Bachelor of Arts in American Studies

at Shorelight Group - University of Massachusetts - Boston USA

The field of Africana Studies documents and disseminates a specialized body of knowledge about Africa, the Caribbean and especially the United States. We focus on the experiences of the African Diasporas – the global dispersion of peoples of African descent – its history, literature, culture, society, and contributions worldwide. Students are prepared for careers relevant to the development of the African world community and to the rectification of global social ills created by individual and institutional racism.  Students approach the field and subject matter from a rigorous curriculum rooted in the social and cultural history of Peoples of Africa and the Africa Diaspora, and designed to provide practical solutions to challenges facing them from both a local and global context.

Our BS program in Computer Science is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET. ABET assures quality for degree programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology. The program provides a rigorous education in theory and practice of Computer Science in addition to outside science courses. A BS degree can be used as a basis for many jobs in industry or for graduate work in Computer Science and other fields. We have an Honors Program for students who complete an Honors Thesis.

We offer a curriculum stressing software development. It provides training appropriate for students with interests in areas such as cybersecurity, data mining, artificial intelligence, database management, and software engineering. An aptitude for logical reasoning and mathematics is needed to complete the major successfully, partly because designing programs to solve problems requires good problem-solving skills and partly because some of the requirements are relatively advanced theoretical Computer Science and mathematics courses.

The IR major gives students the opportunity to explore how peoples and nations interact across political boundaries.  Students in the major study international relations from the perspective of multiple disciplines and examine topics such as:  international political economy, conflict and cooperation, human rights and international organizations, regional and socio-cultural studies, globalization and transnationalism, and international development.  Students in this major are able to take courses drawn from many different academic departments and programs at UMass Boston.

The MS in accounting at UMass Boston is designed to prepare students for rewarding careers in the rapidly growing and changing field of accounting. Upon completion of the MSA, students will qualify for the Uniform Certified Public Accounting (CPA) Exam. The curriculum has been designed by the College of Management Accounting and Finance (AF) faculty in consultation with the AF Department’s Advisory Board.

The Information Technology major offered through UMass Boston's College of Management is designed to offer pathways to highly-demanded careers in IT for both high school graduates and students of Massachusetts community colleges. Our small classes ensure personalized attention from IT faculty while our ties to the Greater Boston business and technical communities add an extra dimension of learning to our program of business information technology education. The IT major offers an “applications-path” format for students which includes a core of technical knowledge (nine courses), an area of specialization or track within IT (four or five courses, depending on track selection), three professional electives in an application or domain area (preferably outside of IT but within business), and two wrap-up courses (project management and IT capstone), in addition to general education requirements.

The IT major is project-based.  Every exercise assigned throughout the BSIT is designed to be of the kind that a student might encounter in his or her work: collaboration, competence, and outcomes assessment are the hallmark characteristics of the program.  Students will learn how to use IT to solve real-world problems within the context of a field in which they wish to work. Graduates will be familiar with, and be able to apply, the following core information technologies to solve business problems:

• Programming
• Networking
• Databases
• Web technologies

System Administration Track
The Information Technology (IT) major is a jointly offered program between the College of Management (CM) and the College of Science and Mathematics (CSM) at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The BSIT consists of a common core of ten courses, a track of four to six courses in a particular area of specialization (the system administration track requires four courses), a common capstone course, and three professional electives.

UMass Boston's MS in Finance (MSF) is a 10 course, 30 credit degree program. The 10 courses are composed of Finance Requirements, Finance Electives, and a Capstone course. Four prerequisite courses must be satisfied or waived through prior relevant coursework, based on a review of transcripts.*

The CFA Institute University Affiliation Program can be completed full-time or part-time, with classes that meet primarily in the evenings and online. Scheduling is highly flexible, with most classes meeting once per week.

Students will be required to select from 2 tracks, General Finance or Investment Management & Quantitative Finance.

Admission to the program is highly competitive and is based on several factors, including prior academic record, professional experience, standardized test scores, essays, and recommendations. The curriculum has been designed by the College of Management Accounting and Finance faculty in consultation with the AF Department’s Advisory Board to assist students in furthering careers in finance and in preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam.

Labor Studies is an interdisciplinary program that examines work, the workplace, workers, and their organizations. Drawing on the fields of economics, history, political science, sociology, and other disciplines, courses in Labor Studies deal with such questions as:

• What roles do unions play in affecting the well-being of workers and of society more generally? How and why have those roles changed over the course of economic development in the United States and elsewhere?
• How do changes in the global economy affect work and workers?
• In the history of the United States and other countries, how have workers’ rights changed over time? How have broad political and economic developments affected those rights?
• What opportunities and challenges do workers face as racial, gender, and ethnic diversity changes in the labor force?
• What are effective methods of worker organizing and of collective bargaining by unions? How are organizing and the practices of unions affected by changes in the larger society?

By focusing on these sorts of questions, the UMass Boston Labor Studies Program prepares students to provide critical analysis of historical controversies and to think strategically about social, political, and economic change. The program provides students with a strong foundations for a variety of occupations, and also prepares students to be active participants in their own labor and community organizations.

The School for the Environment's nationally recognized Environmental Studies and Sustainability program emphasizes solutions integrating the humanities and social sciences with economics and business. As environmental and sustainability advocates, students customize their course of study, drawing from such diverse fields as anthropology, law, history, management, economics, and the sciences. In addition to coursework, this hands-on degree incorporates internships, research, cooperative education, and capstone course experiences in which students work as members of a multi-disciplinary team partnered with agencies and organizations throughout the Boston metropolitan area.

• Students will understand key sustainability concepts and become practiced at applying these principles to real world problems.
• Students will be able to use interdisciplinary and collaborative decision-making processes to devise practical solutions for managing environmental problems.
• Students will be able to analyze and critique sustainability issues balancing multiple disciplinary perspectives and research approaches (e.g., social, ecological, ethical, philosophical, political, and economic).
• Students will demonstrate analytical proficiencies, both quantitative and qualitative, to support data-driven decisions.
• Students will understand the system interactions and feedbacks between human activities and social institutions and the natural environment.
• Students will be experienced in communicating their learnings both in writing, visually, and orally, and for specific and general audiences.

The Bachelor of Science in Chemistry is an ACS-approved degree. The American Chemical Society (ACS) is the largest scientific society in the world. The American Chemical Society (ACS) organizes national and regional chemistry conferences, publishes a variety of chemical journals and other publications and offers a variety of additional services to its members. The American Chemical Society also promotes quality in chemistry education by approving undergraduate programs. The American Chemical Society recognizes ACS-approved programs as providing a high-quality undergraduate chemistry program.

Students completing a degree in chemistry will:

• Learn the basic canon of chemistry, covering the five fundamental sub-fields as recommended by the American Chemical Society: inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, biochemistry.
• Conduct original chemical research and report their results orally and in writing to scientific audiences.
• Learn and apply the principles of scientific ethics with regard to use of sources, generating and reporting of data, and collaboration with colleagues.
• Develop an understanding of green chemistry and environmental responsibility.
• Upon graduation, be prepared to practice as a professional chemist, whether in further study or in the workforce.

The communication major is an 12-course program that focuses on the social and scientific study of human communication. The curriculum offers students the chance to explore coursework in interpersonal, mediated, political and health communication, among others. Our courses emphasize communication across a variety of channels diverse cultures.