M.A. in Applied Intercultural Arts Research

Applied Intercultural Arts Research (AIAR) is the first Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (GIDP) designed in collaboration with the UA College of Fine Arts. The program prepares graduates with the training and skills needed to conduct intercultural research in the arts, and to consider how knowledge of the arts can be applied to other disciplinary areas to address humanistic, social, and scientific issues affecting our communities and our interconnected world.AIAR promotes dialogue between interdisciplinary scholars with a primary or secondary research interest related to music, dance, theater, film, visual arts, or other artistic cultural practices. The applied emphasis invites students to imagine how the arts can be used in and beyond academic settings to enhance the health and well-being of individuals, societies, and environments. The intercultural focus trains students to use arts-based research to address issues in ways that take into consideration both cultural diversity and the confluence of multiple cultural perspectives. The AIAR core curriculum—originally built on the foundations of the interdisciplinary field of ethnomusicology—emphasizes the importance of intercultural, ethnographic, and arts-based research practices, and trains students with the skills necessary to pursue research in community-based and collaborative interdisciplinary and interprofessional settings.Through the AIAR program, we aim to prepare students interested in the arts for exciting careers in interdisciplinary academic research andor applied work in the public sector.