Hello, and welcome to the Master of Arts in Sustainability and Transformation (MAST)!
What Do We Mean by Sustainability?
Nearly four decades ago, the Brundtland Report offered a clear and still-cited definition of sustainability: meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It was a powerful wake-up call, one that framed sustainability as a long-term responsibility rather than a short-term fix.
Yet today, the urgency of that call has only intensified. Climate change is accelerating, inequalities are deepening, geopolitical tensions are rising, and environmental systems are under increasing strain. These challenges are not isolated. They are interconnected symptoms of global systems that have often prioritized short-term growth, efficiency, and extraction over long-term resilience, equity, and planetary health.
At MAST, sustainability is therefore not understood as a single goal or technical solution. It is understood as a systemic challenge, one that unfolds across environmental, social, economic, cultural, and political dimensions. Addressing it requires more than incremental improvements. It calls for critical reflection on how systems are designed, whose interests they serve, and how they might be transformed.
Sustainability, in this sense, is inseparable from questions of justice, governance, responsibility, and care. It asks not only how we manage resources, but how societies organize themselves, distribute power, and imagine viable futures.
This understanding of sustainability as an ongoing, collective process of transformation lies at the heart of the MAST program.
Why MAST?
Because sustainability is a systemic challenge, it cannot be addressed through technical expertise alone. While data, technologies, and policy instruments are essential, they are insufficient without the ability to integrate knowledge, navigate complexity, and work collaboratively across difference.
The environmental, geopolitical, and social crises shaping our world demand new forms of thinking and leadership; ones that connect disciplines, bridge institutions, and engage with the human dimensions of change. Responding to these challenges requires the capacity to understand systems as a whole and to act within them with ethical awareness and cultural insight.
At Franklin, we understand sustainability as a process of transformation: how societies change, how institutions evolve, and how people work together to redesign systems that no longer serve a just or livable future. MAST is designed for students who want to engage sustainability not only as a problem to be managed, but as a collective endeavor that calls for imagination, responsibility, and action.
Think like a forest
We have had the privilege, over the years, of working with ecologist and environmental photographer Alison Pouliot. Her stunning images of forests and fungi used in this website remind us that nature itself often serves as an inspiration for our own behavior.
A forest thrives not through isolated strength, but through relationships. Trees are linked by vast underground networks of fungi that share nutrients, communicate stress, and support recovery after disturbance. These networks make the forest more than a collection of individual organisms, they make it a living system capable of adaptation and regeneration.
Sustainability works in much the same way. Social, economic, cultural, and ecological systems are deeply interconnected. Change in one part of a system inevitably affects others. Durable transformation therefore depends not only on innovation or efficiency, but on cooperation, trust, and shared responsibility.
Thinking like a forest means learning to see systems rather than silos, relationships rather than isolated problems, and long-term resilience rather than short-term optimization. It means recognizing that transformation is a collective process, one that unfolds through collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and communities.
This perspective shapes how we teach and learn in MAST. It informs our interdisciplinary curriculum, our emphasis on dialogue and collaboration, and our commitment to sustainability as a living, evolving practice rather than a fixed set of solutions.
What the Liberal Arts?
MAST is rooted in the liberal arts because sustainability is ultimately a human challenge. It raises questions about meaning and values, power and responsibility, communication and trust, about how people experience change in their everyday lives. These are not questions that science, economics, or policy alone can answer.
The liberal arts cultivate the capacities that transformation depends on: critical and creative thinking, ethical judgment, systems analysis, and the ability to hold multiple perspectives at once. In MAST, these capacities are not abstract ideals or buzz words. They are practiced skills, developed through interdisciplinary study, dialogue, and nuanced engagement with real-world contexts.
By bringing the humanities, social sciences, environmental studies, economics, governance, and design into sustained conversation, MAST equips students to understand how different forms of knowledge are produced, and how they can be integrated to create meaningful change.
What about AI?
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how knowledge is produced, decisions are made, and institutions operate. At MAST, we do not treat AI as a shortcut to answers, nor as a force to be resisted. We approach it as a defining condition of contemporary life, one that must be engaged critically, ethically, and responsibly.
AI systems are not neutral. They are embedded in social, economic, and environmental systems, and they carry real consequences. Alongside their potential to support research, analysis, and organizational efficiency, AI technologies pose significant sustainability challenges of their own. Large-scale data centers, energy-intensive model training, resource extraction for hardware, and electronic waste all raise pressing questions about environmental impact and responsibility.
Because the use and the meaning of AI depend on context, MAST integrates AI across the curriculum rather than isolating it in a single course. Students engage with intelligent systems in real projects, field settings, and design challenges, learning to assess both their capabilities and their costs. AI-generated outputs are tested against lived realities, cultural contexts, ethical commitments, and environmental constraints.
At the same time, AI is used selectively to absorb routine, metric-driven, and administrative tasks, creating space for what matters most in a liberal arts–rooted education: critical judgment, creativity, interpretation, dialogue, and meaning-making.
By treating AI as one system among many — powerful, imperfect, and contested — MAST prepares students to decide when automation clarifies and when it obscures; when it supports sustainability and when it undermines it. Graduates leave equipped not just to use AI, but to question it, govern it, and integrate it responsibly into efforts toward social and environmental transformation.
Beyond Interdisciplinarity
MAST is inter- and transdisciplinary by design. Our learning arc take begins by showing students how to connect academic disciplines, goes on to open pathways across the boundaries between academia and society and culminates in immersive work with partner organizations. Through collaboration with organizations, practitioners, and communities, knowledge is tested, challenged, and reshaped in practice.
This approach reflects the insight that transformation does not happen in isolation. It emerges through relationships, shared learning, and the ability to navigate complexity with openness, communication and care.
