STS 903 Graduate Seminar - Spring 2010 

Interdisciplinarity in the Modern Research University

 

What is “interdisciplinary” research and why does it matter?  Does interdisciplinary research demand that individual scholars be trained in multiple specializations?  Can interdisciplinary research be performed by teams of specialists using technological tools for working across time and space?  How do institutional norms, physical spaces, and political-economic structures of power and opportunity affect interdisciplinary research?  And how do interdisciplinary practices compare across different modes of research, from the natural, physical, and social sciences to the arts and humanities?  This graduate seminar, team-taught by four faculty affiliates of the UW-Madison Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, explores the many diverse meanings and practices of “interdisciplinary,” “transdisciplinary,” and “multidisciplinary” research in the modern university.  Using ideas and readings drawn from history, sociology, public policy, anthropology, education, and communication studies, this seminar itself will serve as an example of interdisciplinary practice. 

 

 

QUICK LINKS  Discussion Weblog Required readings as PDFs Optional Readings Holtz Center for STS UW-Madison   Print this Syllabus

Organization

 

In Spring 2010 this course meets once each week, from 2:30pm-5pm on Tuesdays, in 4308 Social Sciences Building [please note new location].   Each week a different faculty member takes the lead in terms of discussion and readings, although all four faculty members plan to attend each seminar session.

 

Students will work in collaborative, interdisciplinary groups to produce a final review, policy, or research paper on interdisciplinarity in a way that is appropriate and useful to their own graduate research program.  Each student paper should deal in some way with the notion of "interdisciplinarity at UW".  A final coordinated presentation will be arranged and peformed by the students collaboratively.  However, each student is responsible for turning in their own review/policy/research paper by the end of finals week.

 

 

WHAT IS  INTERDISCIPLINARITY?  “As analysts of knowledge production and as citizens of the university, it seems crucial that we understand how knowledge production practices are changing, what factors are prompting these changes, what forces are inhibiting them, and whether moves to reorient university knowledge production is providing the payoffs supporters of interdisciplinarity suggest it is.  There seems little agreement on what it means to do interdisciplinary research and little clear evidence of the value added by engaging in such scholarly practices.” — Daniel Kleinman

Instructors

 

Greg Downey is a Professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication (where he is currently Director) and in the School of Library & Information Studies.  He studies the history and geography of information and communication technology and labor.  

 

Noah Feinstein is an Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction.  His research interests include science education and the boundary between the private and the public.

 

 

 

Linda Hogle is an Associate Professor, Departments of Medical History & Bioethics and Anthropology.  Her research interests include: social, ethical and policy issues in transnational medical technology innovation and medical practice, particularly regarding regenerative medicine, biomedical engineering and medical device design; transnational infrastructures in stem cell research; and the European Union & North America.

 

Daniel Kleinman is Professor and Chair, Department of Community & Environmental Sociology, and Director, Holtz Center for Science & Technology Studies.  His research interests include: commercialization of the university and the organization of the knowledge economy; democracy and expertise; and agricultural biotechnology policy.

 

 

WIKIPEDIA ENTRY ON INTERDISCIPLINARITY "An interdisciplinary field or multidisciplinary field is a field of study that crosses traditional boundaries between academic disciplines or schools of thought, as new needs and professions have emerged." [2009-12-22]

Readings

 

Each week students will be expected to complete several article-length readings.  We recommend that you print these out, mark them up as you read them, and take notes summarizing their key claims and questions.  In a seminar like this one, where both students and faculty come to the table with different areas of experience and expertise, the readings provide a crucial shared basis of understanding for productive seminar discussion.  

 

Each student should come prepared to discuss each of the readings.  Being able to concisely articulate the topic and thesis of each reading is a good first step.  Being aware of the theoretical framework and methodological approach of each reading helps as well.  Another strategy to help open up discussion of a reading is to try to identify a single question that the article raises for you, and how you might begin to answer that question.  Or you might simply bring to class your vote for the "Most Important Sentence" (MIS) of the article (and why).  

 

Both required and optional readings can be found in PDF format here. 

 

Evaluation

 

Students will be evaluated an the following criteria:

• attendance, preparation, and participation in discussion section: 25%
• weblog reactions to readings and summaries of guest talks: 25%
• individual written project on interdisciplinarity: 40%
• final class workshop integrating interdisciplinarity projects together: 10% (group grade)

 

Weblog

 

Besides this wiki space, we have set up a course weblog for ongoing discussion and news.  You will be invited to the weblog by one of the course instructors. 

