Interdisciplinary Focuses

Culture, Power, and Change

Culture, Power, and Change is an interdisciplinary focus that engages with historical foundations and social functions of power in contemporary culture. Courses in this area center on how systems of power are built, reinforced, and operationalized through cultural practices and production. Culture is contested, always changing, and interconnected with ideologies of race, class, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, geopolitical borders, and so on. This focus provides strong preparation for careers in many areas including LGBTQ+ and racial justice advocacy, nonprofit leadership, education, and law. 

Global Studies and Engagement

The Global Studies and Engagement focus is premised on the recognition that we inhabit an interconnected world where the pressing political, economic, social, and ecological issues of our times take place across national boundaries at a global scale. The focus equips students with an interdisciplinary understanding of global activities and processes across time and space, while developing the intellectual knowledge and practical skills necessary for cross-cultural engagement abroad. It provides strong preparation for postgraduate studies in a range of globally-oriented academic programs, or careers in international organizations, nonprofits and businesses, government, and education. 

Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Practice

Interdisciplinary Arts and Creative Practice prepares students to become cultural workers situated in the visual, media, and performance arts, and the expanded field of socially-engaged inquiry. Students will understand the processes and develop the techniques of producing artistic works and cultural materials, while applying the knowledge, skills, and methods learned from studies in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Classes incorporate progressive educational philosophies and radical democratic theory to foster deep collaboration in artistic production. Students will understand the theoretical and cultural context in which art is produced and how it is inextricably linked with our lived experiences, histories, places, and communities. 

Social Enterprise and Social Innovation

Social Enterprise and Social Innovation examines the diversity of economic activity taking place within and beyond the business world, while highlighting the enterprises and innovations that promote values like democratic governance, social equality, and ecological sustainability. Students explore case studies and histories of social enterprises and worker cooperatives, gain practical skills in business planning and accounting, and envision how our political-economic institutions, policies and technologies might be reconfigured to address emergent and longstanding social and environmental problems. Students pursuing this focus will be prepared to enter careers in purpose-driven business, entrepreneurship, and non-profit leadership, as well as graduate programs in fields like political economy, business history, and critical management studies.

Sustainability and the Environment

Sustainability and the Environment examines environmental change from an interdisciplinary perspective, with an eye towards the development of sustainable socio-ecological systems. Students create and evaluate evidence across a range of scientific fields, analyze debates in environmental ethics and ecological justice movements, study the causes and effects of socio-ecological crises, trace how power functions through food and agricultural systems, and envision how human and nonhuman biological processes would thrive in a better, regenerated, and sustainable world. Students graduating with this focus will be prepared to begin careers in areas like environmental science, land management, environmental reporting, or environmental nonprofits. This focus also prepares students for graduate programs in fields like ecology, environmental science, political ecology, and more.