Join our Graduate Program
Possible careers
Our graduate students find employment in fields related to:
- environment
- social justice
- green economics
- political science
- education
Read where some of our recent alumni are now.
Sustainable Communities, Master of Arts
You create your own course of study, focusing on your personal, intellectual, ethical, and practical concerns. Through this program, you will take an integrated approach to several areas of study, such as anthropology, business, economics, the performing arts, and many more. Building your expertise in sustainable community practices will prepare you for a wide range of employment opportunities.
Among the earliest of its kind to be developed, this degree can enable students to merge the field of liberal studies with critical issues related to sustainability and community life.
Since sustainability implies interconnectedness and a systems understanding of knowledge, "SUS" students study the intersections between human social structures and the natural world, paying attention to the philosophical, ethical, and practical dimensions of such study. This program is issue-based: Rather than learn a discipline, SUS students focus on a particular issue or nexus of issues.
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Career Accordion Open
With further education, one of these paths is possible:
- Community organizer
- Non-profit administrator
- City planner
- Ecological restoration professional
- Journalist
- Ecological entrepreneur
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University Requirements
To receive a master’s degree at Northern Arizona University, you must complete a planned group of courses from one or more subject areas, consisting of at least 30 units of graduate-level courses. (Many master’s degree programs require more than 30 units.)
You must additionally complete:- All requirements for your specific academic plan(s). This may include a thesis.
- All graduate work with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0.
- All work toward the master’s degree must be completed within six consecutive years. The six years begins with the semester and year of admission to the program.
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Overview
In addition to University Requirements:
- Complete individual plan requirements.
| Minimum Units for Completion | 36 |
| Additional Admission Requirements | Admission requirements over and above admission to NAU are required. |
| Fieldwork Experience/Internship | Fieldwork Experience/Internship is required. |
| Thesis | Thesis is required. |
| Oral Defense | Oral Defense is required. |
| Research | Individualized research may be required by chosen emphasis or offered as an option. |
| Progression Plan Link | View Program of Study |
Purpose Statement
The mission of SUS is to provide interdisciplinary face-to-face graduate education on the complex issues of sustainability and social justice, encouraging students to pursue important social and environmental issues concurrently. The program seeks to educate students as critical thinkers for community leadership and to enable its graduates to contribute to the well-being of communities. At the same time, the program aims to push students intellectually, looking to produce thoughtful and critical graduates who can think theoretically. The curriculum is student-centered; students bring their intellectual, ethical, and practical concerns to bear on their particular academic inquiry. These skills are sharpened in collective collaborations between students and different communities through praxis.
Central Concepts Of The Program
- Sustainable Communities: sustainability encompasses the interactions between human and natural systems; sustainability is broadly defined and emphasizes the necessity for people to live in communities. Students explore what makes communities economically, environmentally, socially resilient and equitable, and how to ensure that communities have a direct say in building their future. They also examine the interactions and networks that form between different communities at the local, bioregional, national, and international levels.
- Civic Engagement: students envision themselves as interconnected to the fabric and leadership of the university through both their work on the university campus as well as their meaningful participation in the larger Flagstaff community through the use of various models of activism, organizing, and scholarship. This includes examination and use of various models of activism and organizing, historical analysis of movements for social change, and other scholarship on democratic practice and civic engagement.
- Inquiry-based Research: recognizes the interdependence between theory, modes of inquiry, and practice. Students explore models and understandings of action research and community-based research.
- Scholar-Activism: scholarship and praxis acknowledges and speaks directly to the needs of communities and offers theoretically and empirically pragmatic solutions grounded in sustainability. Approaches are inherently interdisciplinary and take into account the social, cultural, economic, and ecological dimensions of issues.
- Social Justice: considers issues of environmental and community sustainability as deeply interrelated. Students examine relationship between intersectionality of multiple identities (e.g. race, ethnicity, social class, gender identity, language) with issues of power, access to resources, place, climate change, and ecological impact.
- Social Transformation: recognizing that individual transformation in terms of knowledge, understanding, and skills are deeply connected to collective transformation, students critically reflect and demonstrate elements of individual transformation as well as the implications of their work towards collective transformation.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Define, examine and apply various interdisciplinary definitions and conceptions of sustainable communities
- Distinguish, formulate and evaluate interdisciplinary theories and modes of social transformation through multiple communities.
- Identify, question, and transform power dynamics between environmental, economic, ecological, and social factors that foster or inhibit sustainable communities.
