#1 The Role of Disciplines in Interdisciplinary Exchange

Abstract

A movement to promote interdisciplinary research is becoming a powerful force in American higher education. Calls for more connectivity and greater integration are evident in fields as diverse as nanotechnology and American studies. Advocates claim that reforms would promote more rapid advances in research, more useful solutions to complex public problems, and more effective teaching and learning. In my book, In Defense of Disciplines: Interdisciplinarity and Specialization in the Research University, I carefully scrutinize these claims. I maintain that the critiques of established disciplines such as history, economics and biology are often overstated and misplaced. I show that disciplines are remarkably porous and continually incorporate new methods and ideas from other fields. Rather than limiting intellectual opportunities, the organizational structure of liberal arts disciplines is in fact the source of their dynamism and breadth.