Join our Graduate Program
Possible careers
- * Municipal and regional governance
- * Environmental, sustainability, and social justice education
- * Non-profit program coordination
- * Sustainable food systems
- * Natural and sustainable building
- * Community organizing
- * Justice and equity leadership
Student Learning Outcomes
His research, titled “The Contribution of Urban Agriculture to Sustainable Food Systems in Wa Municipality” is deeply personal, shaped by his experiences growing up and his commitment to improving his community. Sufyan also works with the Rural Food Systems pod in the Community-University Public Inquiry (CUPI) program, teaching undergraduate students about research techniques and leadership skills.
Sufyan’s thesis seeks actionable means to support growers and promote urban agriculture in Ghana. He plans to return to Ghana to implement his findings but is also considering pursuing a PhD or getting a job in a sustainability or food system field to gain experience. No matter what form his path takes, his mission remains clear: to find sustainable solutions that heal the environment and the people who depend on it.
Growing up in inland San Diego, around an agricultural landscape, McKenna Bean developed an early connection to food systems. Her journey in food justice is deeply personal. Before coming to NAU, she pursued a degree in Sustainability at Sierra Nevada University at Lake Tahoe, where she was drawn to agroecology and the intersection of food and environment. She worked with the Sierra Community House, a wraparound social services nonprofit, where she played a critical role in food assistance programming during COVID-19. She also served on the board of Slow Food Lake Tahoe, engaging with food banks and community gardens.
For McKenna, food has always been the “red thread” connecting every aspect of her life. Her work is driven by the belief that “food insecurity is a symptom of a larger issue.” She said, “When times are tough, food is the first thing people stop paying for, it’s an expense that can be sacrificed, unlike medical bills or rent.” Yet, the cheapest food is often the least nutritious, compounding long-term health inequities.
Sustainable Communities, Master of Arts
This is an interdisciplinary program that enables students to create their own course of study to address their intellectual, ethical and practical concerns.
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, sustainable communities (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.
Requirements Accordion Open
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.
Read the full policy here.
Overview Accordion Closed
In addition to University Requirements:
- Complete individual plan requirements.
| Minimum Units for Completion | 36 |
| Additional Admission Requirements | Individual program admission requirements over and above admission to NAU are required. |
| Fieldwork Experience/Internship | 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 |
| Accelerated Undergraduate/Graduate Plan | Optional |
Purpose Statement
The mission of the Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities 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.
Details Accordion Closed
Graduate Admission Information
The NAU graduate online application is required for all programs. Admission to many graduate programs is on a competitive basis, and programs may have higher standards than those established by the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies.
Admission requirements include the following:- Transcripts.
- Undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited institution with a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale ("A" = 4.0), or the equivalent.
Visit the NAU Graduate Admissions website for additional information about graduate school application deadlines, eligibility for study, and admissions policies.
Ready to apply? Begin your application now.International applicants have additional admission requirements. Please see the International Graduate Admissions Policy.
Additional Admission Requirements
Individual program admission requirements over and above admission to NAU are required.
- Three 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
- Thesis: 6 units
Take the following 36 units:
- Students completing a thesis are required to complete 18 units of formal letter-graded coursework.
- Sustainable Communities Common Coursework (17 units)
- <Course Error>, <Course Error>, <Course Error>, <Course Error>, <Course Error>, <Course Error> (17 units)
- Sustainable Communities Focused Electives (13 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)
- Thesis (6 units)
- <Course Error>, for the research, writing, and oral defense of an approved thesis. (6 units)
In preparing your thesis , you may end up taking more than the 6 units of thesis credit because you must enroll each term while you are working on your thesis.
Accelerated Bachelor's to Master's Program
This program is available as an Accelerated Undergraduate/Graduate Plan wherein a student may start a master's degree while simultaneously completing their bachelor's degree.
Students enrolled at the Flagstaff campus for both undergraduate and graduate programs are eligible to complete the Bachelor of Arts in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and start a Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities at NAU.
OR
Students enrolled at the Flagstaff campus for both undergraduate and graduate programs are eligible to complete the Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and start a Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities at NAU.
OR
Students enrolled at the Flagstaff campus for both undergraduate and graduate programs are eligible to complete the Bachelor of Science in Sociology and start a Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities at NAU.
