Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studios (UDIST) offer students the opportunity to re-engage with interdisciplinary learning alongside peers focused on different disciplines at a time when they have begun to master their chosen field of study. UDIST courses are a college-wide requirement and are taken in a student’s junior or senior year.

Coursework encourages combining modes of research and making from a variety of disciplines in order to raise questions, develop research techniques, create new work and solve problems in ways that would not have been possible through single disciplinary means. Collaboration is an important component of all courses.

UDIST courses support CCA's values and mission, ensuring students achieve the Interdisciplinarity College-Wide Learning Outcome: “Students adapt and apply skills, ideas, or methodologies gained in one situation/activity/discipline to new situations/activities/disciplines.”

In addition, UDIST courses must demonstrate that students have achieved the following UDIST-specific Learning Outcomes upon completion of the course:

• Students can articulate/demonstrate a basic understanding of the methods (learning/working/processing) used in the primary disciplines addressed by the course
• Students can integrate multiple studio practices, combining the knowledge and insights from the disciplines, processes, and media addressed by the course to create original work
• Students can articulate/demonstrate how an interdisciplinary approach is a methodology in itself and thus represents more than simply combining different mediums/disciplines for effect
• Students demonstrate the ability to work productively in groups, recognizing and utilizing the shared knowledge made possible through collaboration