IDS at Douglas

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Degree Overview and Theme Options

Your associate degree plus 60 additional units of Interdisciplinary Studies coursework earns you a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (BIS) degree from the University of Arizona. The Interdisciplinary Studies degree was created in 2010 by a committee of faculty members from across the University of Arizona. They designed the degree as a broad, multidisciplinary course of study rather than a traditional major. The degree provides students with a flexible yet structured program covering a broad range of interests and disciplines. 

The IDS program at Douglas offers courses in three different degree plans:

1. Science, Technology, Health, and Society
2. Economy and Industry
3. Social Behavior and Human Understandinng

You will support your studies in the degree path of your choice by taking courses in 3 different concentrations, with 9 units required in each. The majority of your courses are in the degree plan that you choose, with 36 units required. These three themed options deliver courses from disciplines across the social sciences, natural science, and humanities. While focusing on one of the themes, you will develop skills in oral and written communication, critical analysis and research, and learn to think about and solve 3 problems using multiple theories and methods—obtaining a truly multidisciplinary education. You can also chose Studies of the U.S. and the American Experience, Global and Intercultural Understanding, or Arts, Media and Entertainment as a theme for one of your concentrations.

The Douglas interdisciplinary degree completion program also encourages you to get real world experience in your chosen area and participate in an internship. Studies have demonstrated the importance of internships in post-graduation employment success. The National Association of Colleges and Employers found that “65% of paid interns in the class of 2012 had at least one job offer when they graduated. Of those who did no internship only about 40% had an offer.” And the 2012 Maguire Associates survey concluded that “More important than where they went to college, the major they pursued, and even their grade point average, an internship is the single more important credential for college graduates.” The 2014 Maguire Survey reaffirmed the importance of internships, but also found that employers emphasize communication, critical thinking and problem solving skills – the key assets of a liberal arts education.

Once you have been admitted as a Wildcat, you will work with advisors at Douglas and in the College of Humanities at UA to chart your path to success.

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Tuition and Fees

Tuition and Fee Rates for Fall 2023

UNITS	TUITION	MANDATORY FEES	TOTAL
1 unit	$300	$48.50	$438.50
2 units	$600	$70.50	$670.50
3 units	$900	$92.50	$992.50
4 units	$1,200	$114.50	$1,314.50
5 units	$1,500	$136.50	$1,636.50
6 units	$1,800	$158.50	$1,958.50
7 units	$2,100	$207.00	$2,307.00
8 units	$2,400	$207.00	$2,607.00
9 units	$2,700	$207.00	$2,907.00

Bursar's office Fees Calculator

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NOTE: These rates are for students enrolled in a distance campus program Fall 2023. IDS tuition at the Douglas location is residency-blind.

NOTE: Unless otherwise indicated, there is no tuition cap for per unit programs. To calculate the cost for additional units beyond this rate table, add the cost per unit (1 unit of TUITION) to the TOTAL for each additional unit.

All amounts shown in the Tuition Rates or in other University publications or web pages represent tuition and fees as currently approved. However, The University of Arizona reserves the right to increase or modify tuition and fees without prior notice, upon approval by the Arizona Board of Regents or as otherwise consistent with Board policy and to make such modifications applicable to students enrolled at UA at that time as well as to incoming students. In addition, all tuition amounts and fees are subject to change at any time for correction of errors. Finally, please note that fee amounts billed for any period may be adjusted at a future date.

Scholarships

Scholarship Universe

Once admitted, students will also have access to Scholarship Universe. This is an extensive database of scholarships of the university and third-party scholarship opportunities for students. This system helps you search for and apply to open scholarships for which you are eligible. 

SCHOLARSHIP UNIVERSE

Phi Theta Kappa Award

Additionally, UA students attending Douglas at are eligible for the Phi Theta Kappa Award.  This competitive, consideration-based scholarship for top community college transfer students with a minimum 3.5 recalculated cumulative college GPA, have completed at least 36 units, and are members in good standing with Phi Theta Kappa for at least one year at the time of your UA application. The award is $3,000 per academic year for AZ residents.

Transfer Student Scholarships

The University of Arizona offers annual scholarships in variable amounts to transfer students from community colleges who demonstrate exceptional academic performance. The Transfer Tuition Award is $2,000 per academic year for AZ residents.  Students must have a minimum of 3.0 recalculated cumulative college GPA for Arizona residents or 3.5 for non-residents and no more than 80 credit hours to qualify for consideration. You do not need to file a separate scholarship application. All students who submit a complete application for admission to the University of Arizona Douglas will be included in the scholarship pool. The selected students will receive a letter of award. It is recommended that students apply by March 1st for the fall start.