- Students must apply to the master's program by the graduate program's application deadline, meet all admissions requirements listed in the policy Accelerated Bachelor's to Master's Programs, as well as the admissions requirements for the specified master's plan 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 the Master's Program Director/Coordinator regarding your interest in the accelerated plan.
- Students must apply to the master's program by the graduate program's application deadline, meet all admissions requirements listed in the policy Accelerated Bachelor's to Master's Programs, as well as the admissions requirements for the specified master's plan 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.
Students accepted into one of the Accelerated Programs should complete the same requirements for the graduate degree as defined above.
Additional Information
Some courses may have prerequisites. For prerequisite information, click on the course or see your advisor.
About Our Master's
A Community Approach to Transformative Sustainability
The Sustainable Communities program prepares students to enact positive social change. We take an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to sustainability, enabling and encouraging our students to develop their own vision for a just world. Our graduate curriculum provides a theoretical foundation to understand societal problems and to identify opportunities for moving through them. Students engage dominant and alternative economic, political, social, and philosophical paradigms as they develop their understanding of how to work for a more just and sustainable world. Students work closely with community organizations and initiatives, developing organizing and leadership capacity that build on skills they workshop and study in the classroom. Combining robust theoretical grounding with applied community engagement sets our program apart and positions our students as capable participants and leaders of social change.What's sustainability? Accordion Closed
SUS takes an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to sustainability, defining it as the sustenance of ecological and social well-being that centers on resilience, flourishing, equity, democracy, justice, and interdependence. The complexity of this definition strengthens our students as community leaders because they have the skills to understand and act in response to a variety of approaches to sustainability, and also challenge those frameworks as they strive toward justice.
What can I do with this degree? Accordion Closed
Our graduates enter the workforce ready to engage with their communities through transformative careers. Some examples of career fields following graduation include:
- municipal and regional governance
- environmental, sustainability, and social justice education
- non-profit program coordination
- sustainable food systems
- natural and sustainable building
- community organizing
- justice and equity leadership
What will I learn? Accordion Closed
Social and Ecological Justice
The SUS program asserts that social and ecological justice are foundational to any sustainable community. Without equitable access to the resources that make a vibrant, healthy, autonomous life possible, sustainable communities are not possible. Through coursework and community engagement, students learn about the systems, institutions, and histories of power and domination that shape ongoing struggles for justice and sustainability. We prioritize visions of long-term, radical transformation of oppressive systems, and also give students the chance to work pragmatically for change.
Community Engagement
All of us in the SUS program recognize that we are embedded within the fabric of both the NAU campus and our regional communities. Community engagement includes the reflexive examination and use of various models of activism, organizing, historical analysis of movements for social change, and other democratic practices. Through community engagement, students directly learn from and participate in the creation, maintenance, and renewal of communities, interacting with, and in some cases becoming, local leaders.
Interdisciplinary Research
Interdisciplinarity is integral to all aspects of the SUS program, how we teach, and the students we mentor. Students from varied disciplines join the program, and faculty from an array of disciplines teach within it. Our work to understand, reflect, and act toward just and sustainable communities embraces problem-solving theories and methods from a wide array of academic fields. This enables our students to excel at interdisciplinary thinking, writing, problem-solving, and organizing.
Applied Scholarship
Scholarship in the SUS program is grounded in both rigorous theory and practice. Students in the program are encouraged to synthesize theoretical discussions in class with on-the-ground initiatives that respond directly to the needs of communities. SUS students may engage in applied scholarship in their classes, research projects, internships, and graduate assistantships.
Social Transformation
Students in the SUS program critically study and practice the arts of social transformation. We believe that sustainable communities require widespread social transformation at political, economic, and cultural levels. While individual change is one component of social transformation, SUS places its focus upon broader, collective forms of transformation with the greatest potential to address the socio-ecological crises we face.
see also "What is Sustainability?" above
Can I get funding? Accordion Closed
We offer tuition waivers and graduate assistantships on a competitive basis to students who:
- are admitted to the Sustainable Communities program
- are enrolled as full-time graduate students (taking a minimum of 9 hours per semester)
- maintain a 3.0 GPA (with no grades below B and no grades of “incomplete”)
Why NAU? Accordion Closed
No matter what state or country you’re from, NAU will be a home for your intellectual, personal, and professional growth. You’ll join more than 29,000 students from 80 countries who have all chosen to pursue their educational passions here. Located in the stunning southwestern United States, Flagstaff, Arizona is nestled in the mountains and experiences all four seasons. It’s the perfect place to pursue your studies—and there is no place quite like it. Check out our FAQ page and take part in virtual tours of our campus and the Flagstaff area to learn more.
