Category Archives: Interdisciplinarity

How Academia and Publishing are Destroying Scientific Innovation: A Conversation with Sydney Brenner | King’s Review – Magazine

An interview with molecular biologist Sydney Brenner… In most places in the world, you live your social life and your ordinary life in the lab. You don’t know anybody else. Sometimes you don’t even know other people in the same … Continue reading

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What’s the Point If We Can’t Have Fun? | David Graeber | The Baffler

My friend June Thunderstorm and I once spent a half an hour sitting in a meadow by a mountain lake, watching an inchworm dangle from the top of a stalk of grass, twist about in every possible direction, and then … Continue reading

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Transdisciplinarity: The Politics and Practices of Knowledge Production | The Disorder Of Things

These boundaries that we establish between little pockets of knowledge in the academy are a fiction. Transdisciplinarity, to my mind, is about challenging the fiction of disciplines, about recognizing that knowledge isn’t something that can be carved up into neatly … Continue reading

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Entertainment Conquers Reality

Even before the first tabloids began hawking true-crimes stories and trashy melodramas to 19th-century readers, mass entertainment had cast a spell over American life. How that spell has been magnified to such an extent that entertainment is now \”the most … Continue reading

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History of Philosophy | The Ancient Cynics

In this episode we unleash the most outrageous ancient philosophers, Diogenes and the Cynics, and their quest to “deface the currency” by exposing the hypocrisy of Greek society. via 53 – Beware of the Philosopher: the Cynics | History of … Continue reading

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Quitting academic jobs: professor Zachary Ernst and other leaving tenure and tenure-track jobs. Why?

Continuing the theme of a reblog we posted yesterday: ..there’s an important way that Ernst’s essay distinguishes itself: Most I Quitters are like me, which is to say failed academics, or like Lord, whose disillusion hit her midway down the … Continue reading

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Inklings: Why I Jumped Off The Ivory Tower

For a long time, I”ve been the uncomfortable owner of a coveted faculty position that I didn’t want. My decision to leave isn\’t really about my department or university in particular, but about a perverse incentive structure that maintains the … Continue reading

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How Higgs owes his Nobel to an editor and a biologist | Science News

In his talk, describing the events that led to the prediction of his boson, he provided an enlightening case study about how science really works. As with so many good ideas in science, Higgs had trouble getting his paper published. … Continue reading

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CFP: HASTAC 2014 – Hemispheric Pathways: Critical Makers in International Networks | HASTAC

The challenges facing the Western hemisphere are multidimensional  and complex.  Urban agglomeration, economic development, ecological crisis, military conflict, digital privacy, impediments to advanced learning, negotiations of multiple cultural and historical perspectives—these are problems with scientific and human factors that must … Continue reading

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Limiting Knowledge Production

What? Now why would anyone want to do that? The field of sustainability studies can be seen as being about two things: limits and technology. We are concerned about sustainability because we fear that we are approaching (or have already … Continue reading

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On Reinventing the Wheel of Interdisciplinarity

Perhaps! But who wishes to concern himself with such dangerous “Perhapses”!                                                                                                                                             … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, CSID Publications, Future of the University, institutionalizing interdisciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity, Multidisciplinarity, STEM Policy, Transdisciplinarity | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

56 Indicators of Impact

In 2011, several core members of the Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity (CSID) at the University of North Texas held a meeting during which we imagined different ways to indicate the impact of our activities. We scribbled them on … Continue reading

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Communities of Integration Workshop – Field Philosophy

I’m very pleased to be attending the upcoming workshop at Arizona State on “Communities of Integration” at the invitation of Erik Fisher of STIR fame. You can get a sneak peak at the developing website, including our contribution on Field … Continue reading

Posted in Future of the University, Gas Fracking, institutionalizing interdisciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity, Metrics, Public Philosophizing, Science and technology ramifications, STEM Policy, Transdisciplinarity | Tagged | 1 Comment

Academics don’t let themselves be free – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

@alicebell has something to say to us academics: Fellow academics, if you really want to stand up for your special forms of freedoms you need to recognise the role you already play in the systems that curtail them and reflect … Continue reading

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Special issue published in Synthese!

Special issue published in Synthese!.

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Re-engineering Ethics, Kelli Barr and Wenlong Lu « Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective

CSID fellows Kelli Barr and Wenlong Lu just published a thoughtful piece at the Social Epistemology Review & Reply Collective. They consider a recent professional meeting that they attended and the implications of having a diverse crowd of trained experts … Continue reading

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Five habits of great students: Lessons from top-ranked STEM school | WSJ

I like this piece from the WSJ. The authors are a world history and an English teacher at the top-ranked high school for STEM education. They identify five habits of their most successful students: 1) frequent reading in a variety of subjects … Continue reading

Posted in Interdisciplinarity, STEM Policy | 1 Comment

‘Preparing for Life in Humanity 2.0′ hits shelves just in time for Halloween

Steve Fuller’s latest book, Preparing for Life in Humanity 2.0, hits shelves just in time for Halloween. I find the timing of the book’s release interesting, since it introduces the most frightening philosophic character since Nietzsche’s Übermensch — the ‘moral … Continue reading

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Philosophy and Interdisciplinarity – The Philosophers’ Cocoon

Andreas Wolkenstein asks whether philosophers have anything special to contribute to interdisciplinarity: Philosophy and Interdisciplinarity – The Philosophers’ Cocoon.

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Will the REF disadvantage interdisciplinary research? The inadvertent effects of journal rankings | Impact of Social Sciences

Ismael Rafols uncovers bias against interdisciplinary research and programs. Will the REF disadvantage interdisciplinary research? The inadvertent effects of journal rankings | Impact of Social Sciences.

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5 New Technologies That Have Changed The Digital Classroom | Edudemic

In the past, the suggestion of getting a college degree without ever cracking a book meant paying a degree mill. It meant the degree was in name only, reflecting neither learning nor effort. Then distance learning meant correspondence courses, perhaps … Continue reading

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On the benefits of a philosophy major « Pleas and Excuses

The blog post below has a very nice graphic which details the proven skills that one obtains with a degree in philosophy. While I am tired of having to justify this over and over, I think it is important to … Continue reading

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INIT Interdisciplines virtual seminar on transdisciplinarity

Welcome to the INIT series on Interdisciplines: INIT, the International Network of Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity, is continuing to host a Virtual Seminar on Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Horizons on the platform Interdisciplines. We invite everyone to participate in a new forum … Continue reading

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The science of the future is… art?

Philosopher Santiago Zabala has a piece out today in Al Jazeera about the saving power of art. Globalization, he claims, has wrought an era where the aesthetic calling is not l’art pour l’art – art for art’s sake, or what … Continue reading

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AAAS – Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research and Education: A Practical Guide

AAAS has just released a report. Haven’t read it, yet! AAAS – The World’s Largest General Scientific Society.

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