SIAS Home

About the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences

Established in 1990 as UW Tacoma's Liberal Studies program, the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences (IAS) is UW Tacoma's largest program with 18 areas of study in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, and natural sciences and more than 1,100 students enrolled.

To provide an interdisciplinary and comparative basis for the study of different groups, societies, and cultures, our interdisciplinary curriculum is organized around three general dimensions of life: Culture and Ideas (Fine Arts and Humanities), Society and the Individual (Social Sciences) and the Natural World (Natural Sciences).

The focus of our curriculum is the comparative study of peoples, groups, societies, cultures, and environments within the United States and selected regions of the world.