The IAS major is an interdisciplinary major. All lower-division and most upper-division course requirements for the major are offered through the various departments that support the major program. The following two courses are exclusive to IAS major students. In addition, C is the minimum acceptable grade in IAS 100 and IAS 196 for credit toward the major. 

100 Cultural Geography and Global Societies

This course exposes students to the breadth and excitement of the field of geography. Cultural geography studies the ways people shape and give meaning to their environment and allows us to look at the fascinating variety of human activity in the world — the human landscape. Geographic knowledge is vital to understanding national and international issues that dominate daily news reports. This course examines the relevance of geographic methods and concepts to social science topics such as: agricultural patterns and practices, architecture, ethnic traditions and conflicts, gender, health, migration, population, political economy, poverty, religion, resource utilization social change and urban planning. Prerequisite: Anthropology 1. This course may only be completed at Saint Mary’s College. 

196 Independent Study: Senior Thesis

As a culmination of their studies, students are required to work independently with a faculty member in order to complete a senior thesis. The thesis should display a student’s ability to conduct independent research, and to write and think critically about salient issues related to their chosen minor and region. Sponsorship by an IAS faculty advisory board member (associated with the student’s minor) and approval by the program director is required. This course should be taken in the senior year. This course may only be completed at Saint Mary’s College.