Bachelor of Arts, Major in Womens and Gender Studies

at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth USA

Our graduate program provides individualized attention and unique research opportunities for students. Classes are typically small, affording superb opportunities for interaction with the faculty and access to state-of-the art equipment and computational resources.

Students gain broad knowledge of the field and UMass Dartmouth has particular expertise in biotechnology and environmental chemistry. You may choose to specialize in:

• Analytical chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Computational chemistry
• Inorganic chemistry
• Marine chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Physical chemistry

As a history major, you'll be able to pursue studies in United States, European, Russian, Latin American, African, and Asian history. You'll gain an understanding of the major themes of history and explore the methods of historical study. You can concentrate on topics of your own choosing, and select courses that reflect our faculty's interest in areas as diverse as maritime history, the Middle East, military history, race relations, and terrorism.

The analytical and communications skills you'll develop as a history major can prepare you for a career in civil service, education, foreign service and intelligence, journalism, law, museum work, politics and advocacy, public policy, or public relations. A degree in history can also lead to graduate work in a variety of fields and serve as a sound foundation for law school.

UMassD offers teacher preparation for students who are interested in teaching history at the middle or high school level. You will take graduate-level courses during your final year of course work. These courses help prepare you to take and pass the MTELs and begin teaching after earning your bachelor's degree. After graduation, you can continue your work toward earning your master's degree in teaching by taking 5 more courses.

The Mechanical Engineering Department offers the MS degree in mechanical engineering. Course offerings and faculty interests span the entire range of the mechanical engineering field.

The MS program provides advanced education enabling students to solve complex engineering problems.

Program objectives
Through your master's level studies, you will gain:

• An advanced level of understanding in the general areas of mechanical engineering
• Depth of knowledge and an understanding of advanced topics in your chosen area of specialization

You will have the ability to:

• Identify and formulate complex engineering problems
• Develop solutions to complex engineering problems
• Communicate technical material effectively both orally and through technical reports and publications

The study of fashion design and production balances your creative vision with technical skills and an in-depth understanding of the fashion industry. You can prepare for a professional career in apparel design, marketing, manufacturing, and product development.

When you pursue your BFA in Art + Design: Fashion Design, you'll develop a wide range of skills and knowledge: advanced fashion design concepts such as computer-aided design (CAD), technical design and production, business in the fashion industry, public speaking and presentation, and contemporary fashion trends.

You’ll utilize up-to-date software and fashion-forward techniques to develop a strong and comprehensive portfolio of work. Juniors and seniors in the program develop full lines of clothing with opportunities to exhibit their collections at the annual CVPA Fashion Show, industry shows, and retail galleries.

Internships and networking opportunities help you make industry connections in Boston and New York, and graduates will be ready to compete successfully for jobs throughout the fashion industry.

The BFA is a professional degree with concentrated areas of specialization, so you will take more art courses than you would in a BA program. At UMass Dartmouth, you also have the advantages of a university education where you can diversify your studies and expand your career opportunities. Your BFA degree also provides excellent preparation for MFA programs and other graduate study.

Do you dream of exploring the ocean environment, conserving species, and understanding the complexity of marine organisms? UMass Dartmouth's Biology department offers a bachelor's degree in biology with an option in marine biology.

When you study marine biology at UMass Dartmouth, you begin with a solid foundation in fundamental biological principles and practices. Then you'll focus on your specific interests, from the biology of sharks and fishes to marine ecology.

Our faculty's research interests in marine and coastal biology place them at the forefront of their fields, from molecular and cellular biology to marine and terrestrial ecology.

We emphasize field and laboratory opportunities, so you will learn marine biology while studying living organisms. Our nearby coastal environments will be your living laboratories.

You'll be prepared for employment in biological oceanography, ecology, education, fisheries biology, industry, marine biology, project management, and research fields. With a strong background in fundamental biological principles and practices, you'll be prepared for graduate study in marine biology and related disciplines.

As a photography major, you will gain expertise in both traditional and digital techniques and explore photographic imagery in all contexts. When you pursue your BFA in Art + Design: Photography, you will develop your own photographic vision and deepen your expressive communication.

The BFA is a professional degree with concentrated areas of specialization, so you will take more art courses than you would in a BA program. At UMass Dartmouth, you also have the advantages of a university education where you can diversify your studies and expand your career opportunities.

Your studies will include:

• Black & white darkroom photography
• Color digital imaging & printing
• Large format photography
• Studio lighting
• Video
• The history of photography
• Contemporary practice

Your work will culminate in a gallery exhibition and a portfolio that demonstrates your individual style, technical proficiency, and aesthetic sophistication.

