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Interdisciplinary Research (in the Humanities)                                          October 3, 2017

The Foundational Question: The inherent artificiality of disciplines.  We could draw the lines in many ways, but we need some structure.

- We generally think of technology as a tool.

Interdisciplinarity at CU means a STEM context.  Interdisciplinarity in the humanities is different.  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

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.  See Boyter 1990 – it’s a cycle of discovery, integration, teaching and synthesis

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 Boulder leadership
• The proposal requirements to work with OCG are onerous for non-STEM proposal.  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.  The work I do involves deep analysis of text.  It’s not about model building.  Technology doesn’t change the methods of the work itself.

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:  sometimes students can’t take classes abroad if we can’t fill on-campus classes, a policy that stems from funding sources

Honors program does need more support for undergraduate interdisciplinary research

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

Some interdisciplinary research is not collaborative.  It can be done by a single researcher.

Finding ways to convene folks around topics that make their work more centrally connected (networking).  Augmenting each other’s work.

• 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

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