05-08-23 Interdisciplinarity

Dear Friend,

Would you be surprised by the observation that we live in a complicated world?  Would you agree that understanding who we are, and who others are, draws on knowledge from all of the disciplines in the College of Liberal Arts as well as from disciplines in other colleges at Texas A&M University?  Would you support the idea that combining perspectives of multiple disciplines will enhance the development of new knowledge about our complex world?

 These are more than just rhetorical questions.  The obvious affirmative answers to these questions pose a genuine dilemma for institutions of higher education that are largely organized into discipline-based colleges and departments.  How can faculty and students connect the dots among different disciplines in a university where degrees, publications, and careers are defined by disciplinary departments?

 Colleges and universities have responded to this dilemma by creating “interdisciplinary” programs in which faculty from several disciplines work together on scholarly or creative work.  Similarly, students can earn “interdisciplinary” degrees that draw on courses taught by faculty in different disciplines.  The challenge is creating scholarly or creative or teaching experiences that effectively blend disciplinary knowledge, draw on different methodologies for inquiry, and produce closer approximations of a truly complex world.

 The College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University has fostered interdisciplinarity by creating interdisciplinary degree programs – undergraduate and graduate – and interdisciplinary research centers.  We offer undergraduate majors in American Studies and International Studies and minors in Africana Studies, Film Studies, Journalism, Religious Studies, and Women’s Studies.  At the graduate level, we offer a Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies and an M.A. in Comparative Literature and Culture – each interdisciplinary by design.  These programs draw on courses and faculty in our established departments, but they center on core courses that examine topics from the perspectives of multiple disciplines and methodologies.  Our newly developed minor in Africana Studies, for example, addresses the cultures and identities of Africa and of peoples of African origin around the world with courses in literature, political science, history, sociology, and performance studies.  The program helps students of all backgrounds understand and appreciate the connections between Africa and the Americas as well as the shared cultures of people of African heritage. 

 Interdisciplinary inquiries enrich faculty members’ and students’ abilities to appreciate and comprehend complexity and expand the knowledge base of traditional disciplines.  Thus, political scientists may gain a historical perspective from historians; English scholars may draw on ideas from French or Spanish literature; and communication faculty may exchange ideas with engineers or business faculty.

 Organized interdisciplinary research centers bring faculty and students together for focused scholarly discussions.  The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research attracts international and national speakers on topics as varied as informatics, border studies, visual culture and cultural studies, and it engages scholars from across the University.  By way of example, the Center funded four Faculty Fellows from history, English, film studies, and French in Spring 2005 to study the theme “Visual Culture and the Humanities.”  The discussions they have held will lead to a symposium in Fall 2005 featuring their funded research and the research of two visiting scholars, a noted social historian and a scholar of comparative literature.  Two newly created research centers – the Mexican American and U.S. Latino Research Center and the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation – will afford faculty similar opportunities to explore interdisciplinary interests.

 I will be candid – initiating, supporting, and doing interdisciplinary work is difficult.  Some who have studied interdisciplinarity argue that faculty and students must master two or more disciplines to truly bring those disciplines to bear in scholarship and learning.  This is a tall order.  But, if we succeed in helping faculty and students develop these perspectives, we will have made important strides that advance our abilities to comprehend and function in a complex world. 

 The College is also pursuing this challenge as we hire new faculty who create new contexts for scholarship and learning.  My experience as Dean is that interdisciplinary programs draw outstanding faculty and students.  They find that talking across disciplines provides necessary stimuli and correctives to what might otherwise be a narrow activity of an isolated researcher or student.  These faculty and students embrace the cacophony of opinions that bridge intellectual divides over perspective or theory, and they shape new knowledge from differing views and lively conversations that lie at the heart of inquiry. 

 Please join me in watching our experiments in interdisciplinary programs.  I invite you to observe, indeed participate in, the forging of connections among disciplines that we have not yet imagined.  Thanks very much for your support of these programs and joining in their new ventures. 

 Sincerely,

 Charles A. Johnson

Dean