Human Development

Interdisciplinary Studies

Mirdula Swamy '03, Jessica Phillips '04 and Assistant Professor of Human Development Sunil Bhatia.

Connecticut College offers students an unusually wide range of opportunities to explore a topic, issue or problem using the conceptual framework and tools of more than one academic discipline.

You may choose an established interdisciplinary major or design one in consultation with faculty advisers and the Committee on Student-Designed Interdisciplinary Majors and Minors. Established interdisciplinary majors include: East Asian languages and cultures; comparative studies in culture: word, image, text; environmental studies; gender and women's studies; Latin American studies; medieval studies; and neuroscience.

Students in any major may also earn a certificate from one of the College's innovative interdisciplinary centers. Requirements for the certificate programs include a challenging combination of coursework, in-depth research and a funded summer internship in the U.S. or abroad. The four certificate-granting centers are:

- Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology
- Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies
- Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy
- Toor-Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts (CISLA)

A fifth center, the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, is the College's hub for researching and teaching race and ethnicity across the disciplines. By focusing on comparative race and ethnic studies, the Center recognizes the multiple social, historical, cultural, religious, and political contexts that have shaped the construction of racial and ethnic groups.