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Transdisciplinary Analysis

MA in Transdisciplinary Analysis

How do you create real change?

Whether we are scientists, artists, humanists, or entrepreneurs, real change requires us to embrace uncertainty and seek answers with a different set of eyes and tools. Complex problems call for new ways of thinking.

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The MA in Transdisciplinary Analysis is a degree program for shaping positive change. When you take on a transdisciplinary challenge, you expand your imagination and creativity to build positive futures. You become the person who makes sustainable change, transforms institutions, and scales solutions for the greater good. You learn to “unstick” dilemmas, so crises become opportunities.

    • Cross Boundaries: Encounter, exchange, and work across disciplines, beyond academia, with different stakeholders. Integrate diverse knowledge.
    • Collaborate to Create: Work with peers and with community partners to unstick complex issues and explore creative opportunities.
    • Disrupt to Build: Challenge, redesign, and transform current systems to build solutions for positive impact.
    • Design for Justice: Create approaches that are responsive, future-focused, and justice-oriented.

When our creativity engages complexity, when our disruption becomes design, and when our passion integrates purpose, our solutions matter. Our work transforms.

Program Highlights
    • Transdisciplinary Learning Model: Integrate electives from various university departments and work in teams to develop cross-disciplinary collaboration and communication skills. Thrive in a professional peer community, where you learn from each other, share expertise, engage in peer mentoring, and create lasting networks.
    • Complexity Skills and Mindsets: Explore non-linear, interconnected aspects of institutional, social, and global systems, and understand how they contribute to knowledge and practice. Develop skills that enable you to engage effectively in our rapidly changing world.
    • Aligned with Your Interests: Choose from elective pathways such as Leadership, Education, Social Impact, History and Cultural Issues, Evaluation, Innovation, Media, Research, Data Storytelling, or develop your own focal areas with our advising process.
    • Shape Your Future: Experience a flexible format through a mix of residential and online courses. Engage in authentic learning with foundations micro-courses, electives from across the university, and intentional personal and professional development in partnership with CGU’s Career and Professional Development Office. Create a professional portfolio showcasing your skills and achievements, preparing you for future career opportunities or academic pursuits.

You can easily combine the MA in Transdisciplinary Analysis with another Master’s degree at CGU to earn a Dual Degree to enhance your career development and marketability with significant cost savings.

Program At-a-glance

  • 32 units

    required units

  • MA in Transdisciplinary Analysis

    degree awarded

  • In Person

    modality

  • Spring, Fall

    program start

  • 2 years | full time*

    estimated completion time

Faculty

  • Portrait of Andrew Vosko

    Andrew Vosko

    George and Ronya Kozmetsky Transdisciplinary Chair
    Associate Provost & Director, Transdisciplinary Studies

  • Shamini Dias portrait

    Shamini Dias

    Director of Curriculum and Special Projects, Transdisciplinary Studies
    Clinical Assistant Professor, Transdisciplinary Studies

  • Portrait of Patricia Easton

    Patricia Easton

    Professor of Humanities

    Research Interests

    Philosophy, History of modern philosophy, Philosophy of mind, History of science

  • Marcus Weakley

    Marcus Weakley

    Director, Center for Writing & Rhetoric
    Clinical Assistant Professor, Transdisciplinary Studies

Curriculum

The MA in Transdisciplinary Analysis consists of 32 units, made up of 20 units in core study areas and 12 units in elective topics. You can complete your degree within two years. Your coursework will include core and elective courses, delivered on campus and online.

Core Courses (20 units)

Foundations of Transdisciplinary Thought and Practice (6 units)
This is a set of integrated micro-courses in one- and two-unit short modules that are offered in low-residency format combining weekend intensives with asynchronous teamwork.

Tools for Change (8 units)
Choose from a range of transdisciplinary courses to support your electives concentration, such as:

    • Campaigning and Community Organizing for Change
    • Transdisciplinary Changemakers: Justice-Centered Frameworks for Education
    • Urban Studies
    • Analysis of Social Networks
    • … and many others

Application (6 units)
This comprises 2 parts:

    • Transdisciplinary Action in Crisis (2 units).
    • Capstone Field Project (4 units)

Electives in Area of Focus (12 units)

Choose from elective courses that focus on topics such as social impact, leadership and strategy, research translation, sustainability, education, history and cultural issues, evaluation, innovation, media, research, or data storytelling. You can also develop new focal areas with our advising process.

Strategic Future Design (0 units)

Strategic Future Design begins in your first semester as a companion course throughout your studies to strategically align your academic work to career or academic pathways. In partnership with CGU’s Career and Professional Development Office, this course coordinates meetings with skilled consultants to develop and improve your CV and resume, build skills such as career search, interviewing, professional online profiles and networks, and leadership philosophy and diversity statements to create your professional portfolio.

Your work in the MA in Transdisciplinary Analysis will be assessed primarily through portfolios, reflective writing, team presentations, and a capstone field project.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the program, you will be able to:

    • Apply systems thinking to illuminate the non-linear, interconnected nature of social and global systems and issues as a key step in addressing complex problems and working for positive, justice-oriented solutions.
    • Use complexity-based methods to sense-make and work adaptively with uncertainty in different contexts as part of research, application, design, and leadership.
    • Reframe ideas and complex problems by combining different perspectives or viewpoints to create new pathways and opportunities for imaginative solutions and innovation, ultimately leading to more effective problem-solving.
    • Collaborate and communicate with diverse audiences in disciplinary and non-academic settings.
    • Apply critical query to ask better questions, collaborate across boundaries, and develop solutions for justice and positive futures.

