Ph.D. in Applied Social Justice - Online

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by chrisjm18, Aug 4, 2022.

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  1. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I note that all three of these pair evoke CRT, but they're actually Ethnic Studies majors. Ethnic Studies, of course, has long been recognized as a major area of study. Looking at the content of the first cited example, CRT makes up 3 s.h. of the 120-s.h. curriculum. CRT is being used like a keyword on a website.

    But I do know this: if there is a stand-alone CRT major, you'll ferret it out. That's why I posed my comment as a question, anticipating you might show that I'm wrong. But in this case, I'm not seeing it. It looks "bolted on" because it's a hot topic.
     
  2. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    But there's that word "applied".
     
  3. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Could you explain this further? Thanks.
     
  4. Alpine

    Alpine Active Member

    You asked a good question! I agree it looks “bolted on” apparently to the social sciences. Perhaps the word “major” has taken on a new definition in academics. Concentration, specialization, emphasis, focus and major seem to all blend together nowadays. There is also the “catch phrase” that helps market a program. As far as me “ferreting it out,” It’s not that important to me. I only have so much time on this earth and appreciate knowledge that has utility and ROI.
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2022
  5. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Only what you said earlier.
     
  6. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    Considering we are seeing people with DBAs working in academia with seemingly no harm to their careers I suspect it is, indeed, a distinction without a difference in many (but probably not all) cases.

    From a private sector standpoint, I can tell you that in 90% of the cases an MSM is likely to be considered equivalent (as in "MBA or equivalent required") to an MBA. It starts to get a bit sketchy when you start trying to sub out an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership for an MBA, however. If I were a gambling man, I would suspect a person more likely to run into problems when they start stretching into blurrier lined boundaries.

    For example, we all know that you can enter a PhD program in, say, sociology and focus your research on a topic like penology. You can also focus your research on penology while in a CJ program. And depending on your focus maybe you even pull off that penology focus in a program in psychology, education or even business. Again, it really depends on what your research interest within that field looks like. The stretchier that leap looks, though, the more problems it may cause. A DBA thesis that focuses on the business of private prisons, for example, may add well to the intellectual and academic conversation around modern penology. Will that person be able to land a spot on CJ faculty because of that? Ehh...maybe? Depends on what they're looking for, I suppose. But that DBA is probably going to hurt more than help in that specific scenario.

    It is, therefore, important to consider what you want to study and what specifically you hope to do with that information once you study it. In the case of you, Rich, I doubt anyone is sitting there really contemplating the nuances of what post-nominals to which you are entitled. It's your research that furthers the conversation. The specific wording of the diploma (or what WES thinks of it) is of little consequence to most of the people you encounter. I suspect it would be the same for many others. But alas, too often in these conversations we get caught up in how great the wording would look on a resume or LinkedIn page to the detriment of the research or the applied project.
     
    Rich Douglas likes this.
  7. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    That's the point. It might not matter at all ever to some people. And it might be a tripping point to others.

    The DBA is interesting in that a lot of the schools we come across offering it really make the distinction between it and the PhD exactly as I've described it, yet readers here are quick to rush past that distinction. I'm not making it up nor trying to convince people to come along. It's right there.

    (Around 35 years ago I inquired at UNISA regarding admission to their doctorate-level business program. (If memory serves, it was a doctor of commerce.) They said very clearly that an MA or MS in Business would be acceptable for admission, but an MBA would not. They made the same distinction at the master's-level I'm talking about here.)

    I have no way of measuring this, but I suspect this issue will become even more acute as the DBA flourishes.
     
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  8. MaceWindu

    MaceWindu Active Member

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  9. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    It's not too bad considering it's only 36 credits.
     
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  10. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    This is interesting...I wonder what the reasoning behind it was for them?
     
  11. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

    Making big assumptions here, but for schools that make the distinction I imagine a Business or Commerce program includes more quantitative and theoretical content that would be useful in a doctoral-level program while a Master's in Business Administration focuses/focused more on applied skills. I don't think that distinction exists today, given that there are very quant-heavy MBAs and applied Master's in Finance/Business/Commerce, but it might have decades ago.
     
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  12. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    Interestingly a lot of professors at top B-Schools did an MBA prior to their PhD instead of a MS.
     
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  13. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    They considered the MA and MS to be academic degrees, while the MBA was a professional one and, thus, not suited as a prerequisite for doctoral study. They assumed an MA or MS was more scholarly. I didn't think that then and I certainly don't think that now. A better distinction would be whether or not the master's had a thesis requirement.
     
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  14. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Ouch.

    But yes. This correspondence took place in the '80s.
     
  15. MasterChief

    MasterChief Member

    I don't see CRT listed anywhere in the curriculum. Could you please share or PM me?
     
  16. Alpine

    Alpine Active Member

    It’s not part of the “core” curriculum but when I attended, there was a guest lecturer that spoke on the topic in a weekly zoom conference. The Dean felt it was important enough to have a lecture dedicated to CRT.
     
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  17. felderga

    felderga Active Member

    We briefly touched on this topic during the Leadership Practicum. As someone with a background in Public Health CRT can be useful in discussions around social determinants in health (SDOH) and thus can be useful in the implementation of intervention programs related to health equity. Again if VUL were ever serious about expanding its DHA curriculum to include more health policy would love to see this as an area to be explored more in-depth.

    https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2020/09/22/structural-racism-social-determinant-of-health/

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8313803/
     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2022
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