate Catalog.

Cultural & Global Analysis

Learn about and prepare for global citizenship and engagement across economic, social, political and cultural contexts in the Cultural & Global Analysis concentration. You'll explore the analytical and methodological tools of the social sciences and humanities that will better help you understand the complex forces that influence local and global interactions.

The coursework in this concentration will cultivate your understanding of the processes by which we construct our perceptions of societies and social environments.

Ethics & Values

In this concentration, you'll discover the manner in which our ethics and values impinge on the rest of our lives. Analyzing the cross-cultural significance of human values, ethical practices, and social movements in the geo-politics of globalization and sustainability, you'll explore the relationship between ethics and other facets of human experience such as the cultural, political, religious, and economic. You'll also investigate the nature of conflict and different strategies for conflict resolution.

The application of a wide variety of theories and methodologies from philosophy, religious studies, and political science will be emphasized in this exploration of the human condition. The result will be a deeper theoretical understanding of the multifaceted relationships between ethics and values, as well as a fuller tool box of ways to respond to the tensions that often erupt from the collision of different ethics and values.

Health & the Environment

As you learn to analyze the diversity of interactions between humans and the natural world across cultures, you'll also explore the ecological, social, physical, mental, and spiritual consequences of humans’ encounters with the natural world. The application of theories of environmental justice and health justice in real and/or realistic scenarios will be emphasized.

This concentration will help you to combine analytical tools of the humanities and the sciences to understand the deep and multifaceted relationships between health and the environment as well as to examine and develop practical ways of responding strategically to the consequences of such relationships.

Interdisciplinary Security Studies

This concentration will prepare you for a dynamic, quickly changing field — national security. You will gain the tools you need to become collaborative, adaptable professionals. The best members of the national security field aren’t just knowledge experts, they are also experts at working with a broad range of colleagues.

International Migration, Development & Citizenship

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.

Organizational Science & Leadership

This concentration is designed to prepare you for leadership success in various organizational contexts across industries. You'll learn to use the tools of social science and cutting-edge scholarship in the fields of organizational behavior and leadership to understand both organizational-level and individual-level causes of employee behavior, performance and well-being.

Applications to organizational contexts with a specific focus on leadership challenges and opportunities will be emphasized.

Writing & Critical Reflection

Through reflection and exploration, you'll gain the theoretical and practical knowledge you'll need to write effectively for professional success, social action and advocacy, and personal fulfillment. Acknowledging the wide variety of activities and products we refer to as "writing" and considering the ever-changing means to create and deliver that writing, you will learn to identify and understand the complex interactions between layers of purpose and audience in every writing situation. You'll discover many opportunities for critical reflection that will enhance your effective rhetorical and technical decision-making.

Through researching, studying, and producing writing in a variety of genres and contexts, you will also achieve a deeper theoretical understanding of both the influence that natural, digital, social, and cultural environments have on your writing and the significant potential of your writing to impact these environments.