Welcome

The Interdisciplinary Studies Institute is a forum for faculty at the University of Massachusetts to engage with one another in a spirit of intellectual and creative adventure in a range of settings and environments. At the core of our activities is the ISI Seminar, organized around a specific theme; each semester we choose a new topic (for a listing of past and present themes, see our Seminars page). The ethos of the seminar is free and democratic, cutting across lines of discipline and rank. Participants take turns leading discussion, based on their own interests and projects. Our other events include an annual ISI lecture, as well as working groups and colloquia. It is our hope that the ISI, its seminar and related activities, will provide a vigorous resource for intellectual and creative energy on the UMass campus.

Indeterminacy: A Study of the City and its Environs

Interdisciplinary Studies Institute 2025-2026 | Application Call

Indeterminacy: A Study of the City and its Environs

In 2024-2025, we looked at Entangled Environments and their interconnected Eco/ Socio/ Techno- Logics. In the 20205-2026 cycle, we turn our attention to the city and examine it through the lens of indeterminacy.

Seminars

ISI seminars run for a year, and are organized around specific themes. Fellows alternate in leading the discussion, pursuing a particular project in which they are interested.

Residency

‘Beyond Borders’, the ISI Residency at the University of Massachusetts, hosts artists, writers, and intellectuals both from the USA and elsewhere. Our purpose is to think through and across borders of various kinds: between peoples, cultures, nations, religions—but also across borders of discipline, or the creative and the scholarly, or the academy and the world.