Interdisciplinary Studies

ISF is an interdisciplinary major and a research-driven program of liberal education. It has been ranked the top personalized major offered at US universities and colleges. ISF offers students the unique opportunity to develop an individualized cross-disciplinary research program that includes a course of study and a senior thesis. The course of study is made up of courses taken in the social sciences, the humanities, and/or the professional schools and colleges, alongside the required courses in ISF.  The capstone experience is a scholarly, rigorously-researched, 40-page required senior thesis, which represents a sustained inquiry in the social sciences or humanities based on original, cross-disciplinary research.

ISF has identified a number of interdisciplinary research fields that have engendered excellent scholarship and attracted students across campus. ISF students may pursue other research fields identified in consultation with ISF faculty and academic advisers. The already-defined ISF research fields provide models and resources about scholarly interests. The research fields found on the ISF website are there to help ISF students identify their own research interests and customize their own research program and course of liberal arts study.

Declaring the Major

Students may apply to the major at any point during the semester prior to the final day of classes after they have 1) completed the two declaration requirements which consists of one course each from two of the three categories of courses (Disciplines, Comparative Horizons, Cross-Disciplines)  and 2) had their research program approved by an ISF faculty advisor. Students are encouraged to meet with an ISF faculty adviser well in advance of submitting their application to discuss their research program and coursework. The online ISF Major Application can be found on this page and on the ISF 'Applying' webpage. 

Honors Program

All honors students enroll in the senior thesis seminar with other majors (ISF 190).  Students seeking honors must identify and seek out senate faculty members from other departments, ideally members of the ISF Faculty Advisory Board, who have expertise in their research topic to serve as second readers. Students must then let their ISF 190 instructor know that they intend to pursue honors in the major, and will give the name of their second reader to the ISF 190 instructor. Their grades in ISF 190 will be constituted by an average of grades assigned by the ISF 190 Instructor and the second readers.

Students eligible for honors must have an overall grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.6, including grades in ISF courses, at the beginning of the semester in which they enroll in ISF 190. Students in the honors option will be nominated for a degree of honors (honors, high honors, highest honors) by the ISF instructor and the second reader. The ISF thesis advisor and second reader will use the criteria of scholarly originality, methodological sophistication (including interdisciplinarity), the quality of source interpretation, and excellence in writing and argumentation to adjudicate the degree of honors to be conferred.

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