What is Interdisciplinarity?
'''Interdisciplinarity''' is when two or more [[subject]]s ([[academic]] disciplines) join up. This happens when a problem overlaps traditional academic boundaries.<ref>Klein, Julie Thompson. 1990. ''Interdisciplinarity: history, theory, and practice''. Detroit: Wayne State University.</ref> Other terms which mean almost the same thing are '''multidisciplinarity''' and '''crossdisciplinarity'''.<ref>Frodeman R; Klein J.T. & Mitcham C. 2010. ''Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity''. Oxford University Press.</ref><ref>Weingart, Peter and Stehr, Nico (eds) 2000. ''Practicing Interdisciplinarity''. University of Toronto Press.</ref> An examples makes clear what is meant: *In order to investigate living [[cells]], these subjects joined together: [[genetics]], [[physics]], [[chemistry]], [[cytology]]. :When they joined up, the field they formed was called [[cell biology]] at the level of cells, or [[molecular biology]] at the level of [[macromolecule]]s. Other examples include [[artificial intelligence]], [[cultural studies]], [[cybernetics]], [[computational linguistics]], [[biomedical engineering]], and so on. [[Physical chemistry]], [[biochemistry]] and [[astrophysics]] must have been some of the first. In many universities, traditional departments (e.g. [[botany]], [[zoology]]) were scrapped, and new broader departments like 'School of biological sciences' were formed. Inside this umbrella, research and teaching teams were based on interdisciplinary problems, such as [[ecology]] or [[cell division]] or [[Earth history]]. There are some necessary specialities which do not fit easily into the new system. Examples are [[taxonomy]] (you still need people to identify animals) and areas like [[parasitology]] and agricultural [[botany]]. A system which works in some universities is to appoint staff to the Schools (usually [[Humanities]], [[Science]]. [[Social sciences]] and [[Technology]]) and let the staff join those groups which best fit their expertise. == References == {{reflist}} == Related pages == *[[H