Whether beneficial or deleterious, the effects of human activities are now evident in almost all ecological systems. Accordingly, well-grounded studies of relevant human-environmental interactions are needed in basic ecological research, the design of new management strategies, and effective policy decisions. Ecology and the various disciplines comprising human ecology have rich traditions of studying human impacts on the natural world. However, the human ecological and ecological traditions often approach the same problems in a piecemeal fashion. On the one hand, studies that utilize only ecological concepts and methods can be inadequate for management purposes. On the other hand, some human ecology research has amounted to social-science theory applied to environmental subjects without attention to ecological facts. A truly interdisciplinary approach would seamlessly integrate concepts and methods from the social sciences with ecology, yet how this can be done is often unclear. Through a series of presentations by noted human ecologists and ecologists, this symposium will highlight new and exciting approaches to ecologically relevant interdisciplinary studies. Our goals are 1) to elucidate the methodological and conceptual issues associated with interdisciplinary research, 2) to determine how to proceed with interdisciplinary studies without losing ecological relevance, and 3) to illustrate how truly integrative approaches have benefited ecological studies and management, including global sustainability studies. The presentations will be 15 minutes and will discuss methodological and conceptual issues that help or hinder interdisciplinary studies. The methods used in human ecology emerged from the social sciences, and were developed to answer questions from their home disciplines. The presenters will discuss how to make human ecological methods and research answer ecological questions and help efforts to manage critical systems.