courses
Below are some interdisciplinary courses CSID members have taught. Contact us with ideas for future interdisciplinary courses.
Spring 2010 & Fall 2012 Director Robert Frodeman is teaching a course titled "Theory & Practice of Interdisciplinarity"
Course Description: This is a class on the future of knowledge.
"Interdisciplinarity" means many things, but at its largest compass the term functions a placeholder for the sense that (disciplinary) knowledge today must adapt to a new societal landscape. It will focus on the mixed theoretical, institutional, and societal manifestation of knowledge today--and on what this means to you, as aspiring knowledge producers.
Intellectual and academic life is changing quite markedly today--although academics have been to a surprising largely oblivious to this development. There are multiple signs that the current system is under stress. Demands for greater accountability are being made at the same time that funding for higher education is being cut. For profit universities take a growing share of undergraduate and professional training. Distance education and web-based knowledge are changing the function of libraries, the classroom experience, and the nature of scholarship. University presses are closing, threatening the means by which academics are judged for tenure and promotion.
With these issues in mind, this course will explore the concept of interdisciplinarity and all its cognate terms - transdisciplinarity, anti-disciplinarity, translational research, etc. We will review the challenges of engaging in interdisciplinarity, both in terms of research and education, with some particular attention paid to cases of interdisciplinarity vis-a-vis the environment.You can read selected student papers by going here.
December 26, 2008 - January 10, 2009 Britt Holbrook co-taught Tracing Darwin's Path "Field Course in Sub-Antarctic Conservation: Terrestrial and Marine Biocultural Ecosystems"
Course Description: The course will provide students with a hands-on, interdisciplinary research, conservation and education experience in one of the world's most pristine remaining wilderness areas. The course will focus on the watershed unit of the landscape, including its ecology, conservation, and use, as well as philosophical issues associated with the watershed.
The class time and field work will expose students to both the practical and theoretical aspects of biocultural conservation, including its interdisciplinary character. We all bring different disciplinary skills and mindsets to this course. Together, as a group and individually, we will broaden and integrate our approaches to biocultural conservation both by doing interdisciplinary field work and by self-consciously reflecting on our interdisciplinary interactions as they take place in the field.
In May 2008 Britt Holbrook co-taught the study abroad course "Tracing Darwin's Path 'Field Course In Sub-Antarctic Conservation: Integrating the Human Dimension to Biocultural Conservation at the Southern End of the Americas"
Course Description: The course will provide students with an interdisciplinary research, conservation and education experience at one of the most pristine wilderness areas remaining in the world. The course theme will be the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MaB) Program's approach to conservation - linking people and development with biodiversity and ecosystems. The class time and field work will expose students to both the practical and theoretical aspects of biocultural conservation, including a workshop with the regional government and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.
Britt Holbrook taught in the Texas Governor's School in 2007
From 2001-2003 Robert Frodeman taught Global Climate Change and Society