The Interdisciplinary Graduate Academy (IGA)

Designing the Future for Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Graduate Education

IGA is a center for advanced interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary intellectual, professional, and community-based activities for graduate students.


Arizona State University is at a very important juncture in its academic history. Led by President Michael Crow, ASU is moving boldly and expeditiously to build a framework for a New American University framed with design aspirations that focus on a range of transformational principles, including:

• responsibility for active engagement in societal change
• an environment rich in knowledge entrepreneurship
• Pasteur's principle of use-inspired research
• intellectual fusion
• transnational and transcultural engagement

Within these design aspirations are major interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary initiatives and structures that will have long-lasting effects on ASU's intellectual community, including the ways faculty conduct research, the ways ASU academic units build curricula, and the ways in which we interface, as scholars and educators, with our local, regional, national and global communities. It is within this dynamic of transformational movement that the concept of an Interdisciplinary Graduate Academy was developed.

The IGA will be designed to:

• Foster deep multidisciplinary intellectual and professional development of graduate students
• Catalyze intellectual fusion and exchange among graduate students and faculty from across the
  university, organized around overarching thematic areas that cross-cut disciplinary boundaries
  (e.g., intellectual entrepreneurship, research integrity, socially responsible research, transdisciplinary
  models of education and science, and public engagement of scholars)
• Serve as a central and highly visible vehicle to recruit the highest caliber interdisciplinary students
• Provide a catalyst environment for faculty and researchers from academic units,centers, and
  institutes to participate in shared intellectual, educational, and social events that promote
  university strategic initiatives in research and graduate education

The Interdisciplinary Graduate Academy (IGA) is the center for advanced interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary intellectual, professional, and community-based activities for graduate students. Students will be trained as knowledge entrepreneurs who understand the value of ideas in a national and global marketplace. The IGA will be the center to facilitate multidisciplinary research activities that require complex partnerships and intellectual fusion between faculty and graduate students in disparate fields such as the social and life sciences, ecology and the environment, bio-, electrical- and materials-engineering, computer engineering, mathematics, and more.


Interdisciplinary Graduate Initiatives
Arizona State University has a number of Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Programs which are designed to facilitate interdisciplinary research and training opportunities for doctoral students that transcend traditional disciplinary perspectives and that promote collaborations across colleges, units and affiliated organizations. graduate.asu.edu/igeps.html



Postdoctoral Scholars
The postdoctoral experience at Arizona State University provides individuals who have recently completed a doctoral degree with a full-time program of advanced academic preparation and research training under the guidance of a supervising faculty mentor. postdocs.asu.edu


Celebrating Diversity at ASU
Arizona State University and the Graduate College celebrate diversity in faculty, staff, and students and intellectual ideas. At the core of our mission is our commitment to the belief that multiple perspectives and experiences are essential to our University mission. To contribute to the recruitment, retention, and completion of graduate students, the Graduate College actively engages in programs that support a diverse cultural, social and intellectual environment. graduate.asu.edu/diversity/index.html


Preparing Future Faculty (PFF)
PFF is a professional development program for doctoral, MFA, and MSD students who are preparing for academic careers at institutions of higher education. It is designed to prepare graduate students for the multiple roles they will face as faculty members, and to allow them to understand how these roles and expectations can vary in different campus settings. graduate.asu.edu/pff


Student Initiatives in Science Education
The Interdisciplinary Graduate Academy also actively supports student initiatives, such as Graduate Partners in Science Education (GPSE), created by graduate students Nathan (Nate) Morehouse and Jon Davis in the School of Life Sciences, which is changing the face of science education in urban public schools by bolstering science and technology education for students from under-represented and economically challenged groups in downtown Phoenix. The Shades Multicultural Mentoring Program, founded by doctoral candidate Sydella Blatch (School of Life Sciences), invites underrepresented students in all STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to serve as mentors for each other, forming a network of support and informational exchange.


For more information, please contact:
Dr. Andrew Webber, Associate Vice Provost, Graduate Student Programs, Graduate College
Pamela Garrett, Program Manager, Graduate Interdisciplinary Initiatives, Graduate College
Jennifer Cason, Director of Graduate Support Initiatives, Graduate College