 

Each week one student will be assigned to each reading as a discussion leader for that text.  The discussion leader has a special responsibility: Post a concise summary of the reading, and a few leading questions, to our course discussion weblog.  Each discussion leader must post this 24 hours before our section meets, so other students (and faculty) can read and reply to the summary.

 

We will also use the weblog to post critical summaries of each guest lecture.

 

 

Syllabus

 

Part I - The problem of interdisciplinarity

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The first third of class is devoted to the idea of interdisciplinarity. We will read and discuss foundational work as well as contemporary research on interdisciplinarity.  The goal in this portion of the class is not to exhaust the literature on interdisciplinarity (or transdisciplinarity, and multidisciplinarity ...) but to get a general sense of (a) how the idea of interdisciplinarity has been framed through work in several different research traditions (b) what kind of questions keep coming up in projects that claim interdisciplinarity as their method and/or goal.

 

PLEASE NOTE: [red names in brackets] indicate which student is responsible for posting a summary/critique of each article to the weblog before class meets that week.

 

 

Tuesday Jan 19 2010 (week 1 - Kleinman)

The nature of scientific knowledge and scientific disciplines

 

Required readings

(online here)

• Timothy Lenoir.  1993.  “The Discipline of Nature and the Nature of Disciplines.”  Pages 70-102 in Ellen Messer-Davidow, David R. Shumway, and David J. Sylvan (eds.), Knowledges: Historical and Critical Studies in Disciplinarity.  Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
• Robert E. Kohler.  1982.  From Medical Chemistry to Biochemistry: The Making of a Biomedical Discipline.  New York: Cambridge University Press.   “Introduction: On Disciplinary History,” pp. 1-8.
• Schwab, J. J. (1978). Science, Curriculum and Liberal Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (pp 229-274)

For more, see the optional readings.

 

 

Tuesday Jan 26 2010 (week 2 - Hogle)

The problem of interdisciplinarity

 

Required readings

(online here)

•  Jacobs, J.A. and Scott Frickel. 2009. Interdisicplinarity: a Critical Assessment  Ann Rev of Sociology 35:43-65 [Azarin]
• Schmidt, Jan. 2007. Knowledge politics of interdisciplinarity: Specifying the type of interdisciplinarity in the NSF's NBIC scenario. Innovation 20(4):1469-8412 [Bender]
• Gibbons, M, C, Limoges, H Nowotny, S Schwartzman, P Scott & M Trow. 1994. Ch 1 Introduction p1-16 in The New Production of Knowledge: the Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies. Sage Publications [Brakken]

For more, see the optional readings.

 

 

Tuesday Feb 02 2010 (week 3 - Feinstein)

The challenge of collaboration in interdisciplinary research

 

Required readings

(online here)

• Wenger, Etienne. Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems.  Organization 2000; 7; 225 [De Simone]

• Shrum, Wesley, Joel Genuth & Ivan Chompalov . 2007.  Structures of Scientific Collaboration.  MIT Press (EXCERPT) [Doyon]

• Carayol, Nicolas; Thuc Uyen Nguyen Thi. 2005. Why do academic scientists engage in interdisciplinary research? Research Evaluation, Volume 14, Number 1, pp. 70-79. [Lancor]

• Schneiberg, Marc and Elisabeth Clemens 2006. The typical tools for the job: research strategies in institutional analysis.  Sociological Theory 24:3  195-. [Spitzberg]

For more, see the optional readings.

 

 

Tuesday Feb 09 2010 (week 4 - Kleinman)

Professions, Roles and Identity

 

Required readings 

(available for purchase at Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative)

• Abbott, Andrew. (1988). The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Chapter 1 and section 1 (pages 1-113) are required.   The second section of the book, pages 115-214, is also valuable.  [Thomas, White]

Readings mentioned in our discussion

• Pierre Bourdieu, "The specificity of the scientific field and the social conditions of the progress of reason" Social Science Information (1975).

• Thomas Gieryn, Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility On the Line (University of Chicago Press, 1999).

• Richard Whitley, The Intellectual and Social Organization of the Sciences, 2nd ed. (2000).

For more, see the optional readings.

 

 

Tuesday Feb 16 2010 (week 5 - Downey)

Spaces and places for interdisciplinarity

 

Required readings

(online here)

• David Allison, “Places for Research,” International Science and Technology 1:9 (1962), 20-31 (~10 pages).  [Azarin, Bender]
• Peter Galison, "Three Laboratories," Social Research 64:3 (1997).  [Brakken, De Simone]
• Thomas Gieryn, “Biotechnology’s Private Parts (and Some Public Ones),” in Crosbie Smith and Jon Agar, eds., Making Space for Science: Territorial Themes in the Shaping of Knowledge  (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1998), 281–312 (~30 pages).  [Doyon, Lancor]
• Robert Venturi, "Thoughts on the architecture of the scientific workplace: Community, change, and continuity,"  in Peter Galison and Emily Thompson, ed., The Architecture of Science (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999), 385-398.  [Spitzberg]
• Stuart Leslie, “‘A Different Kind of Beauty’: Scientific and Architectural Style in I.M. Pei’s Mesa Laboratory and Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 38:1 (Spring 2008), 173-221 (~50 pages). [Thomas, White]

For more, see the optional readings.

