ISF is an interdisciplinary major and a research-driven program of liberal education.It has been ranked the top personalized major offered at US universities and colleges. ISF offers students the unique opportunity to develop an individualized cross-disciplinary research program that includes a course of study and a senior thesis. The course of study is made up of courses taken in the social sciences, the humanities, and/or the professional schools and colleges, alongside the required courses in ISF. The capstone experience is a scholarly, rigorously-researched, 40-page required senior thesis, which represents a sustained inquiry in the social sciences or humanities based on original, cross-disciplinary research.
ISF has identified a number of interdisciplinary research fields that have engendered excellent scholarship and attracted students across campus. ISF students may pursue other research fields identified in consultation with ISF faculty and academic advisers. The already-defined ISF research fields provide models and resources about scholarly interests. The research fields found on the ISF website are there to help ISF students identify their own research interests and customize their own research program and course of liberal arts study.
Declaring the Major
Students may apply to the major at any point during the semester prior to the final day of classes after they have 1) completed the prerequisite courses and 2) had their research program approved by an ISF faculty advisor. Students are encouraged to meet with an ISF faculty adviser well in advance of submitting their application to discuss their research program and coursework. The online ISF Major Application can be found on this page and on the ISF 'Applying' webpage.
The application package should consist of a well-conceived research program, including a proposed course of study and an intellectual justification of their proposed study. Research programs must be interdisciplinary, integrating methodological or theoretical approaches from at least three academic disciplines (departments or programs). Interdisciplinary work may be comparative, historical, regional, thematic, or problem-focused. The research program should not replicate an existing major. The purpose of the ISF major is to allow undergraduates to combine work across disciplines in courses and with faculty where no other structured program exists. Finally, the research program must be feasible, and the senior thesis must answer a manageable research question in a semester's hard work (ISF 190). Each student's proposed research program is discussed with and approved by a faculty adviser to assure feasibility, but the final responsibility is the student's. Students may review Research Field criteria and sample Research Fields on the ISF website.
The nature of the major requires repeated elaboration of the proposed research program, course of study, and senior thesis that best combine students' individual research interests and the ISF program goals. Students are assigned an advisor upon acceptance into the major, although faculty members outside ISF may serve as advisers when appropriate, as approved by the ISF director.
Honors Program
All honors students enroll in the senior thesis seminar with other majors (ISF 190). Students seeking honors must identify and seek out senate faculty members from other departments, ideally members of the ISF Faculty Advisory Board, to serve as second readers. Students must then let their ISF 190 instructor know that they intend to pursue honors in the major, and will give the name of their second reader to the ISF 190 instructor. Their grades in ISF 190 will be constituted by an average of grades assigned by the ISF 190 Instructor and the second readers.
Students eligible for honors must have an overall grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.6, including grades in ISF courses, at the beginning of the semester in which they enroll in ISF 190. Students in the honors option will be nominated for a degree of honors (honors, high honors, highest honors) by the ISF instructor, the second reader, or another ladder faculty member. The assessment of the degree of honors will be made by an ISF Honors Committee consisting of no fewer than two teaching faculty of the ISF Program and two academic senate members under the oversight of the ISF director. The ISF Honors Committee will use the criteria of scholarly originality, methodological sophistication (including interdisciplinarity), the quality of source interpretation, and excellence in writing and argumentation to adjudicate the degree of honors to be conferred.
Minor Program
There is no minor program in Interdisciplinary Studies.
In addition to the University, campus, and college requirements, listed on the College Requirements tab, students must fulfill the below requirements specific to their major program.
General Guidelines
All courses taken to fulfill the major requirements below must be taken for a letter grade.
No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs, with the exception of minors offered outside of the College of Letters & Science and their policies.
A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 must be maintained in both upper and lower division courses used to fulfill the major requirements.
For information regarding residence requirements and unit requirements, please see the College Requirements tab.
Summary of Major Requirements
Course List
Code
Title
Units
Prerequisites- 2 courses
One "Disciplines" and one "World Regions" course, B- or higher in each
Upper Division Requirements- 10 courses
Course of Study: Minimum six courses, 20 units
Core Methodology: Two courses
Interdisciplinary Research Methods: One course
Senior Thesis: One course
The ISF prerequisite requirement consists of two courses, one of the Disciplines, and the other on World Regions. Both courses need to be taken for a B- or better. Courses fulfilling this prerequisite are listed below. A prospective major can apply to the major by filling out an application after they have completed their first course (with a B- or better) and are currently enrolled in their second required course; their final acceptance into the program will be contingent on receiving a grade of B- or better in the second course.
