Interdisciplinary Research (in the Humanities)ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý October 3, 2017
The Foundational Question: The inherent artificiality of disciplines.Ìý We could draw the lines in many ways, but we need some structure.
- We generally think of technology as a tool.
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Interdisciplinarity at CU means a STEM context.Ìý Interdisciplinarity in the humanities is different.Ìý It is all that makes us human: cultural production, human enterprise, human ambition.
- I have training as a historian, but I draw from geology, get insights from literature.
- The funding terrain in humanities has not driven interdisciplinary research the way it has been in STEM
- Good interdisciplinary work is based on strong disciplines
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How do paradigms change in non-STEM collaborations?
- Critical thinking is a unifying factor
- The framing of the conversation here, focused education and discovery, is wrong.Ìý See Boyter 1990 – it’s a cycle of discovery, integration, teaching and synthesis
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What does interdisciplinary research look like in the humanities?
- That kind of discovery does not include non-STEM based work, at least as it I communicated by CU ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ leadership
- The proposal requirements to work with OCG are onerous for non-STEM proposal.Ìý Could come up with a new form that better meets non-STEM criteria
- For me, when I partner with social scientists, they are focused on building models and testing them.Ìý The work I do involves deep analysis of text.Ìý It’s not about model building.Ìý Technology doesn’t change the methods of the work itself.
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Community outreach as a mechanism of interdisciplinarity
- Community engagement is needed to meet societal needs
- Learning how to translate discovery to meet societal needs
- Challenge:Ìý sometimes students can’t take classes abroad if we can’t fill on-campus classes, a policy that stems from funding sources
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Honors program does need more support for undergraduate interdisciplinary research
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Barriers to interdisciplinary Research (particularly in the humanities)
- Incentives
- Hard to evaluate from any one perspective
- Cultural, the way we think
- Lack of understanding what other disciplines are good for (narrowness)
- Siloes – learning about other disciplines is hard work
- Widen the way success is measured – change the culture to recognize it doesn’t dilute the rigor
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Some interdisciplinary research is not collaborative.Ìý It can be done by a single researcher.
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Finding ways to convene folks around topics that make their work more centrally connected (networking).Ìý Augmenting each other’s work.
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- Communication on campus as a barrier
- Staff are often the relationship builders and holders on campus
- Support staff are needed to do interdisciplinary work?
- They are the institutional memory
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There should be a conversation theme about staff
- Appreciating them
- Things aren’t heard without a faculty voice
- Ways to support staff
- Staff asked to do more and more with less time
- Sabbaticals for staff
- Staff experience being valued
- Opportunities for promotion and professional development
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