The Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative was developed by The Graduate School so that graduate students could form connections with students and faculty in other departments with whom they have natural intellectual affinities.  Northwestern is in a unique position to lead this change because of its traditional focus on interdisciplinary study and research. The university’s strategic plan describes interdisciplinary study as a hallmark of Northwestern’s excellence, and faculty and students across the humanities (and Northwestern’s schools of Arts and Sciences, Communication, and Music) are already working together in a variety of ways.  The purpose of this new initiative is to highlight this excellence and to build it formally into the fabric of how we educate doctoral students in the humanities and non-quantitative social sciences.  

Affiliating with a Cluster

At the time of admission into their respective programs or at some point during a student's first year of study, participants in the Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative designate an interdisciplinary "cluster" they would like to join.  In their first and second years, students take some courses with other cluster members, while also participating in other cluster activities, such as conferences, seminar series, symposia, etc.  The Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative enables participating graduate students to be part of two cohorts of students--those who came into the same department or program in a given year, and those who came into the same interdisciplinary cluster in a given year.  This dual cohort system allows students to make use of resources both within their discipline and outside it, while providing an alternative intellectual community.  In this way, students at Northwestern will gain “dual citizenship” in both a department and a cluster.  

Curriculum

Students will still take a majority of their classes in their own discipline and receive a degree in that discipline (students will, after all, still need to get jobs in departments of Art History, English, Philosophy, etc.), but they will also take a series of courses with students in their cluster cohort. Each cluster has its own requirements, usually including three or more courses that students take as electives. Students participate in the cluster while completing their departmental course requirements.  Some clusters have additional requirements, including original research. These projects also may be used to fulfill requirements for the home department. Thus, students admitted to a cluster program in Gender Studies, for example, might be sitting in cluster classes with students from English, Screen Cultures, French and Italian, Theater and Drama, or History, among many others.  In this way, students will learn the vocabulary of cognate disciplines and to approach intellectual problems from different critical angles.  Furthermore, students will be provided with a cohort of colleagues beyond that provided by the “home” department, giving them a broader community base and support network. As Dean Wachtel says, “Dissertation-writing can be lonely business, so the more people you have to support your work, the better. With this plan, students will know more people that have similar research interests to their own and the network will be that much stronger and the chances for success that much greater.”

Choosing a Cluster

The cluster initiative involves free-standing interdisciplinary cluster programs, such as Medieval Studies, Classical Traditions, Critical Studies in Theatre and Performance, and  Gender Studies (which also offers a certificate), interdisciplinary area studies like African Studies, Asian Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Russian, East European, and Jewish Studies, clusters that focus on methodologies of research more than particular disciplines, like Critical Theory and Comparative and Historical Social Science, and clusters that are tied directly to an interdisciplinary degree-granting department, such as Rhetoric and Public Culture.  Students interested in interdisciplinary study are also encouraged to take courses in inherently interdisciplinary doctoral programs such as Religion, Screen Cultures, and African American Studies.  Faculty in these programs are also very much engaged in interdisciplinary study both inside and outside of the cluster programs. 

We invite you to to review the following web pages and familiarize yourself with this initiative that, in the words of Dean Wachtel, "highlights what Northwestern is already good at doing, and creates even more reasons for dedicated, driven students to come here and study, and to ultimately be successful graduates.”