DSU’s Integrated Studies program, in the Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences (IAS) department, allows students to create a customized major by combining two emphasis areas from a list of more than 30. Kortney Webb is majoring in Communication Studies and Theatre Arts. IAS student and department marketing assistant Megan Scoresby spoke with Kortney to learn more about her major and experience in the IAS program.
Megan: How did you find out about the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences program?
Kortney: I was originally majoring in theatre, but I wanted to do more. And then I thought, how was I going to do that, because I don’t want to change my major completely, I want to do a little bit more. Then I found the Integrated Studies program and I thought, Oh! That will let me keep a ton of my theatre credits that I’ve already taken, and I am very interested in communication so I can do that. It’s going to be more classes but I wanted to do that.
Megan: So what kind of communications are you doing?
Kortney: Right now, I focus on a lot of communication theory and I’m taking family communication and intercultural communications, you don’t really focus on one thing: it’s just like a whole blend of a lot of communication classes so it’s pretty fun.
Megan: What have been your favorite experiences in the Integrated Studies program?
Kortney: My favorite experience is I would have never even thought to integrate two emphases, I didn’t even know this existed. The fact that I can look at theatre from a communications standpoint—that was really interesting to me because, when I started looking at all the theories in communication, I found that they are actually used in theatre whether they know it or not, it’s there. You know, as human beings, even in theatre when someone’s acting on the stage, a human being wrote that stuff—whether they knew they were writing communication theories or not, it’s there. I just love that I have found that things really do cross over.
Megan: Do you know what you’re doing for your capstone project?
Kortney: I have an idea of what I’m going to be doing so I’m excited. Right now, I’m writing my research paper. It’s basically integrating what I was talking about before—I’m integrating a communication theory into monologues. What I’m planning on doing for my project is, I’m going to have a bunch of monologues and kind of do a one-woman show. Once I’ve done my research, I’m going to integrate it into a bunch of different monologues and a bunch of different scenarios and then put on a performance of it. So, I’m excited and we’ll see where it goes.
To learn more about Integrated Studies visit their website here.
