Interdisciplinary Studies is for those committed students who wish to expand their topic outside the purview of one discipline. InterD, as it is often called, gives graduate students the opportunity to approach their topic from a variety of perspectives, drawing on the methodologies and viewpoints of a several disciplines, while working with professors from departments outside their own.
Chair of the Interdisciplinary Committee, which oversees the proposals and progress of InterD students, George Khachatourians, defines the InterD advantage as “Expansion in the breadth and depth of integrative studies in two or more fields.” For faculty, this means being able to cross the boundaries of typical ‘silos’ and break new ground in relationships between disciplines. He further explains “The InterD approach creates opportunities for scholarly synthesis and knowledge creation. Students have greater chance of successful employment and career satisfaction.”
InterD PhD student Sandra Herron is studying the relationship between the historical and religious development of the city of Münster, Germany, and the text and images in books printed there from multiple perspectives. Tentatively titled “Keeping the Faith: Catholic Devotional Text and Image in Seventeenth-century Münster,” her dissertation “looks at the topic and the material with consideration of various viewpoints and values that overlap disciplines.” Herron notes that “its the experience of seeing the material with ‘other eyes,’ and working with other fields to incorporate the strengths of those fields into my research,” that she finds most exciting about the interdisciplinary approach.
InterD students have InterD committees. In addition to Herron’s supervisor, Keith Bell of Art History, her graduate committee is composed of historians from both Arts & Science and STM, and a professor from the department of Languages and Linguistics. Herron believes that all these perspectives are beneficial. “Being from various departments, they provide a wider outlook on the material,” she explains, “The input from committee members in various disciplines strengthens rather than hinders the project.”
And that, she says, is the beauty and benefit of an interdisciplinary approach to graduate studies. “InterD provides an exceptional opportunity to go beyond the traditional boundaries of single disciplines allowing for a more inclusive understanding of the topic at hand. This program encourages the crossing of disciplinary boundaries, thus mining the richness available from more than one viewpoint.”
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