Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences

Foundational Course on Interdisciplinary Research & Contemplative Practice: 3 credits

INTD-501E: Foundations of Research and Practice (3) 

This course examines a variety of methodologies and methods across a range of disciplinary and epistemological approaches to research. Students will develop a multi-disciplinary research vocabulary and apply methods within and across disciplinary boundaries. Contemplative practices will enrich more conventional theoretical understandings of academic inquiry. Students will engage with the work of scholars, artists, healers, and activists to explore quantitative and qualitative methods and theoretical frameworks such as liberation theology, feminist theory, queer theory, narrative research, and phenomenology.

Concentrations: 18 credits

Self-Authored Concentration

Students can propose the creation of a concentration from across multiple disciplines that adheres to a named coherent theme. Students need to formally propose their concentration to the program. The courses used for this concentration can come from the list here or from any graduate-level course that allows an INTD student to take it.

Students will select 3 or 4 courses from two of the following Concentration categories:

Ecopsychology Concentration

Ecopsychology PSYE-630E: Transpersonal Psychology (3)

An introduction and examination of central concepts, theories, practices, and applications of transpersonal psychology. The theories of the central figures in the field are discussed and compared, as well as the roots of transpersonal psychology in the world wisdom traditions. Students explore foundations of transpersonal psychology and its applications to meditation, ritual, ecopsychology, psychological research, multicultural diversity, and other areas. This online course blends intellectual exploration, practice, and self-reflection.

PSYE-640E: Ecopsychology (3)

The emerging field of ecopsychology is concerned with the psychospiritual side of human and ecological health, proposing that the well-being of both is inextricably linked. Ecopsychology places psychology in an ecological context and draws on psychological insights for effective and sustainable environmental action. This course introduces and examines various aspects of ecopsychological theory and practices through an integration of intellectual exploration, experiential practices, and contemplative self-reflection.

PSYE-680E: Ecology: Concepts & Applications for Ecopsychology (3)

This online course reviews fundamental concepts in ecology and explores their relevance to ecopsychology. We explore organisms in their environment, population dynamics, community ecology, ecosystem dynamics, and Gaia Theory. A field component involves natural history investigations in each student’s local bioregion. As a group, we develop a place-based perceptual ecology and inquire into the dynamic interrelationships between local ecology, global change, and the human psyche.

PSYE-690E: Ecopsychology Applied in Context (3)

This online course deepens understanding about the field of ecopsychology by seating its concepts in cultural and applied contexts. Application of the ecopsychological principles for addressing contemporary ecological problems and ethics are examined, along with options for effective and compassionate action. Topics may include eco-spirituality, power dynamics and diversity in ecopsychology, ecofeminism, applied myth, climate change, bioregionalism, voluntary simplicity, and resilience.

Yoga Studies (Some courses include an in-person retreat)

REL-577E: History & Philosophies of Yoga (3)

The course offers a broad and roughly chronological survey of the thought and practice of Yoga in India. This will involve zooming in and out of some of India’s most paramount and influential Yogic traditions and considering their diverse range of answers to the following questions: what is Yoga as both a goal and a practice, who is the ideal Yogi, what are their most fundamental aims, and what kind of worlds do they inhabit? Text traditions examined will include select Vedic sources, early Buddhist texts, Epic literature, the Yogasutras of Patanjali and its commentaries, the Puranas, the Tantras, medieval Jain and Islamic texts, and the Hathayoga text tradition. 

REL-617E: Meditation in Yogic and Tantric Traditions I (3)

This course will guide students through a comprehensive curriculum of meditative practice as formulated in Patanjali’s Yogasutra. Patanjali’s yogic system will constitute a foundation for the practicum and will introduce subtle refinements in posture, methods for working with the breath and the energy of the senses, and ways to harness the current of the mind, making space for the spontaneous unfolding of meditative awareness and the cultivation of self-mastery. This core curriculum will serve as staging for more fruitional modes of meditation revealed in tantric sources that involve visualization and creative acts of imagination. Teachings on meditative praxis will be supplemented by a study of the ways of seeing and knowing advances by the source traditions, i.e., the dynamism of their fundamental views as well as their articulations of the purpose and goal of meditation. *Starts in retreat.

REL-717E: Meditation in Yogic & Tantric Traditions II (3)

This course is a continuation of Meditation in Yogic and Tantric Traditions: a Practicum. This course will continue to guide students through a comprehensive curriculum of meditative practice as formulated in Patanjali’s Yogasutra, tantra and hatha yoga. While continuing to utilize Patanjali’s yogic system as a foundation for the practicum, this curriculum will further explore working with the breath and subtle body as illuminated in hatha yoga and tantra, while making space for the spontaneous unfolding of meditative awareness and the cultivation of self-mastery. This core curriculum will serve as staging for more fruitional modes of meditation. Teachings on meditative praxis will be supplemented by a study of the ways of seeing and knowing advanced by the source traditions, i.e., the dynamism of their fundamental views as well as their articulations of the purpose and goal of meditation. 

Creative Writing

WRI-631E: Rooting in the Archive (3)

This course delves into the Naropa University Archive and its rich offerings to explore traditions, movements, and/or schools of writing that inform or extend the aesthetic vision of the Jack Kerouac School toward mindful writing. Possible recent historical examples include New American Poetry, the Beats, San Francisco Renaissance, the New York School, Black Mountain Poetics, the Black Arts Movement, and Language poetry, among others. Students develop an intensive listening and writing practice around the archive, examining critical and creative texts that penetrate and revitalize past recordings, and consider the historical and social circumstances for a specific movement, in addition to its primary theoretical or aesthetic concerns. Students in this course must also be registered for WRI789We or WRI791We, Fall or Spring Residency.