Disciplines
Students must take one of the following introductory courses (or their recognized equivalent, if transfer students):
Introduction to the Civilization of Southeast Asia
4
A Committee of faculty advisers will have the discretion, in unusual cases, of accepting applications to the ISF program from students who have completed, with a minimum B- grade, upper division courses that have adequately prepared them for their designated research program and that fulfill the spirit of the prerequisite requirements of disciplinary and regional preparation for the major. Finally, additional courses can be added to each of the two lists as deemed appropriate by the director and the faculty advisory board.
For transfer students, it is strongly recommended that this requirement be completed before enrolling at Berkeley. Transfer students must submit syllabi of courses already taken to their ISF faculty adviser for approval. Both prerequisite courses must be taken for a letter grade.
Note that Academic Senate regulations stipulate that students must have a minimum grade point average of 2.0 before declaring any major in the College of Letters & Science and are required to declare a major by the time they have each completed 60 units.
Upper Division Requirement: Course of Study- 6 courses
Select a minimum of 20 upper division units (at least six courses) drawn from at least three fields or disciplines. Upon consent of an adviser, courses outside of the College of Letters & Science may be accepted when relevant, e.g., courses in Social Welfare, Journalism, Public Policy, City Planning, Business Administration, or Architecture. (For further information, please see Research Fields on the program's website.) Upon approval from an ISF faculty adviser, a student may include one technical or natural science course as part of their course of study.
Undergraduate students must fulfill the following requirements in addition to those required by their major program.
For a detailed lists of L&S requirements, please see Overview tab to the right in this guide or visit the L&S Degree Requirements webpage. For College advising appointments, please visit the L&S Advising Pages.
All students who will enter the University of California as freshmen must demonstrate their command of the English language by fulfilling the Entry Level Writing requirement. Fulfillment of this requirement is also a prerequisite to enrollment in all reading and composition courses at UC Berkeley and must be taken for a letter grade.
The American History and American Institutions requirements are based on the principle that all U.S. residents who have graduated from an American university should have an understanding of the history and governmental institutions of the United States.
All undergraduate students at Cal need to take and pass this campus requirement course in order to graduate. The requirement offers an exciting intellectual environment centered on the study of race, ethnicity and culture of the United States. AC courses are plentiful and offer students opportunities to be part of research-led, highly accomplished teaching environments, grappling with the complexity of American Culture.
College of Letters & Science Essential Skills Requirements
The Quantitative Reasoning requirement is designed to ensure that students graduate with basic understanding and competency in math, statistics, or computer/data science. The requirement may be satisfied by exam or by taking an approved course taken for a letter grade.
The Foreign Language requirement may be satisfied by demonstrating proficiency in reading comprehension, writing, and conversation in a foreign language equivalent to the second semester college level, either by passing an exam or by completing approved course work taken for a letter grade.
In order to provide a solid foundation in reading, writing, and critical thinking the College of Letters and Science requires two semesters of lower division work in composition in sequence. Students must complete parts A & B reading and composition courses in sequential order by the end of their fourth semester for a letter grade.
College of Letters & Science 7 Course Breadth Requirements
The undergraduate breadth requirements provide Berkeley students with a rich and varied educational experience outside of their major program. As the foundation of a liberal arts education, breadth courses give students a view into the intellectual life of the University while introducing them to a multitude of perspectives and approaches to research and scholarship. Engaging students in new disciplines and with peers from other majors, the breadth experience strengthens interdisciplinary connections and context that prepares Berkeley graduates to understand and solve the complex issues of their day.
Unit Requirements
120 total units
Of the 120 units, 36 must be upper division units
Of the 36 upper division units, 6 must be taken in courses offered outside your major department
Residence Requirements
For units to be considered in "residence," you must be registered in courses on the Berkeley campus as a student in the College of Letters & Science. Most students automatically fulfill the residence requirement by attending classes at Cal for four years, or two years for transfer students. In general, there is no need to be concerned about this requirement, unless you graduate early, go abroad for a semester or year, or want to take courses at another institution or through UC Extension during your senior year. In these cases, you should make an appointment to meet an L&S College adviser to determine how you can meet the Senior Residence Requirement.
