While focused on a specific theme, Albion's four Centers for Interdisciplinary Study (CIS) encourage interaction that cuts across disciplines and academic departments. The Centers create opportunities for students and faculty to interact with one another as well as with visiting lecturers, to collaborate on special projects, and to develop innovative learning experiences within and outside the classroom.  

Students and faculty can affiliate with the Centers to pursue intensive study and independent research. Students desiring to pursue an independent research or service project can apply to become Student Fellows. Criteria for acceptance include: junior/senior status, appropriate academic preparation, faculty sponsorship, quality of project proposal, and demonstrated interest. Student Fellows will receive a small stipend to meet project costs. At any time during their studies at Albion, students may choose to become affiliate members of a Center. Affiliate members will be expected to attend a Center's events and projects and to actively participate in the discussion and evaluation that follow these events.

For more information on any of the Centers, contact the Office of Academic Affairs.

CIS in Contemporary Expression in the Arts

What do the works of the minimalist composer Philip Glass, the challenging performance art of Holly Hughes, the ritualistic dances of Meredith Monk and the innovative portraits of Chuck Close have in common? They each exemplify the inherent motive of the contemporary artist to test the norms of the art world, to explore the limits of the artist's materials and conventions, and to affirm the vibrant place of artistic expression in every arena of life. In response, public discomfort has become one of the hallmarks of this modernism. The Rite of Spring created havoc when Igor Stravinsky debuted it in Paris in 1911. In 1922, James Joyce's stream-of-consciousness writing in Ulysses broke new ground by mimicking the way thoughts occur--randomly and without punctuation. Today, performances like Stomp make music from garbage can lids, push brooms and matchbooks, while other artists explore silence as music of the mind. Visual and performing artists have only begun to explore the potential of computer technologies. And, spoken-word art, poetry slams and other new approaches to written expression provide new contexts for the magic of the word.

The arts student at Albion will find in the CIS in Contemporary Expression in the Arts the perfect place to integrate the new, the controversial and the untried with the conventional and the historic. Students and faculty will explore, together with visiting scholars, critics and artists, the relationship between traditional and emerging art forms. As artists and students of art, they will communicate about universal human experiences through the visual arts, theatre, music, dance, creative writing, video and new media. They will explore, embrace and challenge the very foundations of their art form, so that their contemporary expressions are informed and compelling.

The Center will provide a total experience for students with linked courses, programs and activities such as master classes, trips to galleries and museums, brown bag lunches, "talk back" sessions with visiting artists, workshops and performances of all kinds.

CIS in Ethnic, Gender, and Global Issues

How we define ourselves and others--in terms of gender roles, ethnic affiliation and global interdependence--has changed dramatically over the past half century. No doubt our perceptions of ourselves and others, and what our rights and responsibilities might be, will continue to change throughout our lives. To live and work effectively in this changing world, we need to understand and appreciate human diversity. We also need to recognize and to counteract the corrosive effects of sexism, racism and ethnocentrism. Understanding these issues requires a thorough and critical discussion of scholarship produced within African-American, Chicano/a, Native American, Asian-American and other ethnic studies, women's and gender studies, post-colonial and global studies, and other analyses provided by scholars from outside the United States.

The CIS in Ethnic, Gender, and Global Issues provides an environment in which students can expand their knowledge of gender, ethnicity and global connections through class work, individual research, off-campus study programs and interaction with a diverse body of students and faculty. Some students will forge partnerships in the city of Albion, with its rich diversity. Others will examine what they have learned about gender and ethnicity in new cultural contexts, both in the U.S. and internationally, developing a more inclusive world view. Finally, some students will wish to address issues of health, education and economic growth in developing countries.

CIS in History and Culture

Since no idea exists apart from the cultural and historical contexts that produced it, all knowledge is contextual. In the CIS in History and Culture, students and faculty will examine how history and culture shape our world, and how our world shapes history and culture. How did Darwin's theories influence literary and political thought as well as science? What changes in American culture were prompted by the automobile? Looking at such questions will bring the campus community in contact with the exciting scholarship now under way in social and intellectual history, and in the humanities. The Center will also sponsor interdisciplinary projects, such as multimedia programs, oral histories and archival research, that can in turn be shared with the broader public.

CIS in Meaning and Value

We have cloned a sheep; should we clone a person? What are the implications of allowing doctor-assisted suicide? Where does responsibility lie for redressing racial discrimination? Through a variety of initiatives, the CIS in Meaning and Value will stimulate the "unending conversation" which reflects on such challenging issues. The Center will create a distinctive intellectual space for students, faculty, alumni and community residents where they can discuss spiritual, ethical, social, economic, scientific and artistic values and their significance. Programming will include interdisciplinary seminars, reading and discussion groups, a lecture series, and an annual symposium devoted to major issues of our day. Students in this Center will acquire skills for addressing questions of meaning and value, for negotiating conflicts and for exercising effective leadership.