The Interdisciplinary Studies Department at Salem State University meets the intellectual and professional needs of 21st century students by providing them with opportunities to study complex topics and create new knowledge through the integration of methods, skills and materials from across the university. These skills and ways of engaging with the world are essential tools for successful careers and lives. We offer a major in Interdisciplinary Studies with various concentrations and numerous interdisciplinary minors. At Salem State, as at institutions across the world, Interdisciplinary Studies is marked foremost by the way in which students and faculty ask and try to answer big questions about culture, politics, society, relationships, truth, and identity by building and exploring the webs of connection between and among various perspectives and ways of knowing. It is by presenting students with multiple lenses and approaches to an issue, an area or a question, and guiding them through the synthesis of these approaches that new possibilities, understandings and insights emerge. The flexibility of our programs are student-friendly, while the rigor of Interdisciplinary Studies builds students' writing, reasoning, presentation, research, and critical and creative thinking skills alongside more specialized knowledge in a particular area.