Note: Courses taken through UC Extension do not count toward residence.
Senior Residence Requirement
After you become a senior (with 90 semester units earned toward your B.A. degree), you must complete at least 24 of the remaining 30 units in residence in at least two semesters. To count as residence, a semester must consist of at least 6 passed units. Intercampus Visitor, EAP, and UC Berkeley-Washington Program (UCDC) units are excluded.
You may use a Berkeley Summer Session to satisfy one semester of the Senior Residence requirement, provided that you successfully complete 6 units of course work in the Summer Session and that you have been enrolled previously in the college.
Modified Senior Residence Requirement
Participants in the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP), Berkeley Summer Abroad, or the UC Berkeley Washington Program (UCDC) may meet a Modified Senior Residence requirement by completing 24 (excluding EAP) of their final 60 semester units in residence. At least 12 of these 24 units must be completed after you have completed 90 units.
Upper Division Residence Requirement
You must complete in residence a minimum of 18 units of upper division courses (excluding UCEAP units), 12 of which must satisfy the requirements for your major.
Student Learning Goals
Mission
The Interdisciplinary Studies Field Major (ISF) is a unique major on campus in that it requires students to engage in a major research project. This enables them not only to engage in qualitative and/or quantitative research but also to organize, synthesize, and communicate—in oral and written form—relevant data and results against the background of evolving theories and key concepts in the social sciences and/or humanities. As student research interests change in relation to larger patterns of social, cultural, and technological transformations, the department carefully monitors existing methodological courses to allow for ongoing flexibility with regard to innovative key concepts and new theoretical tools.
Learning Goals for the Major
Develop strong interdisciplinary research skills by creating a course of study in the context of which students can explore new phenomena, problems, themes, and issues pertaining to larger social, cultural, technological, and historical transformations.
Develop research question against the background of at least three disciplinary fields.
Learn to develop a research proposal, which integrates multilingual assets and/or multicultural capacities and/or fieldwork experiences or internships.
Gain excellent skills to access library services.
Develop structure of research thesis, argument, and bibliography.
Gain historical and geographical knowledge of relevance to the research project.
Link undergraduate research interests to post-graduation plans for graduate school and/or professional life.
Acquire awareness of methodological approaches in the social sciences and/or humanities in order to apply interdisciplinary methods and key concepts to the study and analysis of a particular social or cultural phenomenon under conditions of larger social and global transformations.
Learn about the most important theoretical traditions of the transatlantic social sciences and/or humanities.
Study central concepts embedded in the dominant social science methodologies and or humanities methodologies.
Explore new social theories emerging from the larger context of global and technological transformations.
Participate in the expansion of conceptual innovation and creativity through the exploratory formation of new concepts with the capacity to empirically grasp new social and technological phenomena.
Expand critical reading, thinking, analytical, and technological skills acquired in upper division courses through their application in the context of the research project.
Explore extent, relevance, and limits of traditional conceptual apparatuses to ongoing undergraduate research project.
Evaluate quality of arguments, ideas, and concepts in support of the thesis.
Translate ideas and concepts into a variety of environments in relation to the thesis.
Pursue field work abroad if applicable.
Integration of technological innovations, networks, and the internet in the expansion of critical acquisition of knowledge in a global, informational, and networked world.
Demonstrate organizational, argumentative, multilingual, and communicative skills through successful design, structuration, execution, and presentation of a major interdisciplinary research project.
Organization of research data, argument, and theoretical framework.
Integration of assets and capacities in the research project.
Communicate research results on the basis of multimedia technologies.
Preparation of thesis in print media.
Major Map
Major maps are experience maps that help undergraduates plan their Berkeley journey based on intended major or field of interest. Featuring student opportunities and resources from your college and department as well as across campus, each map includes curated suggestions for planning your studies, engaging outside the classroom, and pursuing your career goals in a timeline format.
Use the major map below to explore potential paths and design your own unique undergraduate experience:
Terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
This course is a broad survey of major canonical works (“Great Books”) emphasizing from the premodern traditions of Western Civilization since the Greeks. These texts offer responses to central questions that, across the disciplinary divides, continue to inform contemporary work in the social sciences and the humanities. By considering these enduring questions and the responses of writers in Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern Europe, we seek to examine core issues of the liberal arts as they find expression across what would later become disciplinary divisions.
