Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies

at Shorelight Group - University of Massachusetts - Boston USA

The goal of the Criminology and Criminal Justice major is to provide social scientific grounding to issues of crime and criminal justice. Through classes, internships and projects, students explore the nature of criminal behavior, its causes, the role of punishment, and prison as a social institution. Students learn about the criminal justice system, including law enforcement, corrections, and the law. Classes focus on issues central to criminal justice policies and practices, including mental illness, substance use and abuse, racial and ethnic inequality, gender and immigration. Differences among societies and historical trends are also addressed.

A major focus of the criminal justice faculty is to help students connect theory and research with policy and practice in the “real world.” Using current events, their own research and observations, and critical study of criminal justice systems, students better understand broader trends and future options. For example, during classroom discussion and debate, students may consider the rapidly increasing prison population and high cost of incarceration and ask: Who is being incarcerated and why? Do prison alternatives work? How do incarceration policies affect families and communities?

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

Business Intelligence (BI) is the technology that companies such as Amazon.com and Google use to take advantage of the enormous amount of data they collect and analyze. It is the technology with which Amazon.com knows what book to recommend you every time you login, Google knows how to rank the pages you are searching for, and banks decide whether to approve loan applications almost instantly.

Welcome to the Department Of Mathematics!
The Department of Mathematics supports the mission of the University by:

• Providing mathematics majors with high-quality programs
• Offering high-quality courses to majors in the sciences and to others who need mathematics in their field of study and research
• Educating those students whose primary interest is not in a field requiring the highest level of mathematics
• Working on the frontier of mathematical research in fields of interest to our faculty

The Bachelor of Science (BS) degree offered by the Mathematics Department has two possible concentrations:

• Applied and Pure Mathematics - The Applied and Pure Mathematics Concentration is the most “traditional” concentration and students pursuing it will have a solid foundation for various math careers ahead of them. Students interested in going to graduate school in fields like mathematics or physics or working on mathematical modeling in industry or research laboratories, might want to consider the Applied and Pure Mathematics Concentration.
• Computational Mathematics - The Computational Mathematics Concentration provides broad math education with an emphasis on computer and mathematical models as tools to solve real-world problems. Students graduating in this concentration would be qualified to look for jobs, for example, in actuarial companies, finance, machine learning industry or apply to grad schools in computational and data-driven sciences, like computer science, engineering or medical research.

An option to earn a General BS degree is also available.

General BS Degree
For those students who need flexibility in their course work like double majors, major/minor students and transfer students, the Mathematics Department also offers an option to earn a General BS degree in Mathematics. Students who want to pursue this option should get an approval from the department first. To initiate the approval, they need to submit a rationale to the department explaining why they want to pursue the general option.

The Economics department has approximately 400 declared undergraduate economics majors and serves students from many other departments and programs in the College of Liberal Arts, as well as students from other colleges of the university.  Currently 8% of declared undergraduate majors in the College of Liberal Arts have chosen Economics as their major. Their interests include Economic Development, Economic History, Environmental Issues, Health Economics, Industrial Organization, Immigration, International Economics, Labor Economics, Macroeconomics, Marxism, Monetary Theory, Political Economy of Race and Gender, Public Policy, Public Sector Economics, Social Welfare, Statistics and Econometrics, and Urban Economics. In addition to teaching, faculty members are engaged in research, writing, consulting, and other professional activities in their areas of interest.

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.

UMass Boston's computer science master's program thoroughly prepares students for a professional career in software development. This established and innovative program stresses the integration of theoretical knowledge with practical applications. Our Computer Science MS graduates are in high demand with major tech sector employers and startups.

The UMass Boston Art & Art History Department offers a general major in art leading to a BA. The faculty of the Art & Art History Department includes both scholars and professional artists, and the curriculum aims to combine their differing approaches to visual experience. The creative/studio curriculum provides a sound basis in creative process, in visual thinking, and in certain technical skills. Courses in art history explore the aesthetic attributes of art objects contextualized in history, culture, and religion. Students may elect to focus their studies in art history, or in-studio, or they may choose to balance the two.

The Art & Art History Department offers courses from the 100-level to the 400-level. One hundred level courses are introductory courses that provide a broad overview of the topic. Two hundred level courses narrow the focus to a specific medium in studio art or topic in art history, but remain introductory and without prerequisites. Three hundred and four hundred level courses are advanced courses requiring previous work in the topic or medium. A major in Art takes students from introductory work to the advanced levels as they gain experience and knowledge. All majors take a capstone course in the last year of their coursework. Many courses in studio art and art history satisfy General Education requirements. Additionally, the Art & Art History Department offers opportunities for internships and fieldwork, independent study when primary coursework in regular departmental course offerings are exhausted, and a two-semester course sequence for writing an honors thesis.

Welcome to the Department Of Mathematics!
The Department of Mathematics supports the mission of the University by:

• Providing mathematics majors with high-quality programs
• Offering high-quality courses to majors in the sciences and to others who need mathematics in their field of study and research
• Educating those students whose primary interest is not in a field requiring the highest level of mathematics
• Working on the frontier of mathematical research in fields of interest to our faculty

The Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Mathematics has the following concentration:

• Mathematics for Teaching - The Mathematics for Teaching Concentration provides broad math education with a focus on the development of math ideas and math reasoning. Students who are interested in teaching math, math education, developing educational software or other educational tools for math might consider this concentration.

An option to earn a General BA degree is also available.

General BA Degree
For those students who need flexibility in their course work like double majors, major/minor students and transfer students, the Mathematics Department also offers an option to earn a General BA degree in Mathematics. Students who want to pursue this option should get an approval from the department first. To initiate the approval, they need to submit a rationale to the department explaining why they want to pursue the general option.

UMass Boston's Sport Leadership and Administration Program is designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective, transformative, and equity-minded leaders of social change through sport. Students engage in study of the phenomenon of sport from a variety of theoretical lenses based in the liberal arts (historical, anthropological, sociological, psychological/developmental, and economic). This program is designed to provide students with coursework in leadership and management. Students in the Sport Leadership and Administration Program participate in experiential learning opportunities that help them both apply what they have learned through classwork and actualize their leadership potential. Through our multi-pronged approach, we send students out into a variety of sport industry jobs and career paths fully prepared to succeed as leaders.