Academic Catalog

Capstone (CCAP)

CCAP 300 Capstone Seminar:3 cr

Challenges students to integrate knowledge from several disciplines, applying academic learning and critical thinking skills to modern-day issues. Encourages students to work with others and become engaged citizens in the context of today's world.

Prerequisite: Junior status and completion of all Tier I and Tier II requirements  
Attributes: Capstone Experience Tier III (CAP)  
CCAP 301 The Creative Economy of the Berkshires3 cr

Focuses on the development of a rural creative economy through an exploration of the history, economic development theory, city planning, government granting, and creative placemaking and the direct application of those efforts in North Adams, MA. Using the design thinking model, students will investigate the economic, political and cultural history of North Adams to generate a historical narrative of the progression from manufacturing center, to rustbelt community to an artist-belt center of activity. Students will conduct extensive research in the community exploring the history and current state of North Adams’ creative placemaking efforts and use their new understanding to develop, prototype and test ideas generated to further the community’s creative economic development.

Prerequisite: Junior status and completion of all Tier I and Tier II requirements  
Attributes: Capstone Experience Tier III (CAP)  
CCAP 302 Communicating Across Cultures3 cr

In our globalized world, the ability to successfully communicate information is an invaluable skill in the business, medical, education, and other fields. This course is designed to help you study, develop, refine, and practice interpersonal and intercultural communication skills across differences between - and among - cultures.

Prerequisite: Junior status and completion of all Tier I and Tier II requirements  
Attributes: Capstone Experience Tier III (CAP)  
CCAP 303 Economics of Poverty and Discrimination3 cr

Employs economic and social reasoning to investigate the causes of discrimination and poverty in the United States and to a lesser extent elsewhere in the world. Attempts to answer questions such as How is poverty defined? What are the dimensions of poverty? Why are some people poor and not others? Course material on discrimination focuses on the root causes of discrimination and evaluates the amount and extent of discrimination in the labor and housing markets.

Prerequisite: Junior status and completion of all Tier I and Tier II requirements  
Attributes: Capstone Experience Tier III (CAP)  
CCAP 304 Changing North American Landscapes3 cr

Investigates the environmental history of North America with a focus on how landscapes, in both literal and figurative aspects, have changed. Uses topics (e.g. ice age, colonization, automobiles, mining, suburbanization, consumerism) or regions (e.g., Boston, Cape Cod, Florida), to investigate how humans have impacted and been impacted by the environment. Seminar-style class with discussion and student presentations.

Prerequisite: Junior status and completion of all Tier I and Tier II requirements  
Attributes: Capstone Experience Tier III (CAP)  
CCAP 305 Representations of Nature3 cr

Considers various ways that nature has been represented over time, from prehistoric cave paintings to modern Hollywood films; analyzes and compares environmental representations to each other; examines the current scientific knowledge and environmental context related to particular representations of nature.

Prerequisite: Junior status and completion of all Tier I and Tier II requirements  
Attributes: Capstone Experience Tier III (CAP)  
CCAP 306 Writing Lives3 cr

Explores how creators use language and image to write about their own lives and the lives of others. Students will engage with texts spanning multiple disciplines, from creative nonfiction to archival, ethnographic and oral history projects. From this knowledge and their Core experience, students will craft a life writing project for an audience of their choice. By composing and reflecting on this project, they will better understand how to make knowledge live in their lives.

Prerequisite: Junior status and completion of all Tier I and Tier II requirements  
Attributes: Capstone Experience Tier III (CAP)