The Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College is home to our core liberal arts offerings and liberal arts minors, enabling you to examine the world across diverse disciplines, and add depth and intellectual perspective to your studies. The Marlboro Institute is also home to the Interdisciplinary Studies Bachelor’s degree (IDS), allowing you to craft your own major drawing from various programs across the college. The Marlboro Institute additionally features two unique programs: The Honors Program and the Emerson Prison Initiative.
CREATE YOUR OWN MAJOR
What intrigues and inspires you?
In the Interdisciplinary Studies Major (IDS), you will design an individualized, interdisciplinary course of study based on your academic passions. Through collaboration with faculty, you will build a major that centers around a coherent idea, a set of questions or a theme, and draw coursework from two or more academic departments.
Supported by an advisory team of faculty members who will provide guidance along the way, you’ll spend your first three years in a specialized curriculum defined by your area of interest and anchored in critical explorations of knowledge across the arts, humanities, sciences, communication, and social sciences.
During your first year, you will engage in interdisciplinary modes of inquiry with other first-year IDS majors. You will start to develop and research emergent questions individually and collaboratively. Project-based learning will be introduced in the following sophomore seminar.
You will begin preparing for your capstone project in the junior seminar by identifying a methodological approach for your research.
Your senior year will culminate in a year-long capstone experience designed by you and your advisors.
Throughout all four years, academic flexibility will remain at the core of the program and allow for intellectual exploration as you approach graduation.
Sample IDS Majors
- Creative Storytelling through a Sociological Lens
- Global Dynamics of Arts Management
- Hearing and Deafness in Today's Media
- Inclusive Digital Content
- Nonprofit Communications for Social Change & Equity
- Psychology and Creative Choices in Digital Media
- Queer Creative Writing and Identity