Our Mission and Vision
Our Mission
The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies provides a progressive, open model for an academic department that promotes creative and imaginative investigations of complex systems and problems. We support innovative scholarship and teaching that is responsive to changes in fields of study inside and outside of academia. We foster courses and programs of study that are engaged with the needs of global and local communities as well as social justice issues. We support new modes of teaching, learning, and research that cut across disciplinary boundaries and explore interstitial areas of concern.
Our Vision
We recognize that disciplinary boundaries are not static. The department strives to become a home for emerging and established interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary programs. We seek to take a leading role within the university as a home for innovation and experimentation in teaching and scholarship. We seek to be a leader within the UNC and across the nation in fostering and supporting multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary programs that address critical issues in a complex world.
Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Annu Daftuar
Dr. Daftuar joined the Interdisciplinary Studies Department in 2025 as an Assistant Professor of Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies (GWS). She holds a PhD in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies from Stony Brook University, New York. Dr. Daftuar is a transnational feminist and a reproductive justice scholar-teacher. In her doctoral research, she studied the globalized fertility market in India, focusing on the much-debated and media-highlighted commercial surrogacy, egg and sperm donation industry in the country. In her work, she unravels the interactions between gender, race, and caste/class within the Indian fertility market. Her research has been published in the Journal of International Women's Studies and Economic and Political Weekly. At Appalachian State, Dr. Daftuar teaches core GWS courses such as Global Women's Issues, and Sex, Gender and Power, that explore foundational concepts, methodologies and activism in feminist scholarship.