Since 1990, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (IAS) has grown from twelve to thirty-six faculty members, from one to nine staff members, and from two to ten undergraduate degrees. During Autumn Quarter 1990, we educated eighty-six undergraduate students; during Fall Quarter 2009, we taught almost eight hundred, including sixty-five graduate students. In 2001, we began to offer a Master of Arts in Policy Studies and undergraduate minors in Human Rights and Policy Studies. In 2008, we launched our second graduate program, a Master of Arts in Cultural Studies. Many of our students take the Education Program's minor in preparation for a Teacher Certification. Previously an upper-division and graduate program, we began in 2006 to offer lower-division curricula and to contribute to UW Bothell's frosh program, the Center for University Studies and Programs (CUSP). And we are currently in the midst of generating new interdisciplinary majors and options.
Though unique in many ways, this program history mirrors national and international shifts in the landscape of higher education since 1990. Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences is one of a generation of academic programs that are seeking to reconfigure the academy, making way for a plurality of scholarly approaches and modes of inquiry. Since 1990, the IAS faculty has purposefully carved out intellectual territory that honors disciplinary perspectives and methodologies, while also valuing research and teaching that seeks integration across traditional academic fields. This mission of integrative scholarship and teaching provides not so much the connective tissue between the bones of the program as the breaths between its movements. We are driven to innovate by our dedication to reshaping education in ways that are responsive to the practical challenges faced by our students and communities, not just the professional demands of the academy.
At the undergraduate level, our curriculum promotes problem-based learning in and across our degrees, starting with the IAS core course, BIS 300: Interdisciplinary Inquiry, and culminating in our Senior Seminars and Capstones. We encourage student engagement with and reflection on their learning through the development of an undergraduate degree portfolio. Faculty and students explore areas of knowledge together as they investigate the academic and practical edges of knowledge fields. We foster in our students curiosity, creativity, and critical reasoning. We prepare our students for the world of work and further academic training in graduate and professional studies through opportunities in community-based learning, internships, and undergraduate research.
At the graduate level, our Master of Arts in Policy Studies takes an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research and engagement in policy arenas ranging from health and environment to education and human rights. The curriculum is designed for a small cohort of students who want to become agents of change through policy analysis, research, and implementation. Our Master of Arts in Cultural Studies prepares students for a wide range of career and educational opportunities in arts and cultural fields. It is designed for a small cohort of students who seek to transform their communities through applied forms of cultural work that engage diverse populations. Both programs provide a unique mix of theory and practice that allows graduates to move directly into careers in cultural and policy fields or to pursue further education at the doctoral level.
There is a lot going on in IAS, so stay tuned. Our history is in the making.