 

 

 

 

Part II - Interdisciplinarity cases and issues in depth

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The second third of the class will be devoted to particulare case studies and issues of interdisciplinarity.  We will hear talks and hold discussions with a handful of experts in university reasearch, to try to understand how they define, value, and measure the evolving practice of interdisciplinarity in the modern research university.

 

ASSIGNMENT:  By now you should also have decided on a project focus for your final paper and contribution to the group conference presentation.  In other words, you should have a sense of what aspect of interdisciplinarity at UW  -- a particular case or project?    a particular issue or problematic?    a particular body of empirical data to explore?  -- will guide your final project.  Please prepare a two-page double-spaced (500-word) project proposal and post it to the course weblog by the beginning of this part of the course (by Tues Feb 23).

 

The following readings may help you hone your project focus:

 

• Porter, AL, Roessner, JD, Cohen, AS and Perreault, M. 2006. Interdisciplinary research: meaning, metrics and nurture. Research Evaluation, 15(3): 187-195.

 

PLEASE NOTE: [red names in brackets] indicate which student is responsible for taking notes on the talk and posting a summary to the weblog after class meets that week.

 

 

Tues Feb 23 2010 (week 6 - Hogle)

Guest Speaker:  Diana Rhoten

Special location: Nafziger Room, 5th floor, Vilas Hall

 

Diana Rhoten is director of the Knowledge Institutions program and the Digital Media and Learning project at the Social Science Research Council. With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, Rhoten is leading the Learning Networks project in New York City, which uses a design-driven methodology to help institutions develop collaborative and interactive ways of crafting digital media and learning activities.  In addition to her role at the Council, Rhoten also spent the last two years as the founding program director of the Virtual Organizations and the CyberLearning programs in the Office of Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science Foundation.

[Azarin, Bender]

 

The following readings connect well to Rhoten's talk (online here):

 

• Diana Rhoten, Erin O'Connor and Edward J. Hackett, "The Act of Collaborative Creation and the Art of Integrative Creativity: Originality, Disciplinarity and Interdisciplinarity," Thesis Eleven 96:1 (2009), 83-108.

• Diana Rhoten, "Interdisciplinary research: Trend or transition," Social Science Research Council Items & Issues (Spring 2004).

 

Please note:  Rhoten will meet with our class from 2:00-3:30 first, and then she will present a public talk from 4:00 to 5:00.  Both events will occur in the Nafziger Room, 5th floor, Vilas Hall.  

 

 

Tues Mar 02 2010 (week 7 - Feinstein)

Guest speaker: Peyton Smith

 

Peyton Smith is Assistant Vice Chancellor for Extended Programs, Office of the Provost, University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The Wisconsin Idea guides Peyton Smith's work duties -- to enhance the university's outreach function and visibility, and foster the development of continuing education and outreach programs and services. Peyton also provides support for the Cluster Hiring Initiative, works with the campus on University Relations efforts, and works with student organizations and groups on late night alternative programming initiatives.  Peyton draws on extensive campus expertise. His previous university experience includes director of marketing for University Communications, sesquicentennial coordinator for the Chancellor's Office, director of program information for the Division of Continuing Studies and the Office of Outreach Development, assistant director for University News and Public Affairs Office, and communications subprogram coordinator for the UW Sea Grant Institute. Peyton has worked for UW-Madison since January 1974 and has served on many national committees and review panels. He joined the Provost's Office in July 2000 as assistant vice chancellor for extended programs.

[Brakken, De Simone]

 

The following resources connect well to Smith's talk:

• The cluster hire web site 
• "Report of the Cluster/Interdisciplinary Advisory Committee to Evaluate the Cluster Hiring Initiative July 2008"
• "Report of the Provost’s Ad Hoc Advisory Committee to Evaluate the Cluster Hiring Initiative, University of Wisconsin-Madison, November 11, 2003"

 

 

Tues Mar 09 2010 (week 8 - Downey)

Guest speaker:  Tracey Holloway

 

Tracey Holloway is the Director of the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), a cross-disciplinary research center based in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.   She is also the associate director of the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative.  Holloway's research examines air pollution chemistry and transport at regional and global scales, including links between air quality and climate, energy, land use, health, and public policy.

