13 April 2022
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Student Matters
Summer 2022 courses are open for registration. All summer courses meet online only. See additional course descriptions.
- CrCrTh 611, Seminar in Critical Thinking; May 31-July 14; twice-weekly meetings, Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:00-8:00pm, online only (#2222). Theme: Design for Living Complexities-Students explore the nature of emerging design challenges relevant to their current practices and ongoing life issues. The course supports students evolving as reflective practitioners by critically evaluating intervention design in a manner that attends to personal and professional development.
- CrCrTh 688, Reflective Practice; May 31-August 25; occasional meetings on Tuesdays (4:00-6:00pm), online only (#2224). Theme: Students engage with tools of reflective practitioners and develop a self-defined project in some professional, personal, or educational setting where they pilot new practices as an agent of change. Contact cct@umb.edu for additional details.
Continuing students: please note that the university is establishing changes to course fees and section types starting with fall 2022. Please see this page for ongoing updates.
CCT student Joyce Swagerty has developed Art Show: Stoneroot Epistle: Collage and Poetry in Conversation, a book and exhibit in collaboration with Daina Swagerty. Please see below under Events for exhibit information and location.
Opportunity for MA students: Spayne Master’s Thesis/Capstone Project Grant
The Dr. Robert W. Spayne Research Grant (for work leading to a Master’s thesis or Capstone project) is a competitive grant awarded to assist students in defraying research expenses. The number of grants varies and can be up to $1500.00 (maximum) and are awarded each fall and spring semester by a committee of UMass graduate students, faculty and staff. This grant is to support registered masters students research projects, not en route doctoral students. To apply, log in to the UMBeInvolved page (www.umb.edu/beinvolved) using your email (not the @umb.edu part) and your email password. (Once you are logged in, click on “Organizations”, and search for/click on the Graduate Student Assembly. From the Graduate Student Assembly home page, click the join button if you are not yet a rostered member and then click on “Forms” and then select the Spayne application form. Detailed application instructions are included with the online forms. All application forms must be completed and submitted online.
All applications are due Monday, May 2, 2022, by 11:59pm. If you have any questions, please e-mail: gsassembly@umb.edu.
CCT Events
CCT Community Open House: Creative Problem Solving and Future Thinking
Friday, April 22nd, 12:00-1:00pm EDT
Presentation event, online in Zoom, free and open to all.
RSVP here to receive Zoom login details.
Description: The process of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) is often used to develop solutions to problems we are facing right now or in the near term. Applying CPS to a longer time horizon can result in uncovering new direction, new scenarios, and a more hopeful vision of the future. This workshop will share how one team of CCT students applied CPS to generate a food wall growing solution while thinking more than 20 years into the future. CCT students Rayne Adams-Hart and Hans Helgeson will describe the CPS process and how their team of 5 students used a variety of tools to identify a problem and generate solutions. The session will include an interactive component applying both divergent and convergent thinking skills. (more information).
Spring 2022 Presentations and Celebration
Monday, May 2: presentations are 3:00pm – 8:00pm EDT (virtual attendance, or on campus in the Campus Center, 2nd Floor, Room 2540)
Tuesday, May 3: presentations are 3:00pm – 8:00pm EDT (virtual attendance only)
Join or leave the Zoom conference at any time.
See the website for more information and details about the presentations.
RSVP here to receive the Zoom login details within a few days of the presentations.
Description: This event includes presentations by students in Critical and Creative Thinking program completing major projects toward their capstone requirement as they finish the MA degree program. All are welcome to attend, including prospective students and all others in the university community.
Alum, Student, and CCT Associates Notables
CCT students, alums, and associates are encouraged to send items about accomplishments, new publications, or offerings to the Critical and Creative Thinking community to be included in future newsletters. Please submit items here.