- Name, describe, interpret positioning self along lines of differences and lived experiences vis-à-vis sustainable communities
- Appreciate, generate, and apply interdisciplinary methods of inquiry.
- Recognize, explain and synthesize how global, local, economic, political, and cultural systems are interrelated.
- Think critically through reading, writing and discussions.
- Work collaboratively along lines of difference (e.g. race, class, gender, etc.) in classrooms and communities.
- Foster and develop strong interpersonal, listening, and leadership skills.
- Develop and apply different ethical and social justice frameworks.
- Translate understanding to action and commitment using multiple change-agent strategies.
- Imagine and design possible alternatives of sustainable communities.
- Facilitate and create inclusive, diverse, egalitarian, and democratic spaces in the classrooms and communities.
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Details
Additional Admission Requirements
- Admission requirements over and above admission to NAU are required.
- NAU Graduate Online application is required for all programs. Details on admission requirements are included in the online application.
- Undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited institution
- Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.00 (scale is 4.00 = "A"), or the equivalent.
- Admission to many graduate programs is on a competitive basis, and programs may have higher standards than those established by the Graduate College.
- Transcripts
- For details on graduate admission policies, please visit the Graduate Admissions Policy
- International applicants have additional admission requirements. Please see the International Graduate Admissions Policy
Individual program admission requirements include:
- 3 letters of recommendation
- Personal statement or essay
Master's Requirements
This Master’s degree requires 36 units distributed as follows:
- Sustainable Communities Common Coursework: 17 units
- Sustainable Communities Focused Electives: 13 units
- Integrative Project or Thesis: 6 units
Take the following 36 units:- SUS 601, SUS 602, SUS 603, SUS 604, SUS 608, SUS 695 (17 units)
- Electives related to sustainable communities and focused on your area of study, chosen in consultation with your graduate advisor. Courses may include independent study and fieldwork experience, as well as special topics courses and courses from disciplines across the University. (13 units)
Select one of the following 6 units:
Please note that, in preparing your thesis or integrative project, you may end up taking more than the 6 units of thesis/project credit because you must enroll each term while you are working on your thesis/project.
Be aware that some courses may have prerequisites that you must also take. For prerequisite information click on the course or see your advisor.
Accelerated Bachelor's to Master's Program
This program is available as an Accelerated Undergraduate/Graduate Plan. Accelerated Programs provide the opportunity for outstanding undergraduates working on their bachelor’s degree to simultaneously begin work on a master’s degree. Departments may allow students to complete both degrees in an accelerated manner by approving up to 12 units applicable toward both degrees. Students must apply to the accelerated program and the master’s program by the application deadline, and meet all requirements as listed on the Accelerated Bachelor's to Master's Programs to be considered for admission. Admission to programs is competitive and qualified applicants may be denied because of limits on the number of students admitted each year. Be sure to speak with your advisor regarding your interest in Accelerated Programs.
More about our program
The M.A. program in Sustainable Communities (SUS) at NAU integrates many areas of study, including anthropology, the arts, business, humanities, economics, education, environmental science, history, political science, psychology, religion, sociology, women's studies, and technology. Students gain both depth and breadth in understanding issues important to sustaining community life by choosing from among our own courses and those from across the university. This is a 36-credit-hour program that culminates in a thesis or final project and encourages you to pursue social and environmental sustainability issues. Our guiding principles are:- Inter-disciplinary inquiry
- Linking theory and practice
- Issue-based research
- Learner-based curriculum
- Working with community
- Flexible pedagogy
Recent theses and final projects
Students in the Sustainable Communities program at NAU choose coursework that provides them with the unique perspectives and skills they need to complete a thesis or final project. They work closely with a committee, often made up of faculty from across the university.- Phenious Chuma: Recommendations for Climate Change Adaptation Policies in Malawi
- Andee Lister: >Bioaccumulation of Uranium in Sheep Heart and Kidney, and Impact on Traditional Food Sources
- Kelsey Morales: Community Renewable Energy: A Case Study of Democratic Relationships and Just Practices
- Nina Porter: Tending the Fire: Emotional Labor and the Reproduction of Social Movements
- Robert Teuton: Discovering Supportive Legal Frameworks and Policies for Worker-Owned Cooperatives
- Colleen Trout: Climate Change in Ski Country: Can Telluride Ski Resort and Communities Adapt?