These classes will be offered in the upcoming Spring 2027 semester. Check MavLINK for enrollment appointments and to enroll.
MA CCT Courses offered Spring 2027
CACT 8060-851 Topics: Philosophy of Art
The course is an inquiry into historical and contemporary philosophical perspectives on the making, interpreting, and criticizing of works of art, including relations of the arts to other dimensions of culture. Students will wrestle with foundational questions (e.g. "What is art?", "What is beauty?", "What makes good art good?", "Is there a right way to interpret art?") and explore the distinction between public art and street art, as well as art's connection to political communities, divisions, and struggle. Students will also experience and evaluate art in light of these investigations. Cross-listed with PHIL 8225/3220.
Instructor: Rory Conces
Note: This course supports the Ethics and Values concentration in the MA in Critical and Creative Thinking.
CACT 8060-852 Topics: Geographies of Sexualities
How are geography and sexuality related? What have cities got to do with sexual identities? Can rural spaces foster diverse sexual communities? These and related questions are the focus of this upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level course. Students read scholarly work by and about LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and +), and cisgender people, and their lived experiences creating and inhabiting different geographies. Students gain an appreciation for the social construction of diverse sexualized spaces and considers questions about equity and policy through case studies in a variety of countries. Each student also researches a course-relevant topic they choose. Cross-listed with GEOG/WGST 8216/4210.
Instructor: Karen Falconer Al-Hindi
Note: This course supports the Cultural and Global Analysis concentration in the MA in Critical and Creative Thinking.
CACT 8060-853 Topics: Writing about Sickness and Health
Students will explore many themes of the human experience in healthcare through reading and discussion of selected poems, short stories, excerpts from fiction, and essays and creative nonfiction. To help students generate their own poems, stories, and essays, the class will incorporate the work of community writing programs and projects. Cross-listed with ENGL 8976/4970.
Instructor: Tammie Kennedy
Note: This course supports the Writing and Critical Reflection concentration in the MA in Critical and Creative Thinking.
CACT 8060-854 Topics: Technical Communication
Technical Communication introduces students to the field of technical communication. Students will study the development of print and electronic genres common to industry settings, the design and production of technical documents, the writing processes and work practices of professional technical communicators, and the roles of technical communicators in organizational contexts. Cross-listed with ENGL 8836/4830.
Instructor: Sam Evans
Note: This course supports the Writing and Critical Reflection concentration in the MA in Critical and Creative Thinking.
CACT 8060-855 Topics: AI and the Writing Process
This course explores how generative AI is reshaping what it means to be a writer today. Through hands-on practice, you'll experiment with AI as a co-author, collaborator, and critic across genres like creative writing, academic essays, and professional communication. Alongside practice, you'll reflect on key questions: What happens to originality when machines generate text? How do writers shape meaning through prompts, revisions, and rhetorical choices? What cultural and ethical issues arise when we write with AI? By the end, you'll gain practical strategies for writing with AI and a deeper understanding of its impact on communication. Cross-listed with ENGL 8766/4760.
Instructor: Sarah Osborn
Note: This course supports the Writing and Critical Reflection concentration in the MA in Critical and Creative Thinking.
CACT 8060-856 Topics: Leadership in Times of Crisis: Creating Opportunity
This course explores case studies from real life on how great people lead during times of crises. The focus will be on how best to prepare for the inevitability of a crisis, and what future leaders can learn from the struggles, including both successes and failures, of some of the greatest leaders to emerge, and excel, during some of the darkest moments in human history.
Instructor: Don Simmons
Note: This course supports the Organizational Science and Leadership concentration in the MA in Critical and Creative Thinking. By permission number only. Please contact the MA CCT office (Tim) for permission number and eligibility.
CACT 8080 Independent Study
This course is designed for those students who are independently pursuing an area of study that is not covered under the existing curriculum. The student will be supervised by a member of the faculty of the MA in Critical and Creative Thinking program. All course assignments, readings, requirements, and expectations will be clearly communicated to the student in advance. May be repeated for credit for a total of six credit hours.
Prereq: Admission into the MA CCT program, successful completion of 6 hours of CACT coursework, including CACT 8000, and permission of faculty member. Not open to non-degree graduate students.
Instructor: Joseph Price
CACT 8090 Graduate Project
The Graduate Project is an applied student project under the direction of a faculty advisor. In the project, the student will apply interdisciplinary knowledge and skills gained within the program to address a problem or to expand knowledge within or across disciplines. The product or artifact produced by the student may take a variety of forms.
Prereq: Permission from program advisor and approval of project proposal. By permission number only. Please contact the MA CCT office (Tim) for eligibility.
Instructor: Joseph Price
CACT 8116 Geography of Globalization
A study of the geography of economic globalization and the geography of the world economy. The major topics include the historical development of the world economy and globalization from the geographical perspective, trends in geography of global production, trade and investment, the most important factors and actors in the globalization processes and its geographic effects, geography of transnational corporations, case studies of economic geography of selected industries and service activities, effects of globalization on the developed and developing countries. Cross-listed with GEOG 8556/4550.
Instructor: Petr Pavlinek
Note: This course supports the Cultural and Global Analysis concentration in the MA in Critical and Creative Thinking.
CACT 8200 Seminar in Political Theory
This course introduces students to the history of political theory, from its origins in ancient Greece to its manifestations in contemporary thought. Cross-listed with PSCI 8300.
Instructor: Carson Holloway
Note: This course supports the Ethics and Values concentration in the MA in Critical and Creative Thinking. By permission number only. Please contact the MA CCT office (Tim) for permission number and eligibility.
CACT 8500 Complex Organizations
This graduate seminar provides an overview focused on the understanding and analysis of intricate internal and external organizational forces such as organizational bureaucracy, organizational culture, autonomy and control systems, which affect performance of organizational members as well as influence organizational survival. Cross-listed with SOC 8500.
Instructor: Olu Oyinlade
Note: This course supports the Organizational Science and Leadership concentration in the MA in Critical and Creative Thinking. By permission number only. Please contact the MA CCT office (Tim) for permission number and eligibility.
For more information on any of the concentrations in the MA CCT, or to view course listings and course descriptions, please see the Graduate Catalog. For questions about enrollment or registration, please contact Tim Kniseley.