Events
Art Show: Stoneroot Epistle: Collage and Poetry in Conversation
by Joyce W. Swagerty and Daina Swagerty
Arnold Arboretum
Exhibition begins May 1 and runs through June 25, 2022
Open Reception: May 3, 2022, 5:30-7:30 at the Arnold Arboretum Hunnewell Visitor Center, at 125 Arborway, Boston, MA, 02130
In this mother-daughter book collaboration, Joyce and Daina Swagerty contemplate our capacity for wonder through the lens of an acorn in season. Pages of vivid imagery and inspirational poetry offer a layered landscape exploring the movements of universal journey.
Free Webinar: Healing Higher Education: Racial Reckoning, Racial Justice
Thursday, April 21, 7:00 – 8:30pm ET
A webinar with Dr. Tia Brown McNair and Rhonda V. Magee, JD
Hosted by the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
Register here.
Join Dr. Tia Brown McNair and Professor Rhonda Magee in what is sure to be a lively and thoughtful conversation centering the issue of racial injustice and inequity that have existed on many American college and university campuses but have been brought to the fore by the necessary protests and awareness catalyzed by the outrageous number of extrajudicial murders of Black and Brown human beings in the United States. How might colleges and universities begin the institutional work of racial justice, truth-telling, reconciliation, and healing while simultaneously understanding the inner work of racial justice and healing?
Conference to Restore Humanity!
July 25-28, 2022
Conference to Restore Humanity! is an international invitation for K-12 and college educators to center the needs of students and educators toward a praxis of social justice. Featuring Dr. Henry Giroux, Dr. Denisha Jones, and tracks on disrupting discriminatory linguistics, ending carceral pedagogy, building for neurodiversity, and promoting childism, this conference aims to change systems and reimagine education.
See the website for program and registration information.
Capra Course (Fall 2022)
This online course starts September 21, 2022 and runs for 12 weeks.
Now open for registration – the Capra Course, developed by Fritjof Capra, based and his textbook The Systems View of Life, coauthored with Pier Luigi Luisi. The idea of the systems view of life brings together biological, cognitive, social and ecological perspectives with systems thinking and the science of life to help us address the complexity of major concerns of this time across areas of energy, climate, and inequality. For more information about the structure of the course and to register, see the website.
In Pursuit of Happiness: A virtual event hosted by The Atlantic magazine
May 1-3, 2022
The Atlantic’s In Pursuit of Happiness event kicks off this spring to help people build more intentional and happy lives. Drawing on our celebrated coverage of the practices and principles of happiness from the renowned social scientist Arthur C. Brooks, we’ll convene experts from a range of disciplines—neuroscientists and philosophers, artists and business leaders—to explore methods of and approaches to building a more meaningful life. Along the way, you’ll participate in self-reflection and connect with others looking to enrich their own life and the lives of those around them (although the in-person conference requires a registration fee, the virtual program is free). See the website for more information.
(Virtual) LASER Boston: “Climate Visions”
April 28th, 12-1:30pm EDT
We face unprecedented climate change, and every year, the consequences grow more dire. Presenting accurate data on the climate crisis is proving inadequate to spur widespread, grassroots action. But can data paired with powerful visuals and art provoke a more visceral reaction to the crisis? Join a virtual panel of artists, technologists, and data visualization experts to discuss the power of visualizing climate change to push for a better planetary future. See the website for more details and online attendance information.
Opportunities and Resources
Job opportunity for UMB graduate students: The university is seeking undergraduate and graduate consultants for the new university-wide Writing Center. The Writing Center is hiring students from across UMass Boston who are interested in writing and eager to talk to other writers. Students who are hired will be enrolled in English 459/667 in the fall (Wednesdays 4:00-6:45), and will be paid $14-16/hour for all tutoring hours and staff meetings. Applications are due April 22nd. Alternative training plans can be made for students who may not be able to enroll in the course, especially graduate students. For more information and instructions on how to apply, see the website. For any questions about hiring or about the new Writing Center, you can email the Writing Center Co-Directors at writingcenter@umb.edu.