[Doyon, Lancor]

 

The following resources connect well to Holloway's talk:

• Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment
• The Energy Institute of the University of Wisconsin
• Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
• The Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative
• The Wisconsin Energy Institute (the building)

 

 

Tues Mar 16 2010 (week 9 - Kleinman)

Guest speakers:  John Wiley and Sangtae "Sang" Kim

 

Outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley has been named the new interim director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID), the public half of the new research center that promises to be a model of interdisciplinary science and public-private collaboration.  Wiley's appointment, effective Nov. 1, 2008, was announced by UW-Madison Graduate School Dean Martin Cadwallader.  In addition to the 25 percent appointment as interim WID director, Wiley will apply his considerable knowledge and experience in higher education as a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA) and at the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs. In addition, he will have a zero-dollar appointment as senior scholar at The Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Post-secondary Education (WISCAPE).

 

Sangtae “Sang” Kim was appointed executive director of the new, private not-for-profit Morgridge Institute for Research in September 2008.  In this position, he is building a world-class interdisciplinary biomedical research organization from the ground up. Located on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, it is intended to become the Midwest’s premier, private medical research institute.  Prior to his appointment at the Morgridge Institute, he was the Donald W. Feddersen Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University.  His past work experience includes serving the National Science Foundation as director of the division of shared cyberinfrastructure, as well as six years of executive industry experience gained at Lilly Research Laboratories, Pfizer Global Research and Development and Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research.

[Spitzberg, Thomas]

 

The following readings are required prior to this talk (online here):

• Galison, P. 1999. Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapters 1, 9

 

 

Tues Mar 23 2010 (week 10 - Hogle)

Guest speaker:  Laura Heisler

 

Laura Heisler is Director of Programming, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.  Heisler received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UW-Madison and has 10 years experience working as a researcher and scientific writer in the biotechnology industry.  She currently directs WARF's Strategic Technology Enhancement Program to accelerate technology transfer in key areas.  She also develops, implements and manages programs for the Town Center of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.

[White]

 

 

Tues Mar 30 2010 (week 11)

NO CLASS FOR SPRING BREAK 

 

 

Part III - Interdisciplinarity case studies

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POTENTIAL  PROJECT TOPICS  Cluster hires Wisconsin Energy Institute / WBI / GLBRC Center for Research on the Humanities What is Human initiative The Holtz Center (heh) The Nelson Institute The proposed Environmental Studies major The Waizman Center Nanoscale Center "Collisions" dinners

This last third of class will be devoted to project work: interdisciplinary collaboration around interdisciplinary topics. For each of the first three or four weeks (depending on the number of groups) one of the project groups will bring in and present rich or troublesome data from their ongoing research project. The first hour of class will be devoted to discussion of these data, and of related issues arising in other projects. The second hour will be devoted to discussion of readings chosen by course faculty in response to emerging conceptual and methodological challenges in project work.

 

PLEASE NOTE: [red names in brackets] indicate which students will be responsible for showcasing their work and posting a thorny question they are facing in their papers to the weblog before class meets that week.

 

Tues Apr 06 2010 (week 12 - Feinstein)

Workshop - research challenges

[Bender, De Simone]

 

The following readings may help as you begin to collect primary data (online here):

• Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig, "Collecting history online" in Digital history: A guide to gathering, preserving, and presenting the past on the web (2006).
• Robert M. Emerson et al., "Writing up fieldnotes I: From field to desk" and "Processing fieldnotes: Coding and memoing" in Writing ethnographic fieldnotes (1995).
• Rob Kitchin et al., "Producing data for qualitative analysis" in Conducting research in human geography: Theory, methodology, and practice (2000).
• Carol A.B. Warren, "Qualitative interviewing" in Jaber F. Gubrium et al., Handbook of interview research (2002).

 

Tues Apr 13 2010 (week 13 - Downey)

Workshop - research challenges

[Lancor, Spitzberg]

READINGS TBA

 

 

Tues Apr 20 2010 (week 14 - Kleinman)

Workshop - research challenges

[Thomas, White]  

READINGS TBA

 

Tues Apr 27 2010 (week 15 - Feinstein)

Making connections between studies

[all]

FACULTY WILL NOT ATTEND THIS SESSION; THIS IS YOUR "CHARETTE"

 

You might want to think back to our meeting with Rhoten and consider this class session your "research charette" opportunity.

 

Tues May 04 2010 (week 16 - Hogle)

Group presentations "mini conference"

[all]

 

 

 

 

Fun

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