Evaluation, Identity, and Interdisciplinarity: How Tenure Review Creates Rebels, Heroes, and Reformers

• In Event: 540 - Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Evaluation and Science

Abstract

Scholars have long studied the influence of organizations, disciplinary boundaries, and traditional work methods on the spread of and participation in interdisciplinary research. In this study, we take a different tack and explore the social and evaluative landscapes of the academy, showing how they may encourage (and inhibit) interdisciplinary research. We argue that the evaluative framework of the tenure review directly shapes the scholarly identities of untenured interdisciplinary faculty. In each of the three main cultures of academia (social sciences, STEM fields, and the humanities), we see junior faculty developing a particular identity story that situates their work and interprets their career paths in the larger context of their discipline and others like it. We infer the encouragement or inhibition of interdisciplinary research that may be happening as a result of these narratives.

Authors

• Eliza Evans, Stanford University

• Elina Mäkinen, Stanford University