It is well known that it is harder to integrate conflicting insights across disparate disciplines than similar ones. In this article, I focus on the relation between economics, which is dominated by views that one could characterize as "pro-capitalist," and English, which is dominated by views that one could characterize as…

Interdisciplinary learning does not just happen. One of the great challenges facing interdisciplinary programs is figuring out how to gain collective clarity around program identity (values, principles, and purpose) and make connections between mission-based curricular and co-curricular activities that support interdisciplinary learning for…

Metaphors are prominent across a wide range of research literatures, serving as imaginative sparks for innovative approaches to complex problems and provocative questions. Research metaphors are very often interdisciplinary in nature, with scholars drawing insight and inspiration from disciplines outside of their own. Yet, research metaphors are…

When introduced around 1925, interdisciplinarity, grounded in the notion of the unity of knowledge, was meant to reconnect the fragmented and specialized disciplines of academia. However, interdisciplinary research became more and more challenging as the plurality and heterogeneity of disciplinary perspectives and insights increased. Insisting on…

In this article, Allison Upshaw presents an interdisciplinary arts-based inquiry, an inquiry she undertook as part of the work for her PhD, focused on the instruction she offered her preservice teacher (PST) students in the integration of dance/movement with literacy practices. In this class, the movement was based explorations on the reading of…

Color has been considered as a special problem in several disciplines, notably art and music, but also philosophy and literature. Given that color is also a central feature of some scientific thought (think of Newton and the color spectrum, for example), the question "What color is the interdisciplinary?" seems to be a golden opportunity…

This article examines the main ideas presented in Newell's groundbreaking article, published in "Issues in Integrative Studies" in 2001, "A Theory of Interdisciplinary Studies": that complexity is a precondition for interdisciplinary research, that interdisciplinary research utilizes disciplinary perspectives, and that…

Complexity is among the main drivers that justify and guide the genesis and establishment of multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to the production and application of knowledge. Complexity can be read in the relatively canonical taxonomy of these concepts that structure epistemological reflections on the dynamics of knowledge production…

Prompted by William Newell's 2013 call for the Association of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) to consider whether to rethink its mission in light of other organizations' interests, this article begins by reflecting on similarities and differences among five of the founding organizations of a recently formed Global Alliance for Inter- and…

How do we navigate fear of catastrophic change while also fostering a sense of well-being in our everyday? This question provides the lived context for the story this article tells about teaching a course on imagining well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking an integrative interdisciplinary approach that employs methods of literary analysis…

The literature on interdisciplinary teaching has tended to stress undergraduate teaching. As interdisciplinary graduate teaching becomes increasingly common, we need to reflect on what graduate students need to know. This article discusses key ideas that all interdisciplinary graduate programs should communicate. In particular, we need to teach…

This article reports on an interdisciplinary project that conducted a series of systematic reviews of academic research about the use of pornography and sexual health. Academics from a variety of disciplines were involved; half of the team had a background in humanities and the other half a background in psychology. While working closely together,…

This article, which presents an interdisciplinary research agenda grounded in a constructivist institutional approach, begins by unpacking relevant terms. It explains the new institutional approach in political science that simultaneously narrows the focus and broadens the scope of political research by encouraging a return to the…

In this article, I consider Klein's scholarship as a foundation to examine the realities of interdisciplinary practice in higher education institutions, including questions of who engages in interdisciplinary work, how interdisciplinary work is supported, and how interdisciplinary work is organized. In discussing each of these issues, I underscore…

In this keynote presentation given at the 2016 Association for Interdisciplinary Studies conference, I considered the field of gerontology from a transdisciplinary perspective. Juxtaposing personal narratives with dominant and alternative discourses on issues of aging, later life, and old age, I explored such questions as: Given the multifaceted,…