Play a role in structuring my Interdisciplinary Studies major!

College Majors
1

<p>I'm heading to college this summer and will spend some of my time organizing a major. While it's probable I'll be majoring in Integrative Biology, I feel as if I need to pursue a second major (or as my only major) in something I've designed.</p>

<p>Each interdisciplinary major must draw from at least two departments and answer a specific research question. I need help narrowing my interests and selecting a research question. To give you an idea, students have studied Religion and Politics in East Asia, Food and Nutrition in Rural Africa, AIDS in Asia, and Religion and Economy in South Asia.</p>

<p>My main interests lie in studying Southeast Asian religion and economy (India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, as well as parts of China). I'm also committed to studying Chinese and Spanish language for two years. Finally, I am interested in studying environmental/public health in these regions.</p>

<p>As you can see, these are broad ideas. While I could study everything I have mentioned, it would take years and I would have a useless major. Can anyone suggest a research topic to study? I'm beginning to think "A Comparison of Public Health (or Environmental Health) and Religion in Southeast Asia and the Americas" sounds good (but way too general and looong).</p>

<p>My objective is to have graduated with this major and be able to say why I took each course. Thanks in advance! Your help is more than appreciated.</p>

2

<p>The following existing majors could not be tailored to fit your interests?</p>

<p>Development Studies
Economics
Environmental Economics and Policy
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Political Economy
Public Health
Religious Studies
South and Southeast Asian Studies</p>

3

<p>The thing is how do I study public health in South Asian studies? How do I study public health in Economics? Several of these majors’ concepts overlap on a Venn diagram of things I want to study, but none of them are too specific. However, I’m beginning to like the EEP and ESPM majors you mentioned. I remember hearing, though, that ESPM wasn’t being offered in L&S anymore or something strange like that.</p>

4

<p>If you want to do public health and econ you specialize in health economics…derp.</p>

5

<p>It doesn’t look like there’s a health econ major. Out of these majors in the college of letteres and sciences, whicih do you think is closest, BJ? <a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/major/major.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/major/major.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

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<p>at first i thought that “health economics” was something that you had made up, but it appears that it is offered only as a graduate program. not very helpful to the original poster, and neither is your snarkiness</p>

7

<p>I think you may be on the right track, looking at IDS, though it does have some odd prerequisites that only marginally relate to your fields of interest. I don’t have any specific recommendations, but wanted to note the following regarding Area of Concentration requirements: “A minimum of 20 UNITS (at least SIX courses) drawn from at least THREE fields or disciplines. Courses for this requirement must be UPPER DIVISION, i.e., numbered 100 or above.” It can include classes from other schools.</p>

<p>[Interdisciplinary</a> Studies : UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://ugis.ls.berkeley.edu/isf/major.php?page=upper_division&q=sub]Interdisciplinary”>http://ugis.ls.berkeley.edu/isf/major.php?page=upper_division&q=sub)</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>