WRI-648E: Contemplative Experiments

In its view toward fresh, lively writing, this course emphasizes contemplative attention within the act of writing itself, in order to go where the energy is rather than follow premeditated decisions. We look at works that exhibit wakeful energy in various literary modes, tuning into their particular qualities of mind, as well as to the elements and structures of language by which these qualities are realized. “Contemplative” here refers to the joining of present attention with critical understanding so that new possibilities for form and content may open for writing in any mode or genre.

WRI-735E: Contemporary Trends

In this course, students focus on current trends, patterns, and concerns of creative writing practices. We investigate and consider a variety of literary modes that both inform and are informed by contemporary texts, including the cross-pollination of writing with other cultural and social forms and practices. In addition to reading recent works, students trace the history of these trends to observe their dynamic evolution.

WRI-700E: Professional Development: Writing Pedagogy

This class prepares students for working with writers in the college setting, both one-on-one and in the classroom. A range of teaching models (including expressive, collaborative, critical, contemplative, and feminist philosophies) are investigated, and practical methods for working with writers are developed. Strategies for engaging with the writing process, providing feedback on student work, and developing lesson plans are explored. Students construct a foundation for their own pedagogical approaches, based firmly in the theories they value. Open to all graduate students interested in teaching writing.

WRI-793E: Special Topics

Study and analysis of selected literary and compositional issues and elements. Topics cover a wide range of subject matter and methods and vary from semester to semester. These may include, but are not limited to, works of literature, forms of composition, literary history, writing practice (including prose, poetry, and translation), literary criticism, as well as film and media studies.

Buddhist Studies

REL-611E: First Turning: Mind and Emotions (3)

The first turning introduces the early sutra discourses of the Buddha and the abhidharma (higher dharma) distillation of the Buddhist teachings on the nature, structure, and operation of the mind and emotions. This course provides a selected survey of the essential texts from both the Northern (Vaibhashika) and Southern (Theravada) schools, along with historical context and applications to meditation practice. 

REL-661E: Second Turning: The Bodhisattva Path (3)

This course examines the philosophical view, meditation practice, and compassionate action of the bodhisattva path, as expressed in the Mahayana texts. Prajnaparamita and the Vimalakirti Sutras provide the ground from which the bodhisattva path is explored in Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara. Finally, the ultimate view of emptiness is explored in the work of Nagarjuna’s Root Verses of the Middle Way and its commentaries. Prerequisite: REL611E.

REL-600E: Meditation Practicum I: Seeds of Peace (3)

Students are introduced to sitting meditation practice, drawn from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of shamatha-vipashyana. Weekly lectures emphasize experiential aspects of the practice, involving such topics as the discovery of impermanence, working with emotions, and the cultivation of maitri (loving-kindness). This course includes weekly discussion groups, individual meetings with a meditation instructor, and daily meditation practice. MA and MDiv. 

Spiritual Care

REL-611E: First Turning: Mind and Emotions (3)

The first turning introduces the early sutra discourses of the Buddha and the abhidharma (higher dharma) distillation of the Buddhist teachings on the nature, structure, and operation of the mind and emotions. This course provides a selected survey of the essential texts from both the Northern (Vaibhashika) and Southern (Theravada) schools, along with historical context and applications to meditation practice.

REL-602E: Contemporary Communication in Spiritual Caregiving (3)

This course examines human communication as the foundation for relational and ethical practice in the field of spiritual care. Insights from phenomenology, linguistics, philosophy of communication, and Buddhist contemplative practice will address and deconstruct theories of communication that emphasize separateness and the priority of speaking over listening. Through practicing mindful communication and examining communication biases, students will develop foundational contemplative skills and attitudes that contribute to the spiritual health and wellbeing of persons in crisis. Course themes will include listening as empowerment, listening and responding as an ethical responsibility, and “listening the other into being” as an act of love. 

REL-779E: Interspiritual Dialogue (3)

This course explores the increasingly nuanced terrain of religious and spiritual identity, especially as expressed in ‘hybridized’ forms of practice in and learning from the world’s spiritual traditions. It also introduces the student to the creative potential of interspiritual dialogue for expanding one’s personal theology and communicating effectively and compassionately across the religious spectrum. Through lecture and supervised practical exercises and application, students will develop a deeper understanding of their own religious identities, a deeper appreciation of dialogue, and learn essential skills for dialoguing around religion and spiritual traditions. This is “An Interspiritual Wisdom Course” specifically introducing students to diverse perspectives from the world’s wisdom traditions, as well as offering access to experienced teachers of those traditions in the classroom, either through video or in-person.

REL-798E: Special Topics

The Special Topics course explores topics of general focus and relevance to the field of religious studies, geared toward the research interests of the faculty. Specific topics are announced the semester the course is offered.

Capstone: 6 credits

All students will take the following two courses: 

INTD-601E: Integrative Thesis Design (3)

In this course students design, propose, and research an integrative capstone project. Students can choose to do a more traditional academic paper of roughly 50 pages or a hybrid project that combines a shorter research paper with a creative or socially engaged project. Hybrid projects might include writing fiction, poetry or creative non-fiction, developing learning modules for a specific audience, or partnering with a local non-profit organization to lead a community initiative. Students may elect to take an additional 3-credit thesis course to support writing a longer, traditional thesis.

INTD-602E: Interdisciplinary Thesis (3)

In this course students will complete the work begun in Integrative Thesis Design. Students will research and write a Masters Capstone Thesis of roughly 50 pages or complete a hybrid project. Through peer review, students will offer critical, reflective feedback to each other. Faculty mentors will support the students in their process of organizing, drafting, revising, and editing the thesis. The 30-credit curriculum is organized into four interlocking components: a foundational course on interdisciplinary research and contemplative practice, two sets of disciplinary concentrations, and a one- or two-semester capstone project.