The Graduate School (TGS) Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative provides additional ways to formally structure and facilitate interdisciplinary work, collaborations, and connections “between doctoral students and faculty who have natural intellectual affinities yet may not be in the same department or program.” As the TGS website explains, “clusters exist in a variety of emergent research areas, new disciplinary configurations, and unique synergistic collaborations among scientists, engineers, humanists, and social scientists.”
Although all members of the IPTD student community are de facto members of the Critical Studies in Theatre and Performance Cluster, many choose to participate actively in one or more additional clusters as an essential part of their interdisciplinary training. IPTD students are eligible to join any of the humanities and non-quantitative social sciences clusters, which currently include:
- African Studies
- Asian Studies
- British Studies
- Classics
- Comparative and Historical Social Science
- Comparative Race and Diaspora
- Critical Dance Studies
- Critical Studies in Theatre and Performance
- Critical Theory
- Environment, Culture, and Society
- Gender and Sexuality Studies
- Global Avant-garde and Modernist Studies
- Jewish Studies
- Latin American and Caribbean Studies
- Medieval Studies
- Middle East and North African Studies (MENA)
- Native American and Indigenous Studies
- Poetry and Poetics
- Science Studies
Applicants who would like to join a cluster upon entering the university are encouraged to indicate this interest when completing the online application and to submit a cluster statement.