APPC DOC 52 Interdisciplinary Course Guidelines

The Interdisciplinary/Course Cluster requirement is completed by either (a) successfully completing two designated interdisciplinary courses, or (b) successfully completing two courses from different disciplines that are clustered around a common theme and engaging in a synthetic experience that synthesizes the two classes. Courses under the purview of Interdisciplinary Studies which have an IDS designator automatically receive an interdisciplinary designation, but courses in other departments and programs may also be designated if approved by the APPC as containing sufficient interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary content or employing disciplinarily distinct methodologies. There are multiple interdisciplinary approaches. For example,

a) one subject, topic, or discipline is viewed through distinct disciplinary
    methodologies (e.g., poverty through the lens of sociology, psychology,
    economics, and medicine); or

b) the methods and inquiries of one discipline are viewed through the lens of
    another discipline (e.g., sociology of science, philosophy of physics); or

c) another interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary model will be used (please describe).

The APPC requests that an instructor wishing to propose a new course designated as interdisciplinary fill out the existing course proposal form and add the following information. For existing courses, a brief statement of the following information is all that is required.

1. Course name and number.
2. Whether the course is intended to meet any other Gettysburg Curriculum requirement.
3. Which disciplines will be studied in this course, and how will they be studied?
4. How will students be introduced to interdisciplinary thinking in this course?
5. How will students practice interdisciplinary and/or multidisciplinary thinking in this course? (e.g., will students write several papers, each from a different approach) Or, will students integrate multiple approaches in one paper).

6. Copy of the syllabus.

Submit your proposal electronically to the Registrar at registrar@gettysburg.edu.

Originally posted 18 November 2005.  Modified 2 May 2007.