IAS Mission Statement
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences provides students with a rigorous liberal arts education designed to hone their capacities for critical thinking, interdisciplinary research, collaboration, shared leadership, writing, and presentation. IAS encourages its students and faculty to draw connections across academic disciplines as they produce scholarship that engages with the concerns of the region and the world. We take collective responsibility for building a vital and inclusive community of students, staff, and faculty that brings together diverse intellectual perspectives and life experiences in the service of this mission.
About IAS
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (IAS) is a dynamic site of pedagogical and scholarly innovation at the University of Washington. Our mission statement challenges us to develop academically challenging programs of study flexible enough to respond rapidly to changing research questions and regional needs, including those of non-traditional and traditional students.
The goal of the IAS faculty and staff is to educate students and conduct research through modes of inquiry that stretch across disciplinary boundaries. This endeavor requires that we cultivate an understanding of how multiple disciplines create knowledge about the world and a capacity to develop new avenues of exploration. The result is a program where complex problems - not singular disciplines - dictate the directions of student and faculty inquiry.
The interdisciplinary degrees offered by IAS are not available everywhere. Through experiential learning inside and outside the classroom, these degrees offer students the opportunity to create new knowledge about the world and to make a difference in it. This type of engaged scholarship is also what excites IAS faculty and staff about working in the program.
Bruce Burgett, Professor and Director
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences