The Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (formerly Association for Integrative Studies) is an international professional association for interdisciplinary teachers, scholars, and researchers. AIS serves as an organized professional voice and source of information on interdisciplinary and integrative approaches to the discovery, transmission, and application of knowledge.
Membership
The AIS membership database includes more than 1,500 members, past and present, predominantly representing colleges and universities throughout the East, Midwest, South, and West in the United States. The Association’s global sweep is well represented by memberships in Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, and The United Kingdom, as well as other nations.
Conferences
AIS holds an annual fall conference, hosted by one of its member institutions. The conferences attract teachers, administrators, graduate students, and independent scholars with a keen interest in developing research and instruction in interdisciplinary studies. Sessions cover a wide range of topics, and attendees have the opportunity to network and share viewpoints in an atmosphere of mutual respect, interest and encouragement.
Publications
AIS publishes the refereed annual journal Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies, and the quarterly Integrative Pathways newsletter. It has published the Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Programs: A Directory (2nd ed., 1996), and the online Master’s Program Directory and Doctoral Program Directory (AIS website). In recent years, AIS has sponsored the publication of the textbook, Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory, by Allen Repko, (2008), and The Politics of Interdisciplinary Studies: Essays on Transformations in American Undergraduate Programs, Tanya Augsburg and Stuart Henry, eds., (2009).
Affiliations
AIS is affiliated with the Association of American Colleges & Universities and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has held joint conferences with the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), the Association for General and Liberal Studies (AGLS), and the Society for Values in Higher Education (SVHE). In 1990, AIS worked cooperatively with the Society for Values in Higher Education on the Interdisciplinary Studies Task Force of the AAC’s Study-in-Depth Project. In 2009, AIS was an Academic Partner for the AAC&U’S Network for Academic Renewal Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently, AIS is teaming up with TD-net in the EU and the Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity to organize a seminar and then a conference in Europe on integrating interdisciplinary studies and transdisciplinary studies.
