The Center for Interdisciplinary Studies is located in Eaton Hall. Programs physically housed at the center include American Studies, Asian Studies, Peace and Justice Studies, and Women's Studies. Other programs affiliated with the center include Africa in the New World, Archaeology, Communications and Media Studies, Community Health, Environmental Studies, the Experimental College, International Relations, Latin American Studies, Latino Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and World Civilizations.
The Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (CIS) designation is reserved for interdisciplinary courses developed by the center and for the integrative exercise required of all students completing an interdisciplinary minor.
CIS Senior Thesis
Arts, Science, and Engineering students who wish to write a senior thesis
outside their major area of concentration may be eligible to write a CIS senior
thesis. The student must satisfy the CIS Board that the topic falls outside the
purview of any department or interdisciplinary program and that significant
coursework and/or faculty-directed research relevant to the thesis topic has
been accomplished. The student must assemble a committee of three faculty
readers with expertise in the disciplines involved, one of whom is designated as
the chair of the committee and who is responsible for submitting a grade and
designating the amount of credit for the thesis coursework. One member of the
committee must be from a department or program in which the student is majoring.
The topic must be approved by the CIS Board no later than the end of the first
week of classes in the first semester of the student's senior year. Students who
would like to be recommended for degrees with honors by departments that require
a thesis should be aware that these departments require a thesis within their
own department and a CIS thesis will not usually count as a substitute. However,
students may apply for a CIS thesis to count as an honors thesis in the Thesis
Honors Program like a thesis in any other discipline by assembling a thesis
committee and filing the appropriate paperwork. If the CIS thesis is to qualify
as an honors thesis, the chair of the thesis committee must be from a department
or program in which the student is majoring.
CIS Courses
95, 96 Interdisciplinary Minor Project (Integrative Exercise). The project
required of students electing the interdisciplinary minor option. Either one-half or one
course credit will be given at the discretion of the faculty members involved.
150 Interdisciplinary Processes. Interdisciplinary approaches to selected topics. Solitary and group modes of cognitive and experimental learning, including problem solving and integrative thinking. Approaches for working on interdisciplinary projects. Prerequisites: junior standing and consent.
193, 194 Senior Thesis. Intensive research project designed and carried out by the student, culminating in a written thesis and oral defense. Please see the detailed description of requirements of the CIS senior thesis in the Bulletin under Interdisciplinary Studies. Prerequisite: consent of CIS Board.