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Spring 2024 Enrollment Options

To read descriptions of the non-IDS/HUMS courses, search in the general catalog: https://catalog.arizona.edu/courses

• Regular session: 1/10/24--5/01/2024
  • Final Examinations: 5/3-5/9/2024
• 7 week 1 session:  1/10/24--3/1/2024
• 7 week 2 session: 3/11/24--5/01/2024 

HUMS 395  Burdens of Proof: History of Forensic Medicine (SBHU/STHS)
Instructor: Victoria Meyer
Hybrid; Regular Semester
Monday 4-6:15pm (primarily taught out of Chandler; ITV other locations)

The intersection of medicine and the law is vast and multi-dimensional since they both revolve around the human experience and the individual versus society. Both elite physicians and popular healers have been involved in with legal systems in an official capacity for millennia, but their roles and the nature of their involvement has varied widely. Just as the nature of legal and disciplinary systems have fluctuated through time and place. The professional treatment of disease (medicine) and the law are both systems that reflect the societies in which they overlap. This means that we can see both continuities and change over time and between societies. In this course, we will focus on the facets of this relationship in the West: Western Europe and North America.  In our focus on the emergence of forensic medicine—an area of medical practice and theory that provides guidance in the operation of the law—we will explore the different forms of legal medicine in Western history. This involves looking at different communities of medical practitioners as they operated in different systems of governance and justice—both assisting and complicating understandings of the law. We will focus in particular on how, why, and to what ends investigators inspected the human body. We will also explore forensic science, though as it historically becomes increasingly distinct from medicine we will look mainly at specifically medical subfields like forensic pathology and toxicology. Throughout, however, we will take a broad view of what counts as legal medicine. We will be reading a number of key secondary texts on the topic, as well as reading through primary source documents such as court records, political treatises, popular literature, medical books, and newspapers.

IDS 396 Industrial Revolutions: Past & Present (SBHU/ECI)
Instructor: Victoria Meyer
Hybrid; Regular Semester>
Wednesday 4-6:15pm (primarily taught out of Chandler; ITV other locations)

Much discontent and conflict in modern times is related to economic status and differences, between groups within societies and between nations. As we try to address contemporary economic struggles and predict the next industrial revolution, we can look to the past to answer why there are such differences. We can begin to understand the roots of our modern economies and structure of daily life through a case study on the first major industrial revolution in Britain of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This semester we will explore the history of the British industrial revolution in an increasingly global age with the rapid expansion of empire. We will explore not only what happened, but also historiographical debates about why it happened when it did and where it did. We will also seek to understand the social impact of the industrial revolution and how different groups, from young and old to rural and urban to women and men, experience the industrial and technological transformations. We will explore such themes as urbanization and mechanization, population growth, foreign markets and empire, consumerism and enlightened culture, and child labor. We will then compare this to case studies from the second industrial revolution which began circa the 1870s and revolved around the impact of gasoline and the third revolution which began in the 1950s and revolved around electronics and nuclear energy.

IDS 496 Voices of the Borderlands (SBHU/GIU)
Instructor: Abraham Villarreal
Regular Semester
Tuesday/Thursday 4:30-5:45pm (primarily taught out of Douglas; ITV other locations)

The course exposes the voices and narratives of people living in the southwest borderland area of the U.S.-Mexico border during the 21st century. Students will examine how we use stories to share the human condition and our histories, which serve to establish our cultural identities. Short stories, personal narratives, and poetry will be reviewed as inspiration on how students can develop their own voices in expressing identity, struggles, hopes, and dreams through writing. The course will include guest speakers from the borderlands who will share the work they do in supporting migrant communities in Sonora, Mexico. Optional, volunteer opportunities will be presented as an avenue for students to experience hands-on activities that will strengthen their communication skills through reflective and narrative writing about their new experiences. Each student will develop their own “Voice of the Borderland” narrative that will be exhibited at the Mexican Consulate office in Douglas, Arizona.

AFAS 425 Environmental Justice/Environmental Racism (SBHU/STHS)
Instructor: Johnny Bowens
7 week 1 icourse

ANTH 301 Conservation & Community (SBHU/ECI)
Instructor: Richard Stoffle
7 week 2 icourse

CHS 306 Interprofessional Care (STHS/SBHU)
Instructor: Carrie Langley
7 week 2 icourse

ENGL 308 Technical Writing (STHS/ECI)
Instructor: TBA
Regular semester icourse

GPSV 301 American Political Ideas (SBHU/SAE)
Instructor: Todd Lutes
7 week 1 icourse

HRTS 461 Human Rights in Eurasia (SBHU/GIU)
Instructor: Liudmila Klimanova
7 week 2 icourse

RELI 280 Intro to Bible: New Testament (SBHU)
Instructor: Grant Adamson
7 week 2 icourse

