2024-2025 Academic Catalog

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Interdisciplinary Studies (IDST)

IDST 4000 -  Special Topics  (1-3 Credits)  
Cross-listed with IDST 5000. Note: May be taken more than once for credit when topics vary. Repeatable. Max Hours: 9 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 9.
IDST 4010 -  Foundations of STEM Communication  (3 Credits)  
This course will provide students with an introduction to STEM communication and offer opportunities for developing STEM content for a variety of audiences across multiple formats. These formats span written, oral, digital, and social media communication. Through classroom exercises and assignments, students will understand the role of communication in shaping perceptions, knowledge, decisions and ultimately realities vis-a-vis STEM. They will also learn to provide critical analysis of popular mainstream STEM communication and be able to identify basic expectations and constraints of STEM communication across audience and context. The class will explore approaches to communicating concepts in STEM disciplines to a variety of audiences through practice. Ultimately, the students will develop the skills and resources necessary to enable effective communication of complex STEM ideas to a wide range of audiences. Note: Students may not earn credit if they have already received credit for IDST topics courses with a similar title. Suggested background: Students are recommended to have completed at least one undergraduate sequence in a STEM discipline before enrolling in this course. Cross-listed with IDST 5010. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
IDST 4660 -  Visual Arts: Its Past, Present, and Interpretations  (3 Credits)  
Provides graduate-level interdisciplinary study in the historiography, methodologies, and theories used to understand how visual arts, including painting, sculpture, photography, film and performance art influence the making of culture. Students gain critical skills for analyzing a variety of visual and aesthetic products of culture. Cross-listed with HUMN 5660, HUMN 4660, IDST 5660. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
IDST 4720 -  Sex, Gender, and Visual Representation  (3 Credits)  
Studies sexuality, gender and identity representation from classical antiquity through the present in the visual arts. Uses the literature of visuality, feminism, race and queer theory. Explores representations of femininity, masculinity and androgyny and their reinforcement and challenge to gender-identity norms. Cross-listed with HUMN 5720, HUMN 4720, IDST 5720, WGST 4720, WGST 5720. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
IDST 4770 -  Viewing Empire: The Art of Imperial and Colonial Propaganda  (3 Credits)  
Western empires disseminate political, social, economic & cultural practices through complex interplay of cultural practices. Visual production is a complex site for meaning making within imperialism. Examines how visual discourses operated to create meaning for audiences, through focus on postcolonial critique. Cross-listed with SJUS 4770, SJUS 5770, HUMN 4770, HUMN 5770, IDST 5770, SSCI 4770, SSCI 5770, WGST 5770, WGST 4770. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade