Research

The School of Interdisciplinary Studies is home to several research clusters and programs. The Study of the Americas Initiative supports fully-hemispheric interdisciplinary research, engaging in the comparative analysis of culture, history, society, politics, music, art, media, language and literature of the Americas, and exploring the interconnections between North, South and Central America and the Caribbean. The Study of the Americas Initiative takes full advantage of our amazing strategic location in Florida, at the nexus of South, North and Central America and the Caribbean to bring different spaces of the western hemisphere into conversation by providing fora for discussion for scholars in all disciplines in the humanities.

The Center for Body, Mind, and Culture is an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to promoting research, programming, and teaching of topics concerning the body-mind-culture nexus. The Center’s motivating logic affirms that the three terms constituting its name are essentially interdependent rather than separate entities and that they therefore need to be studied in terms of their interrelations and through interdisciplinary research. Nested in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the Center deploys the College’s wide-ranging disciplinary perspectives on body, mind, and culture – ranging from philosophy and history, through social, communicational, and literary studies, to the performing and plastic arts. Treating the complexity of topics relating to the body-mind-culture connection, however, requires reaching beyond the disciplines of the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts to embrace also the natural and health sciences. The Center is thus committed to forging strong links to these scientific disciplines through collaboration with other Colleges at FAU and with institutions beyond the FAU community.

The Peace, Justics, and Human Rights Initiative (PJHR) is an Interdisciplinary, university-wide effort that brigns together scholars, practitioners, students, and community leaders to expand the reach and influence of our existing programs  by creating a robust center of collaboration, community involvement, education, and research. PJHR promotes faculty and student research as well as engagement with the local community. Our Speaker Series and programs reflect issues of local and global concern. Recent speakers have included Arun and Rajmmohan Gandhi, Jane Goodall, and the Dalai Lama. PJHR is also home of the academic journal Human Rights Review.