Questioning Transdisciplinarity in the Contemporary Research University

• In Event: STS and Universities - II

Abstract

This talk questions the value of transdisciplinarity as an ideal in American higher education, and articulates the concerns – for administrators, researchers, and STS scholars – inherent in efforts to institutionalize transdisciplinarity. Proponents argue that transdisciplinary knowledge-making has the potential to transform universities, making them more innovative, more responsive to society’s needs, and better able to prepare students for successful and affirming careers. However, practitioners often struggle to belong, to define the goals and value of their research, and to receive credit. This I argue is due to a central dilemma—institutionalizing transdisciplinarity is fraught with challenges because the “transdisciplinary” ideal is an inherently contradictory set of ideas and motivations. I explore the origins and consequences of this dilemma by analyzing a case of transdisciplinarity known as SEAD (Science, Engineering, Art, and Design), in which I participated as an ethnographic observer, educator, and collaborator. I show how SEAD developed associations with aesthetics, creativity, problem-solving, economic development, and land-grant values that made it a catch-all solution for issues faced by American universities. I then demonstrate how attempts to institutionalize these contrasting visions result in tensions. Are SEAD institutions primarily places for creative exploration, or economic drivers? Can practitioners balance their desire to exist outside of disciplines with their need for professional structures? What happens when the imperative to measure and quantify conflicts with researchers’ actual work? Ultimately, I argue that the inevitable persistence of these tensions leaves practitioners in a perpetual state of striving to belong and institutions continually seeking to (re-)define themselves.

Author

• Kari Zacharias, Concordia University