Critical Visions Certificate

The undergraduate Critical Visions Certificate is a joint endeavor between faculty from the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) and the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). The cross-college curriculum will teach students how to effectively combine critical theory and social analysis with art, media, and design practice and has two primary goals: (1) Increase students' understanding of what is at stake in how we see, including the social and political ramifications of advertising, art, media, popular culture, and science, among other dominant and subversive visual forms and visualizing practices. (2) Develop new artistic, media, or design forms and practices that will intervene in dominant ways of seeing and explaining the world.

UC3 Certificate

The UC3 Certificate in Innovation Transformation is a cross-college (CECH, DAAP, COB, ENGR, A&S) and multidisciplinary certificate program designed to help students acquire the skills and dispositions needed to develop innovative ideas that address market and/or societal needs and to bring those ideas to market at/after graduation, through a combination of focused foundational courses and experiential learning activities. The UC3 name comes from its three tracks: Conceptualization, Commercialization, and Change.

Certificate in Historic Preservation

This program is designed to develop an appreciation for and a working knowledge of the issues and techniques involved in historic preservation. The certificate is awarded to undergraduate or graduate students upon the successful completion of a minimum of 27 credit hours, including a core curriculum of five required courses and an internship, and other courses, studios, or projects required by particular departments.

Minority Health

Continuing demographic change in  the United States makes it essential that healthcare professionals and public health and human services  workers are able to understand the cultural, social and political factors and issues impacting the health of minority and vulnerable populations. Currently there are tremendous disparities in quantity and quality of life and access to health care services between different demographic groups in the US. This certificate will help students understand how such disparities arise, and will prepare them to identify and reduce inequities using needs assessments and by designing, implementing, and evaluating health promotion and educational programs targeted to minority and vulnerable populations. The Department of Africana Studies in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Health Promotion in the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services are participating in the certificate at this time.

Certificate in Medical Humanities and Bioethics

What is Medical Humanities and Bioethics?

Medical humanities lie at the intersection of human experience, medical practice and scientific technology. It refers to the interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary application of the humanities and social sciences to health education and its practice. It provides insight into the human condition, suffering, personhood and our responsibility to each other. It also helps us understand how bioscience and health care take place within cultural and social contexts and how culture interacts with the individual experience of illness and the way medicine is practiced.

Ten courses make up the medical humanities and bioethics certificate. Three courses are required and the other seven can be chosen from a list of electives. The three required courses cover three basic areas in medical humanities: bioethics, the social/cultural aspects of biomedicine, and how rhetoric and politics influence health care. These courses are then followed by a set of elective courses, which students can tailor to meet their needs and career goals.

While the courses are listed topically below, students can devise their own pathways through the curriculum. In completing this certificate, students will enter the work force better prepared to cope with the often bewildering challenges that represent today’s health care industry.