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. Here's a sampling of their work.- Rebecca Ed: Caught Between Two Worlds: A Study of Water Access on the Navajo Reservation and the Educational Fallout of the Youth Who Thirst
- Lindsey Falkenburg: Uprooting Domination in Restoration: Seeding Utopian Futures Through Collaborative Fiction
- Marie Gladue: Re-Indigenizing the Sacred Homescape of Dinetah
- Adediran Ikuomola: African Migrants and Ethnic Food Consumption Patterns (Foodways) in Phoenix, Arizona
- Bryson Leander: Earthen Accessory Dwelling Units: A Bioregional Proposal for Affordable Housing in Phoenix, Arizona
- Zenya Ledermann: Feeding Equality: A Comprehensive Analysis of Food Justice in the Verde Valley, Arizona
- Caleb Martin: Just Transition: An Analysis of Civil Society-Led Renewable Energy Development in Tohoku Japan
-
RobinLi Uber: Flowers for Mama: An Arts-Based Inquiry Into Continuing Bonds
Student spotlight
Sufyan Suleman
Sufyan's academic journey has taken him across continents from his home in Wa, Ghana to New Zealand to the United States. However, his heart remains rooted in his home. After completing his undergraduate degree in Agribusiness at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana in 2014, he spent a year and a half in New Zealand at Lincoln University studying a master's program in Agribusiness Management. He then returned home to work with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for four years. His role focused on working with smallholder farmers to improve their production and to connect them with high-value markets, helping to strengthen their economic opportunities.
But as he deepened his agricultural work, Sufyan saw how Ghana’s vast natural resources, particularly gold, led to an increase in illegal mining, locally termed “Galamsey”. These activities degraded the environment, affected farmers, disrupted their livelihoods, and threatened food systems.
Determined to address these challenges, Sufyan came to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff to pursue a master’s degree in Sustainable Communities. “This program allows me to practice what I learn and not just memorize what I’ve read,” he says.
McKenna Bean
Growing up in inland San Diego, around an agricultural landscape, McKenna Bean developed an early connection to food systems. Her journey in food justice is deeply personal. Before coming to NAU, she pursued a degree in Sustainability at Sierra Nevada University at Lake Tahoe, where she was drawn to agroecology and the intersection of food and environment. She worked with the Sierra Community House, a wraparound social services nonprofit, where she played a critical role in food assistance programming during COVID-19. She also served on the board of Slow Food Lake Tahoe, engaging with food banks and community gardens.
For McKenna, food has always been the “red thread” connecting every aspect of her life. Her work is driven by the belief that “food insecurity is a symptom of a larger issue.” She said, “When times are tough, food is the first thing people stop paying for, it’s an expense that can be sacrificed, unlike medical bills or rent.” Yet, the cheapest food is often the least nutritious, compounding long-term health inequities.
Now in Flagstaff, drawn by the Sustainable Communities program, she has found her niche in studying rural hunger relief agencies. Her thesis examines how food pantries, food banks, and community food hubs operate, not just as transactional charity models but as relational, community-driven spaces. She asks, “How have we adopted these transactional models of charity?” and challenges the notion of one-size-fits-all solutions working in food assistance. Through her research, she highlights best practices among organizations that see food as the first barrier to accessing a person’s full range of needs. The most effective programs go beyond food, integrating housing, workforce assistance, transportation, crisis support, and safe spaces, creating true community hubs.
Her work is shaped by mutual aid and the understanding that communities inherently help one another, even if they don’t call it that. She says that mutual aid can be a political oppositional stance, not as a rejection of the state for its own sake, but as an acknowledgment of its failures. “Humanity could not have gotten to where it’s at without helping each other.” At the core of her research is food justice: a holistic approach that not only addresses hunger but also confronts the systemic inequalities driving it. She believes in breaking down the false divide between “us” and “them.” In her words: “We are them, and they are us.”