Course Objectives: To offer students an intense engagement with canonical thinkers of the western tradition, demonstrating the enduring nature of their queries and questions across the disciplines of the social sciences and humanities.
Student Learning Outcomes: Students are expected to acquire a familiarity with many core debates in the western intellectual tradition, and to be able to identify the pre-disciplinary and interdisciplinary roots of contemporary inquiries in the social sciences and humanities.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for GERMAN C39Z after completing ISF 39A. A deficient grade in GERMAN C39Z may be removed by taking ISF 39A.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Spring 2019
It’s hard not to open a newspaper or magazine today and see claims being made for artificial intelligence. Advocates argue that software programs will now be able to even perform creative jobs (as opposed to just routine ones) and that this is both a matter of celebration and concern. Critics argue that these claims are hyperbolic, while others argue that they are too close to reality and an indication of how much autonomy we have ceded to machines. In this course, we will pick apart all of these claims. We will ask: how have different human societies conceived of “intelligence,” natural or artificial, and how has this varied with place and time? Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2020, Spring 2018
If science and technology are value-laden activities, then where exactly do the values lie? In this class, we will pick apart the black-box of science and technology and look for values not just in terms of bad actors, corruption, or "implications," but in the processes that constitute modern technoscience itself. These processes include: the ways in which researchers construct problems, solutions, facts, and artifacts; the norms, standards, stories, and patronage relations that underlie science and technology; and finally, how the future is imagined and realized. Readings will include academic and journalistic texts as well as science fiction. Technology and Values: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2015
This is an interdisciplinary survey course that seeks to understand how we define justice, evil, and individual responsibility in modern society. In particular we are going to probe carefully how humans reflect on and practice the process of moral reasoning. We will focus on human behavior in extreme situations: war, life and death conflicts, genocide and mass killing, as well as competing conceptions of human freedom. The course has a distinctive dual purpose. On the one hand we want to encourage the learning of critical thinking skills. This includes the ability to systematically evaluate information and competing moral claims. Also, it is intended as an exposure to the interdisciplinary approach. That is, how can different perspectives illuminate the same issue? With this in mind the course draws on important work from philosophy and ethics, social psychology, jurisprudential analysis, historical-political accounts, and personal memoirs. Moral Reasoning and Human Action: The Quest for Judgment: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2012, Spring 2012
In this course, we will utilize works in the humanities and the social sciences in order to explore a number of dimensions of self-deception in the modern world. The focus will be upon the willingness to falsify both personal life as well as one's position in the public sphere. The course will begin with an examination of the psychological dimension, emphasizing the importance of the nature of unconscious experience. In this context, we will examine how self-awareness is shaped by personal relationships, especially family arrangements. In addition, we will look at the manner in which people often engage in acts of self-deception with regard to the political realm. Representations of Self-Deception in the Modern World: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Seminars for the group study of selected topics not covered by regularly scheduled courses. Topics will vary from semester to semester. Directed Group Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Enrollment is restricted; see the Introduction to Courses and Curricula section of this catalog.
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2024
This course, required of all ISF majors but open to all students, provides an introduction to the works of foundational social theorists of the nineteenth century, including Karl Marx and Max Weber. Writing in what might be called the “pre disciplinary” period of the modern social sciences, their works cross the boundaries of anthropology, economics, history, political science, sociology, and are today claimed by these and other disciplines as essential texts. We will read intensively and critically from their respective works, situating their intellectual contributions in the history of social transformations wrought by industrialization and urbanization, political revolution, and the development of modern consumer society. Introduction to Social Theory and Cultural Analysis: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-4 hours of lecture and 1-1 hours of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 8-10 hours of lecture and 0-2.5 hours of discussion per week 8 weeks - 6-7.5 hours of lecture and 0-1.5 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2022
This course will explore how people come to develop and value the self as well their specific social identities. The course will draw on anthropology, sociology, neurobiology and philosophy to grapple with that which is most intimate yet often most opaque to us: our own selves. Yet we shall also explore the cultural limits of our unstable understanding of our individuated selves as well as the dialectic of self and other in the formation of identity. Interdisciplinary Theories of the Self and Identity: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 10 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course examines the role of language in the construction of social identities, and how language is tied to various forms of symbolic power at the national and international levels.? Drawing on case studies from Southeast Asia, Europe, Canada, and the U.S., we will pay special attention to topics such as the legitimization of a national language, the political use of language in nation-building processes, the endangerment of indigenous languages, and processes of linguistic subordination and domination. This course will be interdisciplinary in its attempt to understand language in terms of history, politics, anthropology and sociology. Language and Identity: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 5.5 hours of lecture per week 10 weeks - 4.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2024, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session