Free Online Course: Learning Creative Learning
Hosted by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at MIT
Starts the week of April 18th.
The course will run for 6 weeks. On Mondays, we will release course materials and activities, on Wednesdays we will host creative coding workshops with Scratch, and on Fridays we will discuss creative learning ideas in video calls, in multiple languages. You will be able to explore the course materials at your own pace and participate in the community and events as much or as little as you like. In these challenging times, we hope this can be an opportunity to support each other as a global community of creative learners. Even if you participated in previous editions, make sure you sign up to receive emails from the new round. See the website for more information and to register.
Food for Thought
Video:
- Val Silidker: Transforming Heartbreak into Action (CreativeMornings HQ)
- Playing with Shadows: Shadow-inspired art (Art Dailydose)
- Sarah Mirk: Power of Comics Journalism (CreativeMornings HQ)
- 3 Thought Experiments That No One Can Solve (Pursuit of Wonder)
Articles:
- Wordle is not just a game — it’s the creative process in a nutshell (Boston Globe)
- Physical fatigue is in the brain as much as in the body (Psyche)
- The web of life: Classic evolutionary theory holds that species separate over time. But it’s fuzzier than that – now we know they also merge (Aeon)
- New documentary by Wondrium: Solving for Zero (Wondrium)
- New Rules of Storytelling — Seven creative minds explore how to spin a yarn (Wepresent)
- Want to Help Kids? Focus on Parent and Teacher Burnout (Greater Good Magazine)
- TikTok’s kid-friendly ‘water cup challenge’ is a fascinating science lesson in disguise (Upworthy)
- Bridging communities to reimagine cultural preservation (MIT)
- Kindness Over Fear: Naomi Shihab Nye Tells the Remarkable Real-Life Story That Inspired Her Beloved Poem “Kindness” (The Marginalian)
- The subtle art of language: why artificial general intelligence might be impossible (Big Think)
- Creativity in the Metaverse: We speak with experts in the technology and creative industries to understand how these worlds will collide in the next iteration of the web (It’s Nice That)
- How to make art that lasts 1,000 years (The Intrinsic Perspective)
- Help! Brain overload: As tasks mount up, our brain’s ability to juggle goes down. Neuroergonomic tactics can relieve the cognitive burden (Aeon)
- Losing can be transformative — if you do it right (NPR)
- Online Song Maker (Chrome)
- Stop Believing These Myths About Creativity (Lifehacker)
- IMBY: An online community center for connecting people around sharing and recharging across all forms of work and interests (IMBY)
- What makes writing more readable? (The Pudding)
- Margaret Cavendish and the power of debating with yourself (Psyche)
- Critical Thinking school opens this fall: San Juan Island (San Juan Journal)
- Change is unnerving, but history shows human creativity flourishes during a crisis (The Guardian)
- Imagine Other Futures (NOEMA)
- The 8 Most Powerful Works of Public Art in the World (Architectural Digest)
- On Unraveling and Resilience: In a world unraveling due to climate change, an environmental scientist looks to Indigenous stories of resilience (Yes Magazine)
- Mark Zuckerberg: Most future jobs will be more ‘creative’ than ‘traditional labor or service’ (CNBC)
- There is no silver bullet against misinformation. But there are solutions (Boston Globe)
- How our knowledge of the world embedded in brain connectivity shapes our creativity (MedicalXpress)
Research / New Publications
- Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival (Richard Heinberg)
- A field guide to assessing creative thinking in schools (FORM in Australia and Rethinking Assessment in England)
- Voices of Higher Ed: A report on conversations with 250 higher education leaders (Mainstay)
- ReGeneration Nation Magazine (Transition US new publication in support of their ReGeneration Nation campaign). [Main web site | magazine]
- Climate Change and U.S. Cities: Urban Systems, Sectors, and Prospects for Action (Edited by William Solecki and Cynthia Rosenzweig)
Humor
