The Department of Academic Literacy and Linguistics (ALL) offers an Associate in Arts (AA) degree in Critical Thinking and Justice. This program fosters critical literacy and critical thinking as applied to studies in justice, history, and philosophy, among others. This field will help you gain an understanding of the relationship between the humanities and justice; engage and develop the skills of careful reading, critical thinking, and clear writing about the justice system and community justice.
This program will prepare students for careers in humanities and justice, and related fields in behavioral and social sciences, communication and media, education, the legal profession and the non-profit sector.
Students completing this program can transfer seamlessly into the B.A. degree in Humanities and Justice at the CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice without the loss of credits.
Transfer Options
BMCC has articulation agreements with several four-year colleges to allow you to seamlessly continue your education there.
Explore Careers
BMCC is committed to students’ long-term success and will help you explore professional opportunities. Undecided? No problem. The college offers Career Coach for salary and employment information, job postings and a self-discovery assessment to help students find their academic and career paths. Visit Career Express to make an appointment with an advisor, search for jobs or sign-up for professional development activities with the Center for Career Development. Students can also visit the Office of Internships and Experiential Learning to gain real world experience in preparation for a four-year degree and beyond. These opportunities are available to help BMCC students build a foundation for future success.
Contact
Rosario Torres
Program Coordinator
rtorres@bmcc.cuny.edu
Related Communities
Requirements
Critical Thinking and Justice Academic Program Maps
Required Common Core
| English Composition | 6 |
| Mathematical and Quantitative Reasoning1 | 3 |
| Life and Physical Sciences1 | 3 |
| TOTAL REQUIRED COMMON CORE | 12 |
Flexible Core2
| Creative Expression | 3 |
| Individual and Society | 3 |
| Scientific World1 | 3 |
| U.S. Experience in Its Diversity | 6 |
| World Cultures and Global Issues | 3 |
| TOTAL FLEXIBLE COMMON CORE | 18 |
| TOTAL COMMON CORE | 30 |
Curriculum Requirements
- Students will learn discipline-specific strategies for reading effectively and critically in humanities fields such as philosophy and history. Students will apply strategies used by experts in these fields to interact with authentic texts in these disciplines. Specifically, students will focus on vocabulary, grammatical and rhetorical nuances, as well as authorial awareness, when interpreting texts in these fields. Strategies learned in this course will ultimately help students learn to read, write, and think like experts in the humanities.
- This course will familiarize students with critical concepts that shape the U.S. legal system, and its administration of justice, with a concentration on reading to understand the relationship between law and justice and its impact on our daily lives. As such, students will learn about the systems and institutions that shape the legal framework of the United States through the reading of various texts, including, but not limited to, case studies, memoirs, scholarly articles, and investigative reports. Readings and discussions will center around the foundational elements of the U.S. legal system, such as the Constitution and the criminal justice system which students will critically analyze through varied legal and philosophical lenses. Topics may include theories of justice and law, with a focus on the penal system, trial by jury, the death penalty, and practical applications of legal vocabulary. Critical reading skills and comprehension of the lexicon of law and basic legal concepts will be prioritized throughout the course.
- In this course, students will examine how, in both “developed” and “developing” contexts, local, national, and global policies and institutions affect an individual’s socialization into and acquisition of literacy (e.g., in educational and social contexts). Specifically, students will examine how socialization into and acquisition of literacy relate to the civic participation and socioeconomic opportunities of members of marginalized and minority communities (e.g., communities organized around gender, class, colonial status, race/ethnicity/tribal affiliation, sexuality, and/or religious sect). Students will analyze, through intersectional and postcolonial lenses, how cultural conventions (e.g., norms, prejudices, hierarchies, and traditions) influence and are influenced by local, national, and global policies related to literacy practices and education (particularly as they relate to gender). Further, students will examine how, in an increasingly globalized and neocolonial world, conceptions of and access to literacies can affect a) the maintenance of cultural values and practices and b) an individual’s rights, agency, and mobility (particularly as these phenomena relate to gender). Emphasis will be on how literacy acquisition, civic participation, social justice, and socioeconomic opportunities relate to how gendered individuals are valued, perceived, and defined in various cultural contexts.
- This course develops students' abilities to reason well about scientific claims, scientific research, and the nature, value, and limits of scientific inquiry. To reason well about scientific claims, students understand and apply central scientific concepts, such as experiment, explanation, cause, effect, correlation, random sampling, testability, prediction, verification, and falsification. In addition, students evaluate instances of reasoning with such concepts by evaluating arguments for and against scientific claims and assessing the significance of possible outcomes of experiments. To reason well about the nature, value, and limits of scientific inquiry, students are introduced to central issues in the philosophy of science, such as the demarcation between science and pseudo-science, the reliability of scientific research, and the (un)reasonableness of beliefs about claims, such as moral and other normative claims, that fall outside the scope of sciences.
- Critical Thinking (Same as CRT 100) is designed to develop the mind and help students learn to think clearly and effectively. Through substantive readings, structured writing assignments and ongoing discussions, students will examine concrete examples from their own experience and readings and contemporary issues in the media to learn how to analyze issues, solve problems, and make informed decisions in their academic, professional, and personal lives.
OR
- In this course, students will build and apply critical thinking skills, including making and evaluating arguments, to questions of social inequalities, especially those related to race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Using a variety of historical, literary and theoretical texts, students will look at ways that existing power structures benefit some groups and limit or oppress others. Students will be asked to reflect on their own experiences and attitudes and consider what they can do to build a more just and equal society.
3
XXX xxx
Critical Thinking Advised Electives6
3
XXX xxx
Diversity & Social Justice Advised Electives7
3
XXX xxx
Humanities Advised Elective8
3
XXX xxx
Justice in Practice: Social Behavioral Sciences Elective9
3
XXX xxx
General Electives1
30
Total Curriculum Requirements
60
Total Program Requirements
Footnotes
- These credits can be satisfied by taking STEM variants in the Common Core.
- No more than two course in any discipline or interdisciplinary field can be used to satisfy Flexible Common Core requirements.
- If students take ACL 195 to satisfy the World Cultures and Global Issues requirement in the Common Core, they will be able to take an additional advised elective.
- If students take CRT 150 to satisfy the Scientific World requirement in the Common Core, they will be able to take an additional advised elective.
- If students take CRT 120 to satisfy the Individual and Society requirement in the Common Core, they will be able to take an additional advised elective.
- Choose one (1) course from CRT 196, CRT 200, CRT 210, CRT 220, CRT 245, CRT 250, CRT 295, CRT 310, CRT 350, LIN 240, PHI 100, PHI 110, PHI 111, PHI 120, PHI 210, or POL 260.
- Choose one (1) course from COM 265, CRT 120, CRT 196, CRT 300, CRT 295, GWS 100, LIN 125, LIN 150, LIN 300, SOC 154/AFN 154, SOC 150/LAT 150, SOC 210, or SOC 230.
- Choose one (1) course from AFN 321, AFN 322, AFN 338, ENG 116, ENG 300, ENG 311, ENG 314, ENG 336, ENG 338/LAT 338, ENG 339, ENG 340, ENG 346, ENG 353, HIS 123/AFN 123, HIS 124/AFN 124, HIS 126/AFN 126, HIS 130/LAT130, PHI 100, PHI 120, or any modern language course.
- Choose one (1) course from ACL 150, ACL 175, ACL 250, CRJ 101, CRJ 201, CRJ 202, CRT 300, CRT 310, CRT 350, ECO 111, HUM 101, HUM 201, LIN 201, LIN 240, LIN 250, POL 100, POL 230, or POL 230.
