The Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative was developed by The Graduate School so that graduate students could form connections with students and faculty in other doctoral programs 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 university are already working together in a variety of ways. 

This program offers funding and administrative support to institutionalize these connections, providing students and faculty with the opportunity to become involved with intellectual communities outside, and in addition to, their program. Each cluster offers specifically designed classes that cross program boundaries and enable students to further expand and customize their graduate education. Through cluster events, both with faculty and solely for students, and through colloquia and seminars designed and arranged by the clusters, students can broaden their disciplinary training as well as widening their network of contacts, colleagues, and intellectual and social support.

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 are part of an interdisciplinary cluster.  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, intellectually-inclined students at Northwestern will gain “dual citizenship” in both a program and a cluster.  

Students 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, Chemistry, 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. (Some clusters lead to five-course certificate programs in that area; certificates are listed on transcripts.) Students participate in the cluster while completing their home program course requirements.  Some clusters have additional requirements, including original research. These projects also may be used to fulfill requirements for the home program. 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” program or discipline, giving them a broader community base and support network.

The Clusters

The Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative is broken up into two divisions with different foci and with slightly different administrative arrangements, though both take advantage of work already being done at the university.

The Interdisciplinary Clusters in the Humanities and Non-Quantitative Social Sciences involve free-standing interdisciplinary cluster programs, such as Medieval Studies, Classical Traditions, Critical Studies in Theatre & Performance, Science Studies, and  Gender Studies (which also offers a certificate), interdisciplinary area studies like African Studies, Asian Studies, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, and Russian, East European & Jewish Studies, clusters that focus on methodologies of research more than particular disciplines, like Critical Theory and Comparative & Historical Social Science, and clusters that are tied directly to an interdisciplinary degree-granting department, such as Rhetoric & 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. 

The Interdisciplinary Clusters in the Sciences and Engineering offer clusters on the cutting edge of contemporary scientific interdisplinarity, including the Biotechnology Cluster, the Hierarchical Materials Cluster, the Predictive Science & Engineering Design Cluster, the Energy & Sustainability Cluster, and the Society, Biology & Health Cluster.

We invite you 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.”