A degree in photography will prepare you for a career as a fine art and commercial photographer, photojournalist, videographer, photo editor, gallery or museum director, curator, image consultant, multimedia designer, photo educator, photo archivist, studio manager, filmmaker, web designer, lab technician, and professional printer.

The BFA in Art + Design: Painting offers professional, studio-based training in the visual arts with all the advantages of a university education.

The BFA is a professional degree with concentrated areas of specialization, so you will take more art courses than you would in a BA program. At UMass Dartmouth, you also have the advantages of a university education where you can diversify your studies and expand your career opportunities.

As a painting student, you'll learn fundamental skills and contemporary practices through a wide spectrum of course offerings such as:

• Form
• Color & space
• The human figure
• Concept-development
• Mixed media
• Abstraction
• Time-based media
• Installation

You'll develop cross-disciplinary sensitivity—with the possibility of combining painting with printmaking, photography, digital media, textiles, and other disciplines in contemporary art making. You'll also be able to explore fields across the university, such as business, engineering, and science.

Fine artists are inherent problem-solvers, negotiators, collaborators, and team-players; they have excellent hand/eye coordination and can illustrate their ideas—often quickly—so that others can understand a concept beyond the written or spoken word. The skills of a fine artist can be applied in education, business, advertising, set design, and arts management (gallery directors, administrators), to name a few.

The English department offers a bachelor of arts degree in English with a concentration in creative & professional writing.

Creative and professional writing candidates demonstrate their ability to analyze context and rhetorical problems with awareness of cultural diversity to create and compose effective, well-formulated written communication for specific audiences across multiple modalities.

Areas of study in this concentration include: fiction; non-fiction; poetry; journalism; digital media production; script, drama, and screenwriting; professional writing; and technical writing.

Creative and professional writing learning outcomes:

• Write and compose original texts
• Apply key concepts in writing analytically, creatively, and professionally across multiple genres and modes based on audience needs and information design principles
• Identify and summarize foundational concepts in creative writing, literary studies, and rhetorical studies
• Understand and apply concepts and ideas related to issues of diversity such as race, class, sexuality, gender, ethnicity and others to texts across multiple genres and modes
• Analyze the compositional and rhetorical strategies used in texts across multiple genres and modes
• Synthesize primary and secondary sources using appropriate research and writing methods across genres and modes
• Evaluate the appropriateness of compositional and rhetorical strategies used in texts

The MFA in Sculpture is a 60-credit, 2- to 3-year program of study specifically designed to prepare students for a professional commitment to their art. The goals of the program focus on working toward the evolution of a personal voice, acquiring historical knowledge of sculpture, understanding the art of various cultures, developing critical skills in looking at art and discussing aesthetic issues.

Graduates are prepared for numerous career choices within the field of sculpture. Students who complete the program have developed a clarity of thinking and a process of personal expression that will allow them to assume the roles in society of artist as practitioner, artist as educator, and artist as interpreter of their times.

Academic courses in art history, critical theory, philosophy, and a broad complement of University offerings support the cultivation of the student's intellectual and aesthetic maturation.

Centered on studio practice, UMass Dartmouth's BFA in Art Education is a professional degree that will prepare you for elementary or secondary school teaching and for careers in other learning environments.

The BFA is a professional degree with concentrated areas of specialization, so you will take more art courses than you would in a BA program. At UMass Dartmouth, you also have the advantages of a university education where you can diversify your studies and expand your career opportunities.

The BFA is a professional degree that prepares students for licensure in elementary or secondary school teaching or for work in other learning environments and it is founded on studio practice.  Students must complete a concentration in one of the studio areas in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Teaching licensure students become Art Education Teacher Candidates after passing the Communication and Literacy Skills portion of the Massachusetts Test of Educator Licensure (MTEL). Teaching licensure students become Art Education Pre-Service Candidates only after passing the entire MTEL, which includes the Visual Arts portion, before the first semester of their senior year, a prerequisite for entrance to the student teaching practicum. Depending upon the level of licensure sought, in consultation with the Art Education faculty advisor, and prior to class registration each semester, the appropriate Art Education courses must be selected and passed.  Students must achieve a minimum GPA of 2.75 and obtain a positive recommendation from the chairperson before permission is granted to the student for entrance in his/her student teaching (Practicum). Student teaching requires a commitment of 400 total hours, earning full-time (12 credits) status. During the pre-practicum field experience, UMD pre-service teachers observe and assist in teaching students at their selected grade level (PreK-8 or 5-12) in public schools. Students must acquire a total of seventy-five hours outside of class during their pre-practicum field work, plus 20 hours observations in Sheltered English Immersion (SEI).