Department of Interdisciplinary Studies

Mark Nunes, Chair

The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies offers a range of courses as well as three interdisciplinary degree programs that explore critical, contemporary issues in culture and society–issues that often cut across disciplinary boundaries. The department is also home to Watauga Residential College, an interdisciplinary, alternative general education program. Our faculty are actively involved in scholarship and applied research in the fields of gender and sexuality studies, science and technology studies, globalization and development, animal studies, art & activism, global pop cultures, documentary studies, and new media studies. We offer degrees in the interdisciplinary fields of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and Global Studies. Students can also design their own interdisciplinary degree through the department’s “DIY” Interdisciplinary Studies degree program. The department promotes creative and imaginative engagement in cross-disciplinary investigation of complex systems and problems.

Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies

Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that critically engages beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, and norms about gender, women, and sexuality and their intersections with other axes of difference including race, ability, nationality, and class. Studying GWS equips students with critical analytical skills necessary to understand how power works in national and transnational contexts and to address and offer creative solutions to issues of equity, diversity, and social justice in our world today.

Global Studies

Global Studies is an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary academic program devoted to the understanding of historical, social, political, geographic, cultural, and artistic dimensions of international, transnational, and global processes. Students may choose to focus on any of the several aspects of global studies: area studies, international studies, postcolonial studies, or a topical field such as development and globalization, global human rights, or immigration and refugee studies . The aim of the program is to: (1) give students competency within their focus area; (2) foster an appreciation of the connections between themselves and the rest of the world, and; (3) encourage students to become knowledgeable, active participants in the global arena. The teaching of global studies emphasizes critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Honors Program in Global Studies

The Global Studies Honors Program offers Honors courses for students at the sophomore, junior and senior level. Junior and senior level honors courses carry full credit toward the focus area in the Global Studies major or, for non-majors, full elective credit.

Admission to the honors program in Global Studies requires completion of GLS 3000 and a minimum grade-point average of 3.0 (a “B” average), both overall and in the major. In order to remain in the program, students must receive a grade of B or better in all honors courses. Upon admission to the honors program, students will determine their focus area honors courses in consultation with the advisor. This will become part of their program of study.

To graduate with “honors in Global Studies,” a student must have a minimum grade-point average of 3.45, overall and in Global Studies, and must take nine semester hours of Global Studies honors credits with a “B” average or higher, including: GLS 4515 - Senior Honors Thesis (3) with honors, and two honors courses that must count in the student’s focus area. These two courses can be appropriate honors courses from other departments and/or graduate level courses, if the student has the appropriate preparation.

Interdisciplinary Studies

The Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies is unlike any other degree program at Appalachian State university. IDS students design their own major, integrating concepts and methods from multiple disciplines. Rather than stressing the uniqueness of separate disciplines, interdisciplinary inquiry leads students toward syntheses, and thus towards an appreciation of the interconnectedness of the world. Our courses, our degree program, and our minors reflect the fact that often the most compelling social, cultural, and intellectual questions are bigger than any one disciplinary box.

Interdisciplinary Studies encourages students and faculty to develop a sense of the world that is both broad and deep, to embark upon a practice that allows one to learn, teach, create and research across the boundaries that separate academic disciplines and that separate academic learning from other forms of knowing.

Honors Program in Interdisciplinary Studies

The Interdisciplinary Studies program maintains an honors track to provide qualified students with an opportunity for advanced research in a seminar atmosphere. Honors courses are available in the program for students at the sophomore, junior, and senior level. Junior and senior level honors courses carry full credit toward concentration requirements in the Interdisciplinary Studies major or, for non-majors, full elective credit

Admission to the Interdisciplinary Studies honors program requires a minimum GPA of 3.0 (“B” average), both overall and in the major. In order to remain in the Interdisciplinary Studies honors program, students must maintain a 3.45 GPA each semester after admission to the Interdisciplinary Studies honors program. Upon admission to the Interdisciplinary Studies honors program, students will determine their honors courses based on their concentration and in consultation with their advisor.

To graduate with “honors in Interdisciplinary Studies,” a student must have maintained a minimum GPA of 3.45 each semester after admission to the Interdisciplinary Studies honors program. Interdisciplinary Studies honors students must take at least ten semester hours of honors credits, including IDS 4510 (Senior Honors Thesis/Project) and its corequisite capstone experience course, IDS 4004 (Interdisciplinary Connections III).

Watauga Residential College

Watauga offers an experiential general education program that incorporates community-based research and multicultural immersion consciously connecting students’ academic, social, cultural, and residential experiences.

For more information on Watauga Residential College, visit watauga.appstate.edu/.

Programs

Bachelor of Science

Interdisciplinary Studies, BS

Bachelor of Arts

Certificate

Africana Studies Certificate

Minor

Courses

Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies

Global Studies

Interdisciplinary Studies

Watauga Residential College