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Interdisciplinary Studies

Interdisciplinary Studies at UNC Charlotte

North Carolina’s Leader In Combining Academic Fields Of Study That Align With Your Future Career Or Goals

UNC Charlotte offers more than 40 interdisciplinary programs, majors, and minors where students can combine multiple passions into a single learning experience. This holistic approach to higher education affords versatile masterminds a flexible path to their future outside traditional academic structure. Because these programs cross boundaries of multiple colleges and combine fields of study, students broaden their educational experience and become key assets to today’s employers. Interdisciplinary studies lie at the intersection of tradition and the future.


Undergraduate Programs

Some undergraduate majors and minors involve topics that expand beyond just one of our defined seven colleges. These interdisciplinary programs offer a way for undergraduate students to pursue a major or minor (or both!) that encompasses multiple interests:

  • Aerospace Studies
  • Africana Studies with Concentration in Health Environmental Studies
  • American Studies
  • Biotechnology
  • Business Languages
  • Capitalism Studies
  • Cognitive Science
  • Data Science
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Film Studies
  • Gerontology
  • Health/Medical Humanities
  • Leadership Studies
  • Legal Studies
  • Linguistics
  • Military Science
  • Pre-Dentistry
  • Pre-Law
  • Pre-Medicine
  • Pre-Physical Therapy
  • Pre-Veterinary Medicine
  • Security & Intelligence Studies
  • Southern Studies
  • Urban Studies
  • Urban Youth and Communities
  • Women’s and Gender Studies
  • Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies

Certificates

  • Leadership
  • Innovation
  • Technology and Diversity
  • Leadership Studies

Graduate Programs

Leading the state in multifaceted advanced degrees, UNC Charlotte offers graduate programs with a focus on interdisciplinary education. Nearly all of our Colleges have programs with this mix of academic disciplines:

  • Applied Mathematics
  • Bioinformatics
  • Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
  • Biological Sciences
  • Computing and Information Systems
  • Curriculum and Instruction
  • Data Science and Business Analytics
  • Health Informatics and Analytics
  • Health Psychology
  • Health Services Research
  • Infrastructure and Environmental Systems
  • Liberal Studies
  • Management
  • Nanoscale Science
  • Optical Science and Engineering
  • Organizational Science
  • Public Policy

Certificates

  • Graduate Certificate
  • Africana Studies
  • Applied Ethics
  • Bioinformatics
  • Cognitive Science
  • Data Science and Business Analytics
  • Gerontology
  • Health Informatics and Analytics

Universities Of The Future Will Be Interdisciplinary

As the world changes, becoming more explorative and diversified, students are interested in embracing interdisciplinary programming and research. UNC Charlotte’s offerings of multiple interdisciplinary programs, puts us on the cutting edge of global needs and prospective students’ desires.

The School of Data Science

The first of its kind in North Carolina, UNC Charlotte’s School of Data Science brings together four colleges (College of Computing and Informatics, Belk College of Business, College of Health and Human Services, and College of Liberal Arts & Sciences) into a knowledge powerhouse and interdisciplinary learning opportunity. Specializing in “what’s possible,” SDS develops integrative thinkers by combining disciplines like computer science, biology, engineering and public health into a single learning track. Graduates find careers with average incomes of $90,000 or more and get to wear the crown of Data Scientist. Take a tour of our School and find the future.

The School of Data Science

Faculty

Many of UNC Charlotte’s faculty research and teach across multiple disciplines. Dr. Cynthia Gibas leads an interdisciplinary research team from Bioinformatics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Biology, Geography and Earth Sciences, Computer Science and Public Health. Collaboratively, they are studying campus wastewater and using it as an early-warning system to locate the presence of COVID-19 at UNC Charlotte. This multidisciplinary approach to solve a single problem allows our faculty to work together across academic fields of study and set the tone of aspirational education.

Faculty

Hands On Experience

Interdisciplinary programs offer our students hands-on training and experience in state-of-the-art labs and innovation centers, projects and collaborative academics. Some examples include Carolinas United to End HIV, a new collaborative between health officials and leading researchers in North Carolina and South Carolina in their fight to end the HIV epidemic in our states; The U.S. Intelligence Community has designated the University among eight of the latest national Intelligence Community Centers for Academic Excellence; and students tackle real-world industrial and often interdisciplinary projects including bomb-detecting robots and high-pressure piping systems for nuclear plants in UNC Charlotte’s Industrial Solutions Lab.

Brenda Tindal, History and Africana Studies, Double Major
Brenda Tindal, History and Africana Studies, Double Major
Unsure of a major, this student’s Eureka moment came through her passions. Brenda is currently the Director of Education and Engagement at the new International African American Museum opening in 2022 in Charleston, South Carolina.
Hannah Milillo, MS Management
Hannah Milillo, MS Management
Combining a sense of adventure and fine art passion, with the business acumen to succeed.
Cynthia Rubin, MS Health Informatics and Analytics
Cynthia Rubin, MS Health Informatics and Analytics
Solving data-driven issues in healthcare and disease research.

Alumni Across the Carolinas

UNC Charlotte alumni live, work, teach and support communities throughout the state.

North Carolina
  • Asheville, NC
  • Charlotte, NC
  • Concord, NC
  • Durham, NC
  • Fayetteville, NC
  • Greensboro, NC
  • Greenville, NC
  • Jacksonville, NC
  • Raleigh, NC
  • Rocky Mount, NC
  • Wilmington, NC
  • Winston-Salem, NC

Ready To Make Clt Your Education Destination?

If you’re ready to combine your passion with your education, come visit UNC Charlotte.