Liberal Arts and Sciences

"When I try to explain Interdisciplinarity to prospective students and their parents I usually use [this] analogy. A building is made up of bricks and mortar. But most of us think of the bricks as being the real building and, in fact, you could pile up bricks without mortar and make something that looks like a building but which wouldn't function as well.  The mortar by itself would also not make a very useful building - although you probably could pile it up in such a way as to make some thing that looked like an igloo or something.

The success of the building is the bricks and the mortar; the bricks are the bones, the structure, of the building - the mortar is the connection between the bricks that holds the building together.  I [compare] the disciplinary programs to the bricks - they're something solid and with which people are familiar - they look like a building.  The disciplines, Art, German, Biology, Music, Mathematics, Economics, etc look like a University - they're the familiar areas of study that people associate with higher education.  The Interdisciplinary programs are more like the mortar - they're the intellectual and academic areas between the disciplines that link them together, that give them solidity and function, and give them a context."

-Associate Professor Curt Heuer, Communications & The Arts

"It can be defined as bringing to bear on a particular problem or issue the perspectives of more than one of the traditional academic disciplines to better understand and appreciate a variety of nuances and alternative concepts/theories/principles/strategies to further illuminate and resolve complex concerns."

-Professor Lloyd Noppe, Human Development

"Interdisciplinarity is utilized two different ways on campus. First, it is used in courses alone. One example would be Foundations of Western Culture. It doesn't just teach History, but also Philosophy, Geography, Politics, Fine Arts, among others. The other way that it can be used is for Academic Programs and Departments on campus. This is a concept that is a little more unique to UWGB. Departments like PEA (Public & Environmental Affairs) and HUS (Humanistic Studies) do not simply cover one program, but multiple programs that overlap in a broader sense than from course to course."

-Associate Professor David Coury, Humanistic Studies

The word Interdisciplinarity is actually made up of two words: inter and disciplinarily. Now inter means between, in the midst of, connecting. For example, international is something involving two or more nations. Similarly, psychology, mathematics, history, or music are all disciplines. Each has its own set of specialists and sub-specialists, each is typically taught by one or another department within a university, and each deals with its own distinct subjects. Thus, psychologists study such things as emotions and perceptions while mathematicians study such things as numbers and triangles.

-Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty, Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich.
http://www.is.wayne.edu/ISPInfo/WhatIsIS.htm

To begin, we need to remember that the equation Interdisciplinarity=non-traditional is historically incorrect. Since the very inception of Western thought clear declarations of the importance and the role of Interdisciplinarity have been loud and clear. I will just mention Plato's Republic (Book VII) and Aristotle's Ethics (Book VI), where such statements are given in the context of the discussion of the education of men. Later examples of interdisciplinary work are plentiful from the Enlightenment to the Romanticism. It should also be pointed out that the whole classical (and later Renaissance) idea of liberal arts and liberal education is predicated on a wide interdisciplinary exposure.

-Arts & Sciences Dean Daniele Struppa, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
http://cas.gmu.edu/deans_welcome/about_the_dean/articles/interdisciplinarity/

Interdisciplinary Studies provides students with an opportunity to expand beyond the narrow focus on one or two academic disciplines that is the norm for undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts. Instead, IDST students design a cross disciplinary course of study that focuses on two of four much more broad and inclusive categories - the Humanities, Sciences, Social Sciences, and Creative and Performing Arts. The point of the program is not to give students a "way out" of fulfilling the requirements of the various departments in the Faculty of Arts. Rather, the Program is intended to be flexible and to suit individual learning and career goals, and it is up to each student to decide the shape his or her individual program will take.

-Interdisciplinary Studies Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Canada
http://www.interdisciplinary.arts.ubc.ca/

"Your planet is very beautiful," [said the little prince]. "Has it any oceans?"

"I couldn't tell you," said the geographer. . . .

"But you are a geographer!"

"Exactly," the geographer said. "But I am not an explorer. I haven't a single explorer on my planet. It is not the geographer who goes out to count the towns, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the oceans, and the deserts. The geographer is much too important to go loafing about. He does not leave his desk."

The Little Prince, pp. 63-64, Antoine de Saint Exupery
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156012197/sr=8-1/qid=1140633114/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6405692-5137668?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Interdisciplinarity is best seen as bringing together distinctive components of two or more disciplines. In academic discourse, Interdisciplinarity typically applies to four realms: knowledge, research, education, and theory. Interdisciplinary knowledge involves familiarity with components of two or more disciplines. Interdisciplinary research combines components of two or more disciplines in the search or creation of new knowledge, operations, or artistic expressions. Interdisciplinary education merges components of two or more disciplines in a single program of instruction. Interdisciplinary theory takes interdisciplinary knowledge, research, or education as its main objects of study.

-Moti Nissani, Interdisciplinary Studies Program, Wayne State University
http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/pagepub/10cheers.htm