Create Your Own Major: Integrative Studies at Warren Wilson College
Sophia Huang | March 10, 2022
Special to The Echo | Gary Hawkins
Part one of “Fear Triptych,” created by Hawkins in reference to the integrative studies major.
According to the website, Warren Wilson College (WWC) offers 20 different majors and 33 minors. However, students bring a diversity of interests to college. The opportunity to bring together their various interests into one undergraduate degree attracts some of them to the integrative studies major.
“Integrative studies is a student designed interdisciplinary course of study,” Gary Hawkins, Ph.D., dean for teaching and learning and creative writing faculty at WWC, explained.
The major is more than just picking courses off of a shelf, according to Hawkins. Rather, each course needs to be justified and contextualized into the student’s overall goal of the integrative study, which is centered around their capstone.
“You really have to make a case for what this thing is that you are putting together, why it's a thing, and why the things actually connect,” Hawkins said.
During their major exploration, students curious about integrative studies should schedule an initial meeting with Hawkins. Hawkins emphasizes that no fully fleshed out thoughts are needed; integrative studies is a process of reflection and drawing on different resources, such as different faculty and inspiration for studies at other institutions.
In the following stages, the interested student reaches out to different professors to identify relevant courses. Furthermore, they put together their integrative studies committee, typically consisting of Hawkins and two professors. The committee members serve as mentors as well as the evaluators of the integrative studies proposal.
Finnegan-Eustace Leclair, junior at WWC and Pisces, is majoring in curatorial studies, which involves using literature to create audio-visual art to make texts accessible to people through multi-sensory experiences. They have integrated a variety of courses, such as art, philosophy, creative writing, anthropology and global studies.
“It requires ambition,” Leclair said. “You really can’t be depending on other people to push your dream. I mean obviously the validation is important because it let’s you know that your ideas make sense to someone that is not you. … But you are doing the work and not meeting up with someone every week and checking in until your senior year.”
Integrative studies requires the ability to take initiative in thinking and writing, and engaging with professors. However, Chandler Holland, a senior majoring in business and minoring in early childhood and elementary education at WWC, shared that this was not enough. She had a clear vision and yet, her proposal was not approved by her integrative studies committee. Despite the exploratory nature of the major, according to her, the proposal follows a strict structure.
“Even if you have everything laid out, you need to set up deadlines for yourself to break it up because just having this one deadline (proposal submission), you don’t have the chance to redo it,” Holland said.
Besides these tips, all three interviewees also mention that one should be prepared to proactively connect with faculty and be aware that majoring in integrative studies means one is not part of any major cohort. To successfully have an approved proposal and capstone, the integrative studies major requires more independent work by the student compared to existing majors, but also allows for tailoring one’s education.
“I get to not only design my own perception of what curatorial studies could be but like I get to design it,” Leclair said. “I get to choose all of my classes … It’s an opportunity to do your own things because you can’t do it any other way.”
If there interest in and any questions about integrative studies, reach out to Hawkins via ghawkins@warren-wilson.edu.
