Advancing interdisciplinary research and teaching is a major goal of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC). To pursue the goal of “Connections Across the Boundaries” UBC has created a unique collection of interdisciplinary institutes, centres, programs and journals which is continually evolving. Within this setting, the ISGP provides graduate students with a unique opportunity.
The program enables individual students to pursue interdisciplinary research that is individually designed by them, in consultation with their faculty supervisory committees, yet is within a university that has a strong institutional commitment to interdisciplinarity. The emphasis on individual program design allows students not only to cross disciplinary boundaries within the structure of UBC’s interdisciplinary institutions but to create their own interdisciplinary spaces. While drawing on interests and expertise within the broad UBC academic community, the ISGP also fosters an interest in building bridges to approaches to interdisciplinarity outside UBC.
At the ISGP, we strive for diversity in academic excellence, disciplinary foci and student backgrounds, and we share our vision with UBC’s commitment on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, as well as UBC’s Strategic Plan, particularly Strategy 4: Inclusive Excellence and Strategy 14: Interdisciplinary Education . As an interdisciplinary academic unit, our goal is to balance the representations of intellectual backgrounds and disciplines within our student body/population.