{"id":576,"date":"2009-09-14T22:09:02","date_gmt":"2009-09-14T22:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/?p=576"},"modified":"2026-05-05T16:13:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T23:13:25","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/ias\/about","title":{"rendered":"About IAS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences (IAS) is a dynamic site of innovation at the University of Washington. Our mission statement<\/a> demands that we develop academically challenging programs of study flexible enough to respond rapidly to changing research questions and regional needs, including those of non-traditional and traditional students. Our organizational structure \u2014 as an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized school \u2014 enables us to fulfill this mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal of the IAS faculty and staff is to educate students and conduct research through modes of inquiry that stretch across disciplinary and departmental boundaries inherited from the past. This endeavor requires that we cultivate an understanding of how multiple disciplines create knowledge about the world and a capacity to develop new avenues of exploration. The result is a learning environment where complex problems \u2014 not singular disciplines \u2014 dictate the direction of student and faculty inquiry. It is an environment oriented toward the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through hands-on and experiential learning inside and outside the classroom, IAS undergraduate and graduate degrees offer students the opportunity to create new knowledge about the world and to make a difference in it. Like their faculty, IAS students become creators of knowledge that responds to emerging issues and problems, not just consumers of knowledge made elsewhere. Our engaged approach to scholarship and our commitment to educational innovation is what makes IAS an exciting and dynamic environment for all of our students, faculty, and staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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School History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 1990 as UW Bothell\u2019s Liberal Studies program, the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences (IAS) is today one of the few non-departmentalized arts and sciences units in the nation. During Autumn Quarter 1990, we enrolled eighty-six undergraduate students; during Fall Quarter 2012, we enrolled nearly eleven hundred undergraduate and graduate students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though unique in many ways, the history of IAS mirrors national and international shifts in the landscape of higher education since 1990. IAS is one of a generation of academic institutions seeking to reconfigure higher education, making way for a plurality of scholarly approaches and modes of inquiry. Since 1990, the IAS faculty has purposefully carved out intellectual and curricular territory that honors disciplinary approaches and methodologies, while also valuing research and teaching that integrates across traditional academic fields. 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.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the undergraduate level, our curriculum promotes problem-based and integrative learning across all of our degrees. Faculty members and students explore areas of knowledge together as they investigate the academic and practical edges of their fields. We foster in our students curiosity, creativity, and critical reasoning. We prepare our students for the world of work and for further academic training in graduate and professional studies through opportunities in community-based learning, academic internships, and undergraduate research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. Our Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing & Poetics invites students to develop their creative work through a course of study that encourages exploration and discovery. Both programs provide a unique mix of theory and practice that allows graduates to move directly into careers in policy, cultural, and arts 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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