RNCV 311 Market Planning (ECI)
Instructor: Romi Carrell Wittman
Regular semester icourse

RSSV 315 Vampires & Werewolves (SBHU/AMENT)
Instructor: Benjamin Jens
7 week 2 icourse

PSY 381 Abnormal Psychology (STHS/SBHU)
Instructor: Andrew Perkins
7 week 1icourse

SOC 321 Families and Society (SBHU)
Instructor: Rina James
Regular semester icourse

TLS 355 Planning Community Events and Recreational programs (ECI/AMENT)
Instructor: Jasmine Mayes-Browning
7 week 1 icourse

IDS 393/493 Internship
7 week 2 or
regular semester options

IDS 498 Capstone
7 week 1 and 7 week 2 icourse

 

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Fall 2023 Enrollment Options

To read descriptions of the non-HUMS courses, search in the general catalog: https://catalog.arizona.edu/courses

• Regular session: 1/11/23--5/03/2023
  • Final Examinations: 5/5-5/11/2023
• 7 week 1 session:  1/11/23--3/3/2023
• 7 week 2 session: 3/13/23--5/03/2023 

 

AFAS 482 African-Americans and US Foreign Policy (GIU/SBHU)

Instructor: Bayo Ijagbemi

7 week 2 icourse

CHS 410 The Hospital as a Small Society (STHS/ SBHU)

Instructor: Lisa Watanabe, Wilma Pinedo

Regular Semester icourse

EAS 444 East Asia and Global Capitalism (GIU/ECI)

Instructor: Jiang Wu

7 week 2 icourse

EDP 405 Public Education in America (SBHU/SAE)

Instructor: Victoria Rodriguez

7 week 1

GEOG 379 Urban Growth and Development (SBHU/ECI)

Instructor: Yining Tan

7 week 2 icourse

HIST 465Z History of Central America (SBHU/GIU)

Instructor: Ryan Kashanipour

Regular Semester icourse

ISTA 302 Technology of Sound (STHS/AMENT)

Instructor: David Sherman

Regular Semester icourse

PA 479 Intelligence and US National Security (SBHU/SAE)

 

Spring 2023 Courses 

Distance in-person/ITV courses

HUMS 378 Playing Doctor: Images of Medicine and Health in film (AMENT/STHS)
Instructor: Victoria Meyer
7 week 2
Tuesday/Thursday 4-5:30pm (primarily taught out of Chandler)

In this course, we will examine how different aspects of health, illness, patients, and medical practitioners have been portrayed in film. Our aim is to explore what we can learn about how different societies in different time periods have viewed disease and the medical field.  We will also explore how can we use film as documents, both primary and secondary, to understand medicine and society more broadly in the past. This requires awareness of the historical context of the films themselves. We will ask what different definitions of "disease" or public health have existed and been used in film.  How have some aspects of the medical profession or certain illnesses been portrayed and why?  How has film been used as a tool of rhetoric and how has film influenced our understandings of medicine and even our own bodies? We will also compare other "images" of health and medicine in both art and in literature.

HUMS 495 Issues in Death, Dying, and Grief (SBHU/STHS)
Instructor: Victoria Meyer
Regular Semester
Monday/Weds 3:30-4:45pm (primarily taught out of North Valley; ITV other locations)

Death comes to us all making it one of the few universal human experiences. Yet, death, dying and bereavement take place in different socio-cultural, interpersonal, and individual contexts. Humans respond to death in different ways and all religious and philosophical traditions attempt to come to grips with it. In this course, we will explore these diverse perspectives and practices through an interdisciplinary analysis. We will discuss Western traditions and modern viewpoints and approaches, as well as global customs and beliefs of death and mourning.  Students will explore their own perspectives of loss and gain understanding of how their perspective impacts their response to others. Specific topics will include cultural and medical factors shaping a “good death”; funeral practices; imagery of death; trauma and death; understandings of the afterlife; legal and ethical debates; suicide and euthanasia.

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HUMS 496 Technology and Social Progress (STHS/ECI)
Instructor: Seth Rachlin
7 week 1
Tuesday/Thursday 5-6:30pm (primarily taught out of Chandler; ITV other locations)

For many, technology and social progress are highly correlated, if not synonymous. The salutary impact of technology is indisputable. But with technological advancement comes consequences in the form of new economic, social and political risks – economists call them externalities -- which are often significant and typically born unequally by individuals and groups in modern societies. Policies, programs and contractual schemes to address such risks, the joint province of government and the private sector, usually significantly trail their emergence. In this course, we will apply an institutionalist perspective to the specific case of information technology and its disruptive impact on economy, culture, and politics. We will study the “gig economy” and the challenge of providing the protections of a social safety net to a world of freelancers. We will consider the erosion of traditional notions of objectivity and institutional authority brought about by the “democratization of information” enabled by social media. We will explore the new face of cyber warfare in which nations and non-state actors challenge one another with bytes as well as bombs. And ultimately, we will ask what the monopolies of the new Gilded Age of Big Tech mean for the freedom of citizens and the future of democracy. Should we act now to redirect the path we are on? Can we?

