Terry Robertson, Director
Sarah Wittmuss, Associate Director
104B Old Main
(605) 677-6208 (Director)
(605) 677-3139 (Associate Director)
(605) 677-6337 (Program Assistant/Office)
idea@usd.edu
www.usd.edu/idea
The IdEA (Interdisciplinary Education and Action) Program is an exciting part of the USD education. It challenges students to explore, in an interdisciplinary manner, questions inherent in a global, modern society and to integrate their previous academic experiences in the process. The program theme, “Liberal Learning: Students in a Global Community,” is divided into foundation and capstone courses that juniors and seniors experience as a culmination of their study at USD. In the foundation course, students investigate principles associated with community, justice, and sustainability from both classical and modern perspectives. Students are offered the opportunity to consider the impact the liberal arts and liberal learning have on their own lives as they attend The University of South Dakota.
The capstone course allows students to examine a narrowed subject area in community, justice, and/or sustainability. In these discussion-based seminars, students further their understanding of issues associated with the overall theme. In addition, they will perform a class embedded “Action,” in service-learning, community based research, or civic engagement, and synthesize their learning with real world experience. Ultimately, the students will gain skill in examining, in an interdisciplinary fashion, some of the most crucial problems in society, both through class discussion and the writing of a critical analysis essay. |
