Thinking of an Interdisciplinary Studies graduate degree at UNBC?
Your first question might be, "what makes Interdisciplinary Studies unique, a degree that I will really be able to use and apply once I leave grad school?".
Great question! We think we have an answer for you.
A graduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies gives you exactly what our program name suggests - a concrete set of theories and method/ologies, that you then apply to a research project of your choosing, through which you learn to think in 'out of the box' ways, beyond traditional disciplinary silos, from a myriad of vantage points, in a creative and individualized fashion.
Have you every heard about "wicked problems"? If not, you might watch the following videos:
Increasingly, many of globe's toughest challenges (things like climate change, stresses on healthcare and education systems, or inequalities between populations across the globe) are becoming known as "wicked problems" - problems that demand complex, flexible, adapting responses not confined to a single (or 'expert') set of tools.
In other words, "wicked problems" require interdisciplinary ways of thinking and practicing!
This is precisely why a graduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies has such wide applicability - with an IDIS Graduate Degree in hand, you will be able to confidently state you have a demonstrated skill-set that centers on thinking about issues from multiple vantage points - and because UNBC's IDIS graduate degree is led by professors who represent a wide number of disciplines (from Medical and Health Sciences through to Geography, First Nations Studies, Anthropology, Environmental Studies and even Literature) and who thus think about issues, especially issues that touch down in Northern British Columbia, from numerous perspectives, you will be able to address your own research project with the kind of varied experiences and perspectives those faculty represent.
UNBC's Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program team is looking forward to hearing from you - we look forward to giving you the research skills to address complex issues of the 21st century.