This course surveys the technological revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries, it then focuses on the development of the computer and the Internet. The final part examines the impact of the Internet on social movements. Introduction to Technology, Society, and Culture: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-4 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 8 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2020 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2018 First 6 Week Session
This interdisciplinary course is an introduction to the complex interplay of transnational values, international rights and legal institutions that increasingly govern social, cultural and geopolitical interactions in our contemporary world. Theoretical and methodological tools from the social sciences, jurisprudence, and philosophy will be applied im the analyses of these interplays. A study of rights and norms presupposes not only an understanding of the empirical evolution of rights traditions (including constitutional traditions) in a variety of global regions, but also an understanding of the theories of rights and laws that support such traditions as they are embedded in them (just war theories, peace theories, etc.) The study of rights and norms also requires an exploration of the transformations of crucial international norms and rights due to the formation of supranational institutions and organizations in the 20th century (UN, UNESCO, GO's, etc.). The course will provide the students with an opportunity to place emerging transnational rights institutions into a historical and geopolitical framework. The Globalization of Rights, Values, and Laws in the 21st Century: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 10 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The focus of this course will be on the various ways the nature and trajectory of modern capitalism has been interpreted. Our stress will be on post-Marxist works of analysis. The initial focal point will be on the work of Max Weber and Joseph Schumpeter, as well as important current debates in economic history and social theory generated by their work. Both Weber and Schumpeter display a strong fascination and elaboration with the work of Marx. The way they analyze Marx is very revealing about the way contemporary analysts seek to understand the capitalist system. We will also consider a number of current efforts that look at the systemic nature of capitalism. In particular, we are interested in how economic historians now see the development of capitalism. We also want to examine the Weberian tradition in terms of the role of culture in shaping economic behavior. Debates about the nature of globalization will also be considered as well as analysis of the changing nature of work. Theorizing Modern Capitalism: Controversies and Interpretations: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 10 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2019, Spring 2017
This interdisciplinary course will explore whether it has proven possible and desirable to understand society through value-free and positivistic scientific methods as predominantly developed in the transatlantic worlds of the 19th centuries. We shall explore questions that may be applied to the realms of public health and human biology, or to the social sciences generally, including anthropology, sociology, economics, and political science. Introduction to Science, Society, and Ethics: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-4 hours of lecture and 0-1 hours of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7-9.5 hours of lecture and 0-2.5 hours of discussion per week 8 weeks - 5.5-7 hours of lecture and 0-2 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Summer 2022 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2017, Spring 2015
How have international actors used media to construct public opinion about salient issues, such as war, terrorism and intervention, international trade and finance, and global warming and resource depletion? The purpose of this course is to introduce students to key concepts, methods, and theories in the analysis of media effects, particularly in the areas of public opinion formation and international relations. Introduction to Media and International Relations: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 8 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
In many ways, consumption defines our lives – our identities as consumers are even more important, some would argue, our identities as workers or producers. But what are the implications of a society in which “you are what you consume?” In this class, we will address questions such as: Under what conditions does a “consumer society” develop? What does global commodity chain tell us about colonialization, global inequality, and environmental injustice? How can we shape the life cycle of basic commodities—from raw materials to iPhones--in a socially sustainable way? This course will be interdisciplinary in its attempt to understand consumer society and culture in terms of political economy, geography, history, anthropology and sociology. Consumer Society and Culture: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: The goal of this course is to provide students with a broad overview of debates and theories about consumption, and to provide them with an opportunity to explore a consumption-related topic themselves.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 8 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
In this class, we will look at computing as a social phenomenon: to see it not just as a technology that transforms but to see it as a technology that has evolved, and is being put to use, in very particular ways, by particular groups of people. We will be doing this by employing a variety of methods, primarily historical and ethnographic, oriented around a study of practices. We will pay attention to technical details but ground these technical details in social organization (a term whose meaning should become clearer and clearer as the class progresses). We will study the social organization of computing around different kinds of hardware, software, ideologies, and ideas. The Social Life of Computing: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 8 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Health, wealth, love, and happiness are the most desirable yet tenuous elements of a satisfying life. To achieve them, there has been an overemphasis on wealth accumulation or economic growth. But does economic growth automatically translate into health, love, and happiness? When our environment is degraded with an increasing depletion of natural resources, can we live healthily and happily? Is economic growth sustainable without a healthy planet and healthy people? How do we achieve health, wealth, love, and happiness without harming nature and society? This course will critically examine these and other questions from an interdisciplinary perspective. Health, Wealth, Love, and Happiness: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes: Upon completion of this course, students will learn about:
• the main concepts, theories and controversies linking health to broader social and economic
development;
• the social, political, demographic and epidemiologic determinants of health in relation to levels of
economic development;
• the effect of economic policy, globalization, climate change, and urbanization on health;
• the main components of an effective healthcare policy;
• how to compare health policies of different countries;
• how policy shapes health and development in the developed and the developing world
how health inequities within and between countries affect human development.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 10 weeks - 4.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2011, Spring 2007, Spring 2004
This course is designed to sharpen our skills in understanding what happens when the world of images and words meet. Starting with the work from the Western "classical" tradition we will proceed to investigate how word/image constellations operate in a variety of media, including sculpture and poetry, painting and prose, death masks, tableaux vivants, photography, and advertising. Word and Image: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course provides an overview of the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) as a way to study how our knowledge and technology shape and are shaped by social, political, historical, economic, and other factors. We will learn key concepts of the field (e.g., how technologies are understood and used differently in different communities) and apply them to a wide range of topics, including geography, history, environmental and information science, and others. Questions this course will address include: how are scientific facts constructed? How are values embedded in technical systems?
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Introduction to central theoretical investigations concerning the construction and organization of social life. Using some works from the "classical" traditions of social theory as well as some examples of contemporary analysis, this course will explore such topics as the nature of power and social/historical change, the nature of economic production and consumption, the meaning of difference--racial, sexual, class--the development of institutions, etc. Introduction to Social Theory and Cultural Analysis: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 8 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course surveys the technological revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries, then focuses on the development of the computer and the Internet. The final part examines the impact of the Internet on social movements. Introduction to Technology, Society, and Culture: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 8 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
This course is designed primarily to allow faculty to develop courses which address specific issues, themes, or problems of interdisciplinary interest. Topics vary semester to semester. Students should consult the department's webpage for current offerings before the start of the semester. Special Topics in Interdisciplinary Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit up to a total of 8 units.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 10 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
This class is an introduction to research methods, leading students through different units built around specific learning goals and practical exercises. The course is designed to teach a range of research skills, including the ability to formulate research questions and to engage in scholarly conversations and arguments; the identification, evaluation, mobilization, and interpretation of sources; methods and instruments of field research (interviews, questionnaires, and sampling) and statistical thinking; and the construction of viable arguments and explanation in the human sciences. At the same time, the course is designed to help students identify their own thesis topic, bibliography, and methodological orientation. Interdisciplinary Research Methods: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Majors and intended ISF majors
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 8 hours of seminar per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of seminar per week 10 weeks - 4.5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
The ISF Senior Thesis requirement is the capstone experience and final product of the ISF major. The thesis is a sustained, original, and critical examination of a central interdisciplinary research question, developed under the guidance of the ISF 190 instructor. The thesis represents a mature synthesis of research skills, critical thinking, and competent writing. As the final product of a student's work in the major, the thesis is not the place to explore a new set of disciplines or research problems for the first time, but should develop methods of inquiry and bridge the several disciplines that students have developed in their course of study. Senior Thesis: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Must have passed ISF 189 or an approved equivalent course. Senior standing; completion of ISF core courses; declared in the major. Equivalent courses must be approved by an ISF faculty advisor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 6 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Supervised experience relevant to the student's specific area of concentration in the Interdisciplinary Studies Field Major in off-campus organizations. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports required. Field Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Upper division standing, declared in the Interdisciplinary Studies Field Major, and consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of fieldwork per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 2.5-10 hours of fieldwork per week 8 weeks - 1.5-7.5 hours of fieldwork per week 10 weeks - 1.5-6 hours of fieldwork per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Prerequisites: Regulations set by the College of Letters and Science
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 2.5-10 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 2-8 hours of independent study per week 10 weeks - 1.5-6 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Interdisciplinary Studies Field Maj/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
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