One barrier to interdisciplinary work is that you cannot get hired if you do it as a grad student. If your dissertation was interdisciplinary, you will not fit clearly into advertised jobs. The consequence of this is that, even when otherwise strong, you will be second choice to whoever fits neatly into the academic discipline’s niches. When you span two disciplines, you are off-center for both and the fact that you do both is not regarded as a strength. People suspect you of not being suited for the job, but trying to pass yourself off as something you are not. Until people can be hired while doing interdisciplinary work, there is little point to talking about tenure and promotion.

Chuck, at 10:15 am EDT on July 25, 2007

Ship has sailed & voyages ever onward despite

...administrative recognition. The article states that, “While universities have pieced together solutions to support interdisciplinary efforts, including research centers or institutes, “we haven’t necessarily changed our policies and practices to proactively foster interdisciplinarity,” Dubrow said.” It goes on to state that, “Also, “some institutions have invested quite heavily in new interdisciplinary arts and science buildings, but we haven’t shared what are the features of those spaces. What would go into the design of a collaborative space?”

However, interdisciplinary research in the social sciences and humanities especially has been a bottom-up endeavor. There are conferences and journals in place; too numerous to list here, that link together several fields in different degrees and multiples of relationships, etc.

Why now? I can’t help but wonder.... Is it due to a greater call for interdisciplinarity on the academic job market? Does it reflect a pedagogical need? The article seems to suggest that it reflects a research need.... But for whom? Why? And, most importantly, how?

The U.S. academy has a tradition of strangling interdisciplinary research especially when it pertains to Ethnic Studies programs. Just take the case of Chicana and Chicano Studies in California.

Administrators should give autonomy and resources to scholars who, for decades, have been invested in these models of research, teaching, and extra academic cultural work.

R.C., Graduate Student at Texas A&M University, at 10:45 am EDT on July 25, 2007

Interdisciplinary Grads

Chuck, I suspect what happens to many grads from interdisciplinary studies is they end up teaching in liberal arts somewhere, in which a broad scope of knowledge and teaching skills can be applied. I also suspect they remain adjunct in many cases. I don’t have numbers, of course, but I have myself and some others I know to refer to as modest proof.

I also suspect many of these grads end up as consultants, contractors, entrepreneurs, writers, etc. where they don’t have to be pigeonholed.

You are correct that enrollment for these programs will not increase unless employment options become more visible. But you have to think about what student population might be attracted to interdisciplinary programs in the first place—they are probably individuals with a wide variety of interests, maybe free spirits who don’t want to be limited in scope of study or in degree title. They also might be students who feel they don’t fit in anywhere else. Certainly, though, there must be many students like these hiding out in other programs.

How do you place this type of student through the admissions process? Well, we have aptitude tests for other disciplines. Do we have these for the creative, the intellectually eclectic, the generally curious? I don’t know the answer to that. Maybe you do.

kgotthardt, at 1:30 pm EDT on July 25, 2007

Leading by example

Standford has recently created Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowships program to provide funding for funding doctoral students interested in interdisciplinary fields. This a powerful statement from a powerful institute about the trends and opportunities in interdisciplinarity. I am pursuing my doctoral dissertation to develop an interdisciplinary graduate program in engineering and management. I myself hold B.Engg. and an MBA, and firmly believe that no discipline is perfect and no real world problem comes in packets. If knowledge creation and dissemination has to prove and sustain its relevance to practice then interdisciplinary education and research is inevitable.

Rahul Choudaha, at 3:00 pm EDT on July 25, 2007

I was trained in an interdisciplinary program and I continue to do interdisciplinary work, but I would not advise a student to follow my path. In my own department I hear comments that someone cannot really know two disciplines because it is hard enough to know one. I also see examples of individuals with dual appointments being denied tenure because they do not have unanimous decisions in both departments. That strikes me as a ridiculous standard. As long as these institutional barriers exist, I would not advise a student to pursue training or work that will be a handicap in a very difficult job market (for tenure track positions). When you cross disciplines you are generally considered incompetent in both, not creative, synthetic, or any of the other positive qualities I see mentioned in this discussion. I have tenure in a polytechnic state university but it took me close to 10 years to get my first tenure-track job and I would have made different choices if I’d know that would be the result of working across fields. I have taught in liberal arts colleges (visiting appointments) that value breadth, but they typically do not provide any opportunity to continue an active research program. I suspect that many people become discouraged and give up their research because they cannot find the resources to support it as adjuncts, visiting faculty or members of teaching institutions. I hate this situation but I cannot generate any enthusiasm for intiatives that will lead people into the same limbo I endured. It takes a kind of flexibility of mind to acquire jargon in multiple fields and relate theories to each other when terminology, methods and evidence differ. Cross-fertilization can lead to breakthroughs in my opinion, but we are not nourishing the people who wish to do that work.

Chuck, at 8:25 pm EDT on July 25, 2007

Association for Integrative Studies

A recent article entitled “Disciplinary Hegemony Meets Interdisciplinary Ascendancy” by Stuart henry in the 2005 volume of the Association for Integrative Studies Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies addresses these concerns: Henry discusses Dan Sperber’s observations which “describes the vicious circle of disciplinary reproduction where, premised on the argument that interdisciplinary study should follow disciplinary study, young scholars are discouraged by their disciplinary supervisors from engaging interdisciplinary research projects until they have first qualified for and obtained positions in their disciplinary field, with the result that interdisciplinary training is always denied, deferred and undermined.” Sperber (2003) states “Postponing interdisciplinary work to the time a researcher is well established means that such research is generally pursued as a side activity, with more goodwill than thorough competence, and that therefore, indeed, it will be much harder for a student to find proper supervision in an interdisciplinary than in a disciplinary area."The next volume of ISSUES about to be published, includes a colloquium in which a group of interdisciplinarians discuss this and related challenges associated with interdisciplinary programs. For more on this topic, and for a forum on a variety of theoretical and applied dimensions of interdisciplinary inquiry, we welcome participation in the 2007 National Association for Integrative Studies Conference hosted by Arizona State University September 23-26. The Call for Papers for the 2008 conference will be available at that time. For acccess to information and the journal’s open Call for Papers, consult the AIS website at http://www.muohio.edu/aisorg/.

Pauline Gagnon, President-Elect at Association for Integrative Studies, at 2:00 pm EDT on August 8, 2007