About Bridging Boundaries

“Interdisciplinarity is among the most talked about but most misunderstood topics in education on all levels today.” – Graff, 2016

This is a living literature review dedicated to exploring a variety of questions about interdisciplinarity. Calls to expand interdisciplinary research and teaching date back at least 100 years. Numerous endeavors have worked to try to break the boundaries between disciplines, for the benefit of research, policy, and practice. Still, many barriers persist to the achievement of these goals in practice.

This newsletter is part of a project developing a continuously updated online collection of accessible articles that synthesizes academic research on the topic of interdisciplinary.

Posts will tackle a range of connected questions, including:

·      What is interdisciplinarity, and what are its benefits? How have these benefits been measured and documented in different sectors, spaces, and settings?

·      Is interdisciplinarity on the rise? What drives and enables interdisciplinarity in practice? And what are the barriers?

·      What role[s] do funders play in promoting and enabling interdisciplinarity in research and practice? What are the lessons learned?

·      What role[s] do universities play in promoting interdisciplinary research and education? What are the documented challenges and obstacles, successes and opportunities?

·      How can technology, big data, and innovation advance interdisciplinary research and practice? What role(s) does tech play in helping people reach across disciplines?

·      What are some of the limitations and drawbacks to efforts to transcend disciplinary divides? Are there necessary limits? Can interdisciplinarity go too far?

·      How does and can interdisciplinarity inform policy? How have governments aimed to bridge sectoral and disciplinary divides? What have been the limits/constraints, and are the lessons learned from these efforts?

Support for this work comes from Open Philanthropy.

Check back soon for updates.

Are you interested in this topic? I’d love to hear from you! Please get in touch if you’d like to contribute a paper, your thoughts, or a question.

About the Author

Rachel is a Lecturer in the Program in International Relations at Stanford. She serves as the lead author for this Living Literature Review on interdisciplinarity. Previously, she served as Lecturing Fellow in Public Policy at Duke University, and as Director for Education Content with the Council on Foreign Relations. Her work has spanned the study of history, political science, international development, sociology, foreign policy, and economics.

For more about Rachel’s work, visit: https://www.rachelanngeorge.com/

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