How Interdisciplinary Studies Are Changing Our Educations
As an incoming first-year student, I chose to major in International Studies because there were so many other majors I couldn’t decide between. This major allows me to explore more of my interests than any other option offered by my college. Now that I’m a sophomore, I’ve taken classes within the History, Modern Language, Political Science, Religious Studies, Business, and, of course, International Studies departments. Each of these classes fulfilled requirements for my International Studies major, and weren’t just for Central Curriculum requirements. While I was conscious of the fact that my major was interdisciplinary, I didn’t give much thought to the interdisciplinary education model until this week.
This past Wednesday in my Italian class, my professor, Dr. Martina Kolb, was speaking to our class about the Renaissance, which led to a discussion about Leonardo Da Vinci. She mentioned that Da Vinci was a true Renaissance man, and that this term is essentially synonymous with interdisciplinary. Dr. Kolb continued to explain that considering something or someone as interdisciplinary carried even more weight in the time of the Renaissance than it does now. For Da Vinci, being interdisciplinary meant that he was not only knowledgeable on more than two areas of study, but that he was profoundly and equally advanced at art, science, engineering, and architecture. In an article I recently read for my International Theory class, interdisciplinary instruction is defined as “the use and integration of methods and analytical frameworks from more than one academic discipline to examine a theme, issue, question or topic.” This approach “requires the integration and synthesis of different perspectives rather than a simple consideration of multiple viewpoints” which is something that can be applied to nearly any discipline.
If you attend a liberal arts college like Susquehanna University, you’re already influenced by interdisciplinarity, whether you are conscious of it or not. The liberal arts concept began with the Greeks and Romans of the ancient era. They considered Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music as upper level subjects for academia, and labeled this group as the Quadrivium. The Trivium, subjects of lesser importance, included the studies of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic. Modern Liberal Arts colleges typically employ this idea by requiring students to take one or more classes in each department. This gives students basic knowledge of multiple areas of study that they can then apply to their major(s). While many education models and curriculum designs are based on this concept, interdisciplinary programs of study are still rare. Some colleges offer students the option to design their own major that allows them to work with an advisor to create a curriculum combining multiple areas of study offered by the school. This, however, sounds like a complicated and daunting process, especially for students who still are not sure exactly what they’d like to do with their post-undergraduate lives. Only a very small percentage of undergraduate students are confident enough in what they want to study or pursue after college, to consider designing their own interdisciplinary major.
At the end of my first year here at SU, I declared Publishing & Editing as a second major. When I tell people that I am studying both International Studies and Publishing, I get some pretty weird looks/responses. To others, it sounds like a bizarre combination, but it’s the perfect combination for me. I don’t know exactly how I will merge these two majors, but I know it is possible. Whether I become an editor for a magazine on international politics, start my own small press, or work for a NGO, I strongly believe that both of my majors will lead to valuable opportunities that I would risk missing by only having one major. In fact, another article I was assigned to read this semester also discussed how interdisciplinary studies is beneficial for this exact reason.
“Life doesn’t fit into one category or another. No one wakes up in the morning and says, “I’m going to solve every challenge I meet today with math, or English, or social studies.” Rather, we naturally take an interdisciplinary approach as we navigate our everyday lives. The same principle applies in the workplace. In encouraging students to think outside the box, interdisciplinary studies prepares them to function in the real world. It also indicates potential to employers who aren’t merely filling job descriptions, but are instead looking for big thinkers qualified to take on real challenges.” The other 3 benefits of interdisciplinary studies listed by this article include the development of critical thinking skills, a boost for creativity, and a renewed excitement for learning.
When I was a senior in high school, I remember the guidance counselors stressing that our generation is projected to change careers an average of 14 times within our lifetimes. Their point was that we should strive to be adaptable to our environments and focus more on gaining “soft” skills like communication and time-management rather than only studying specific academic subjects that will limit our options to select career fields. Interdisciplinary studies are the solution to this push for adaptability. While allowing students to major and minor in multiple subjects is definitely a step in the right direction, colleges and universities should begin to offer more programs that are designed to merge the perspectives of multiple academic studies. Some examples of interdisciplinary major programs that are already in existence include: Computational Biology (Carnegie Mellon University), Chemical Physics (Bowdoin College), Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (Duke University), Linguistics (William & Mary), and Critical Social Thought (Mount Holyoke College).
Interdisciplinary studies respond to the developments of our society’s needs which will be reflected by future innovations within our education systems. We, as students, will benefit ourselves by trying to seek out opportunities for interdisciplinary approaches to learning, whether that be by attending lectures on interdisciplinary topics, registering for classes outside of our majors, declaring minors that may not obviously relate to our main focus(es) of study, or by simply taking it upon ourselves in our free time to learn about other disciplines. Interdisciplinarity will affect us whether we are conscious of its influence whether we are conscious of it or not, so why not choose to be an active participant in our educations and futures?