Bachelor of Integrated Studies (BAIS)
Integrated Studies is an interdisciplinary major that provides a broad-based education in the liberal arts and social sciences. Students in the program choose an emphasis in Humanities, Crime and Justice Studies, Psychology, or Self-Design.
In addition to taking courses in their own emphasis, students take a series of core courses designed to integrate the entire curriculum.
Students in the program develop critical thinking skills as they confront fundamental questions: What does it mean to be a human being? What do we humans have in common? How are we different? What should we aspire to as individuals and groups? With those questions in mind, students explore themselves and the world around them from a variety of points of view, as well as from different disciplines, approaches, and ways of knowing.
The Socratic Method is central to the project. In a series of core seminars (known as “The Dialogues”), professors serve as facilitators whose task is to pose questions, lead discussions, and help students construct their own enlarged understandings of foundational texts in different disciplines. In a series of integrating seminars, students go a step further, learning how to integrate the insights of different disciplines and cultural traditions. Such interdisciplinary work teaches students to investigate ideas and solve problems that are too broad or complex to be dealt with from a single tradition, point of view, or discipline.
