Preamble
Founded in 1979, the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies is the U.S.-based international professional association devoted to interdisciplinarity. Interdisciplinarity integrates the insights of knowledge domains to produce a more comprehensive understanding of complex problems, issues, or questions.
Mission
The Association for Interdisciplinary Studies promotes the interchange of ideas within a diverse community of scholars, teachers, administrators, and the public regarding interdisciplinarity and integration.
Vision
Interdisciplinary approaches and the integration of insights from diverse communities will be used to address complex problems. Interdisciplinarity will be an integral and durable component of scholarly research, higher education, and public policy.
Core Values
For its members and the higher education community in general, the Association
- Promotes the interchange of ideas among a diverse community of scholars, teachers, administrators, and the public regarding interdisciplinarity and integration;
- Advocates best-practice techniques for interdisciplinary teaching;
- Advocates best-practice techniques for interdisciplinary research;
- Advances the exploration of key terms and seeks out new theoretical models that further the understanding of interdisciplinarity and integration;
- Sustains the development of real-world applications of interdisciplinarity and integration;
- Encourages explorations of the relationships between interdisciplinary theory and practice;
- Encourages high quality interdisciplinary curriculum development at both the undergraduate and graduate levels;
- Sponsors the development of standards for interdisciplinary program accreditation;
- Offers best-practice methods for assessing interdisciplinary programs and coursework;
- Encourages the development of administrative structures, personnel policies, and financial models in higher education that support interdisciplinary teaching and research;
- Promotes the scholarship of interdisciplinarity and integrative teaching and learning;
- Supports the development of strategies for strengthening the role of interdisciplinarity and integration within (and beyond) the Academy;
- Documents the importance of interdisciplinarity and integrative studies for higher education and society in general.