Your academic journey with MAST
MAST sets up pedagogical structures and engages pioneers in sustainability who will share their own challenges and challenge you in turn to ask your own questions. We offer space for discussions and reflections so you can find your own answers; and we grant you access to organizations who have successfully built their own sustainability programs helping you to build international networks that will be invaluable as you go out into your chosen field.
You will move beyond the walls of the classroom, in immersive retreats in cities like Zurich and Geneva, through collaborative fieldwork, and in continuous dialogue with practitioners and changemakers.
- In Semester One you will develop a strong foundation in sustainability issues and debates across four key areas--economics, the humanities, environmental studies, and social thought--anchored by a methodology course in interdisciplinarity, using SDG-based case studies. As you approach these shared case studies through various disciplinary lenses, you will understand how different types of knowledge are produced, and how to integrate them.
- Semester Two focuses on transformation: the skills and strategies you need to analyze organizational contexts and drive change. A second methodology course introduces you to transdisciplinarity, the bridge between academia and society, using the inner development goals (IDGs) that build on the SDGs. A lecture series with practitioners across different sectors gives you the opportunity to engage directly with people leading change.
- Semester Three supports you in applying what you have learned through hands-on, collaborative projects with partner organizations that address sustainability issues at the local, regional, and global level. It culminates in a collaborative, practice-based master’s thesis of 45 credits or 90 ECTS.
- An optional fourth semester supports advanced, research‑based work, culminating in a thesis that can serve as a foundation for doctoral-level work. Completing the fourth semester earns a full 60‑credit / 120‑ECTS degree.
Where MAST can take you
Sustainability is a defining challenge for our time, and MAST graduates are prepared to work across sectors and scales. Potential career paths include:
Policy & governance
Shape public policy, lead sustainability initiatives in governments or NGOs, or engage in international climate and human rights diplomacy. Work on developing and implementing local, national, or global policies that promote environmental justice, decarbonization, or circular economies. Contribute to multilateral frameworks, regional resilience plans, or interdisciplinary task forces working at the intersection of science, law, and ethics.
Creative, cultural & communication roles
Craft compelling narratives through media, film, art, or public campaigns. Work in museums or cultural organizations exploring the human dimensions of sustainability. Use storytelling, journalism, and visual media to influence public opinion and mobilize communities. Curate exhibitions or digital content that highlight climate injustice, Indigenous knowledge systems, or the ethical aspects of planetary stewardship.
Corporate & consulting
Serve as ESG strategists or sustainability officers. Join mission‑driven enterprises or launch your own initiative focused on systems change. Support organizations in building ethical, low-impact business models or assessing their environmental and social impact. Work in consulting, innovation hubs, or green startups to align strategy with climate goals and social equity.
Academia & research
Take the path to doctoral‑level research or teach in sustainability‑related fields. Engage in policy development or interdisciplinary scholarship. Lead research in areas like climate adaptation, biodiversity, sustainable design, communication or food systems. Translate academic insight into actionable strategies that inform institutions, governments, and civil society.
Community & education
Facilitate participatory processes around land use, education, and social innovation. Work in community resilience, urban planning, or regenerative development. Design educational programs that integrate systems thinking and sustainability literacy for learners of all ages. Collaborate with grassroots organizations to co-create local solutions rooted in justice, equity, and long-term resilience.
What sets MAST apart
With MAST, you will gain a broad understanding of key issues and debates in sustainability studies, real-world experience in different kinds of organizations, an international professional network, a global perspective, a degree fully accredited in both Switzerland and the US, and the confidence to map out change wherever you go.
Here’s what makes the program distinct:
- Learn from experts and practitioners in Switzerland, one of the world’s most sustainability‑forward countries
- Gain interdisciplinary insight into environmental, social, and economic issues in their broader political and cultural contexts;
- Work closely with faculty and partners thanks to small cohorts and personalized mentorship
- Engage in immersive, project‑based learning rooted in critical thinking and open inquiry
- Build an international professional network and apply your knowledge in diverse settings
- Graduate fluent in systems thinking, ready to lead with both strategic insight and human understanding
- Earn a degree fully accredited in both the U.S. and Switzerland, unlocking global opportunities
Who is MAST For?
MAST is designed for students who see connections where others see silos: between culture and environment, knowledge and justice, policy and lived experience. We welcome students from a wide range of academic and professional backgrounds, including the humanities, social sciences, environmental sciences, business, the arts, and beyond. We believe that people from all fields bring value to the table, and the potential to grow into a larger dynamic network.
Where you come from is important but what matters most is where you want to go: toward work that engages complexity, contributes to the common good, and responds thoughtfully to the challenges of our time.
Learning for a Changing World
The world you will enter after graduation is one shaped by uncertainty, rapid change, and competing demands. A need for sustainability will be at the heart of this evolution. MAST does not train you for a single job title; in fact some of the jobs you will end up doing do not even exist yet. But you will be prepared to navigate evolving roles, emerging fields, and institutional transformations with confidence and discernment.
This in no small measure will be due to the durable skills you can learn in the liberal arts: analysis, critical thinking, creativity and communication. By combining these liberal arts skills with experiential learning and applied sustainability practice, MAST equips you to move between analysis and action, to understand systems deeply, and to help change them responsibly.
Let’s start a conversation
If this sounds like the kind of challenge you’re ready to take on, I would be delighted to meet with you to discuss the program further and answer any questions you may have. Write to me to set up a Zoom meeting: cwiedmer@fus.edu. I look forward to hearing from you.
With warm wishes,
Caroline Wiedmer
Academic Director, Master of Arts in Sustainability and Transformation (MAST)