 

Live Online Courses

ANTH 307 Ecological Anthropology (SBHU/STHS)
Instructor: Thomas Sheridan
Regular Semester—Live Online
Monday/Weds. 12:30-1:45pm

ENGL 443 Mexican-American Literature in English (SBHU/GIU)
Instructor: Daniel Cooper Alarcon
Regular Semester—Live Online
Tuesday/Thursday 11am- 12:15pm

IST 251 Introduction to Game Design (STHS/ECI)
Instructor: Drew Castalia
Regular Semester—Live Online
Tuesday/ Thursday 11am-12:15pm

 

Fully Online/iCourses

ART 358 Creative Strategies to Visual Design (AMENT)
Instructor: Lisa Watanabe, Wilma Pinedo
Regular Semester icourse

CLAS 310 Rome in Film: City as Text (AMENT/SBHU)
Instructor: Cynthia White
7 week 1 icourse

CHS 305 Suffering and Care in Society (STHS/SBHU)
Instructor: Cristina Rivera Carpenter
7 week 1 icourse

CHS 334 Community Health Care (SBHU/STHS)
Instructor: Thomas Hill
7 week 2 icourse

ENGL 312 Latina/o Pop: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Pop Culture (SBHU/GIU)
Instructor: TBA
Regular semester icourse

ESOC 478 Science Information and Its Presentation (STHS/SBHU)
Instructor: Meaghan Wetherell
Regular semester icourse

EVS 362 Environment and Development (ECI/STHS)
Instructor: Oliver Froehling
Regular semester icourse

FOOD 428 Food, Health, and Environment in History (STHS/SBHU)
Instructor: Jeremy Vetter
7 week 1 icourse

FTV 375 TV and US Culture (AMENT/SBHU)
Instructor: Nicole Koschmann
7 week 1 icourse

IDS 393/493 Internship
7 week 2 or regular semester options

IDS 498 Capstone
7 week 1 and 7 week 2 icourse

PAH 321 Relationship-Based Fundraising: Donor Development in the Nonprofit Sector (SBHU/ECI)
Instructor: Dana Vandersip
7 week 2 icourse

RSSS 304 A History of Soviet and Post-Soviet Film (AMENT/GIU)
Instructor: Benjamin Jens 7 week 2 icourse

SOC 320 Why so Few? Women in the Professions (ECI/SBHU)
Instructor: Jina Lee
Regular semester icourse
Lecture: Section 150 (Course # 88650) and Section 150A (Course # 88651)

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Past Courses

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Academic Calendar 2022–2023

Fall 2022

Classes Begin	August 22, 2022
Last day to add or change classes in UAccess	August 29, 2022
Last day to drop without a grade of W (withdraw)	September 4, 2022
Labor Day, no classes	September 5, 2022
Veteran's Day, no classes	November 11, 2022
Thanksgiving Recess	November 24–November 27, 2022
Last Day of Classes	December 7, 2022
Reading Day—no classes or finals	December 8, 2022
Final Exam Period	December 9–15, 2022

For a full list of all dates and deadlines, visit: https://registrar.arizona.edu/dates-and-deadlines. Some deadlines for 7-week courses will be different.

Spring 2023

Classes Begin	January 11, 2023
Martin Luther King Jr Holiday, no classes Last day to add or drop in UAccess Last day to drop without a W Last day for a refund	January 16, 2023 January 18, 2023 January 24, 2023 January 24, 2023
Spring recess, no classes	March 4-12, 2023
Last day of classes	May 3, 2023
Reading day, no classes or finals	May 4, 2023
Final Exam Period	May 5–11, 2023
Commencement	May 12, 2023

For a full list of all dates and deadlines, visit: https://registrar.arizona.edu/dates-and-deadlines. Some deadlines for 7-week courses will be different.

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Our Academic Advisors

Michelle Meninger
Director, Enrollment Management and Student Success
520 626-6764
mmuas@arizona.edu*

Daniel Gonzales
Director, Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Advising
Academic Advisor
dgonzales@arizona.edu*

Kayla Coronado
Cochise College-Douglas Campus Joint Academic Advisor
Cochise College Office: (520) 473-8007 ext 4731
University of Arizona Douglas Office: (520) 621-8218
kaylajvasquez@arizona.edu*

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For more Information and How to Apply

Our Douglas location has dedicated staff to help you through the application process.

APPLY NOW