Application Guidelines

University Requirements
Application Fee

$80 (fee is non-refundable)

Official Transcripts

Undergraduate/graduate

Applicants must submit a sealed, official transcript from every undergraduate and graduate institution that has granted the applicant a degree. Electronic transcripts sent to admissions@cgu.edu are also accepted. For undergraduate coursework, applicants are required to submit proof of a completed bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university. Unofficial copies of transcripts are accepted for review purposes, but official copies will be required upon admission.

Applicants currently earning a degree that will be completed prior to attending CGU are required to submit a transcript showing work in progress for evaluation purposes. Once the degree has been granted, a final official transcript documenting the degree conferred must be submitted to CGU.

International applicants are advised to review the International Transcript Guidelines for additional information on submitting international transcripts.

English Proficiency Exam

Required (international applicants only)

A valid score on one of the following examinations TOEFL, IELTS, Pearson PTE, Duolingo English Test is required of all non-native English-speaking applicants. The examination is not required for the following applicants:

  • Citizens or permanent residents of countries where English is the sole official language of instruction, e.g., Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Canada (except Quebec), England, Ghana, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, New Zealand, Nigeria, Scotland, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad, Tobago, Uganda, and Wales (see the CGU Bulletin for a complete list of accepted countries).
  • Applicants who hold an undergraduate or advanced degree, or will have earned such a degree prior to enrolling at CGU, from an institution in the US or in countries where English is the sole official language of instruction (see above).
  • Applicants who have successfully completed an academic English pre-master’s or intensive graduate bridge program from a nationally recognized, regionally accredited four-year college or university in the United States in the last two years, with submitted evidence of successful completion, and subject to curriculum approval.
  • CGU allows for an English proficiency waiver if the applicant has received, or will receive prior to enrollment at CGU, an undergraduate or advanced degree from an institution where English is one of the primary languages of instruction for the majority of courses in the student’s program. To receive the waiver, documentation must be provided by the applicant to show that English is the language of instruction at their university/college.

CGU’s school code for the TOEFL exam is 4053.

International applicants are encouraged to visit our International Applicants page for more information, including score requirements.

Resume

Applicants must submit an up-to-date copy of their resume.

Program Requirements
Statement of Purpose

Please submit a 2-3 page statement of purpose that details your academic and/or professional achievements, your specific areas of research interest within your desired field of study, why you are a strong candidate for graduate studies at CGU, and your career goals.

Letter of Recommendation

2 letters required

When filling out the online application, please enter references acquainted with your potential for success who will submit a written recommendation on your behalf. In most academic departments, references from faculty members who can speak to your academic ability are preferred; applicants with substantial work experience may request professional references. Please do not enter family members as references.

You will be required to input information for your recommenders (whether they are submitting online or not) in the “Recommendations” section of the online application. Please follow the directions in this section carefully before clicking on “Recommendation Provider List” to input the names and contact information for each recommender. You will have an opportunity to indicate if the reference writer will be submitting online. These reference writers will receive an email from CGU with instructions on submitting an online recommendation.

Recommenders who are indicated as offline will not receive an email from CGU with instructions to submit. These reference writers can submit via traditional mail and should use the supplemental New Student Recommendation Form. Recommenders can also email their letter of recommendation to the Office of Admissions at admissions@cgu.edu.

Download the Recommendation Form

Who Should Apply

The MA in Transdisciplinary Analysis program is designed for working professionals, scanners, “Renaissance souls”, polymaths, and students pursuing multiple degrees, as well as recent college graduates interested in social change and positive impact.

Key Dates & Deadlines

CGU operates on a priority deadline cycle. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit complete applications by the priority dates in order to assure maximum consideration for both admission and fellowships.

Once the priority deadlines have passed, the University will continue to review applications for qualified candidates on a competitive, space-available basis. The final deadlines listed are the last date the University can accept an application in order to allow sufficient time to complete the admissions, financial aid, and other enrollment processes.

Spring 2025
Priority Deadline – November 1, 2024
Final Deadline (International) – November 15, 2024
Final Deadline (Domestic) – December 1, 2024
Classes begin – January 21, 2025

Fall 2025
Priority Deadline – February 1, 2025
Final Deadline (International) – July 5, 2025
Final Deadline (Domestic) – August 1, 2025
Classes begin – August 25, 2025

Apply Now

Cost & Aid

ESTIMATED TUITION (CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS, NON-RESIDENTS, INTERNATIONAL)
Program 32 units
Tuition per unit $2,020

 

STUDENT FEES (PER SEMESTER)
$245 Student Fee
$150 Technology Fee
International Student Services Fee*: $661 fall semester, $776 spring semester
**Applies to all international students (F-1 visa only) who are registered in coursework, doctoral study, or continuous registration. The fee is assessed each fall and spring semester for annual ISO accident and sickness plans and administrative fees. Subject to change.

For estimates of room & board, books, etc., please download CGU’s Cost of Attendance 2024-2025.

review financial aid

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