Cross-Disciplinary Paths

Africana studies at Sarah Lawrence College embrace a number of scholarly disciplines and subjects, including anthropology, architecture, art history, dance, economics, film, filmmaking, history, Islamic studies, law, literature, philosophy, politics, psychology, religion, sociology, theatre, and writing. Students examine the experience of Africans and people of African descent in the diaspora, including those from Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, and beyond. Study includes the important cultural, economic, technological, political, and social intellectual interplay and exchanges of these peoples as they help make our world.

Architecture and design studies at Sarah Lawrence College is a cross-disciplinary initiative that offers a variety of analytical approaches to the cultural act of constructing environments, buildings, and aesthetic, yet functional, objects. Courses in architectural and art history and theory, computer design, environmental studies, physics, and sculpture allow students to investigate—in both course work and conference—a wide range of perspectives and issues dealing with all facets of built design. These perspectives include theoretical explorations in history and criticism, formal approaches that engage sociopolitical issues, sustainable problem-solving, and spatial exploration using both digital and analog design tools.

Classes from disciplines such as biology, computer science, mathematics, philosophy, and psychology comprise the classes available within this cross-disciplinary path.

Ethnic and diasporic studies as an academic discipline lie at the intersection of several increasingly powerful developments in American thought and culture. First, interdisciplinary and comparative scholarship has become so prevalent as to represent a dominant intellectual norm. Second, the use of this new scholarly methodology to meet new academic needs and illuminate new subject matter has given rise to a plethora of discourses: women’s studies; Native American studies; African American studies; gay, lesbian, and transgender studies; and global studies. Third, and perhaps most important, there has been a growing recognition, both inside and outside academia, that American reality is incorrigibly and irremediably plural and that responsible research and pedagogy must account for and accommodate this fact.

The gender and sexuality studies curriculum comprises courses in various disciplines and focuses on new scholarship on women, sex, and gender. Subjects include women’s history; feminist theory; the psychology and politics of sexuality; gender constructs in literature, visual arts, and popular culture; and the ways in which gender, race, class, and sexual identities intersect for both women and men. This curriculum is designed to help all students think critically and globally about sex-gender systems and to encourage women, in particular, to think in new ways about themselves and their work.

Health, science, and society is a cluster of undergraduate and graduate courses, programs, and events that address the meaning of health and illness, advocacy for health and health care, and structures of medical and scientific knowledge. Courses and events are multidisciplinary, bringing together perspectives from the humanities, creative arts, social sciences, and natural sciences. Undergraduate students who are interested in health, science, and society are encouraged to take courses across the curriculum and to design interdisciplinary conference projects.

What kind of global society will evolve in the 21st century? Linked by worldwide organizations and communications, yet divided by histories and ethnic identities, people everywhere are involved in the process of reevaluation and self-definition. To help students better understand the complex forces that will determine the shape of the 21st century, Sarah Lawrence College offers an interdisciplinary approach to international studies. Broadly defined, international studies include the dynamics of interstate relations; the interplay of cultural, ideological, economic, and religious factors; and the multifaceted structures of Asian, African, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and European societies.

The Latin American and Latinx studies (LALS) program is devoted to the interdisciplinary investigation of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx cultures, politics, and histories. Through a variety of disciplines, students will have opportunities to explore the vibrant cultural life of Latin American and Caribbean countries, as well as the experiences of Latinx communities in the United States.

Classes from disciplines such as art history, economics, geography, history, politics, religion, and sociology comprise the classes available within this cross-disciplinary path.

New genres and interactive art span offerings in visual arts, film and media, and computer science to foster technical and digital literacy in the arts. Designed for experimentation, this initiative helps students establish digital proficiency while supporting the exploration of a wide range of new media forms and technologies. Courses of study might include visual programming, artificial intelligence, gaming, robotics, experimental animation, computer arts, experimental media design, data visualization, real-time interactivity, digital signal processing, cross-platform media environments, and mobile media development. Students are encouraged to coordinate these project-based investigations of the digital throughout their studies in the humanities, including literature, philosophy, politics, sociology, theatre, and writing.

Classes from disciplines such as economics, geography, history, LGBT studies, politics, psychology, public policy, sociology, and writing comprise the classes available within this cross-disciplinary path.

Urban studies is dedicated to the study of cities across disciplines, focusing on the fabric of cities and the culture, society, and economy particular to cities and to those who live within them. Some of the topics that urban studies may explore are the histories of cities; space, design, and power; cities and suburbia; the city and the country; megacities; casino urbanization; cities remembered (memoirs based on urban space); and cities of the future (real and science-fiction cities). Among the many themes addressed in urban studies are space and sociability, including urban planning, public and private space, social relations and structures, the right to city space, gender and power, urban social movements, and public art. Among the many disciplines that offer courses related to urban studies are anthropology, architecture, economics, environmental studies, politics, public policy, and sociology.