How do you define interdisciplinary education?
Research that involves perspectives, theories, or methods from different disciplines.
In interdisciplinary work, it can depend on how tightly linked the disciplines are - what is an entire field of research for one can be a parameter in the model.
How do you describe your teaching “field?” (as in research field)
As an ecohydrologist I get to combine hydrology and ecology and even ecosystem ecology.
And that’s also an example of multidisciplinary, where you could use an ecologic model & hydrologic model separately.
But in being interdisciplinary you could use a coupled ecohydrologic model.
In the Seri fire group, working closely with economists and political scientists and artists, - talking to each other and trying to understand - how do they think about it? How do they formulate questions?
What creates a successful interdisciplinary education experience?
It takes time and conversation to do that - asking questions and trying to understand the other’s frame of mind.
The hard part isn’t knowing the other field, it’s knowing your own field. Then you need exposure to other disciplines, but not becoming experts. Our PhD students - most of them have depth in some sort of area. Some of our students get jobs in economic departments. They get jobs in hydrology departments, or ecology departments.
It’s because all along the way, you are around people who have expertise in disciplines that are different from your own.
But I think it’s the informal ways that count the most. It’s going to the PhD coffee hour, It’s going camping. It’s just being around. Its being an advisor on a MESM project. It’s going to hear talks every once in a while that are from outside your discipline. And informal opportunities for articulating that [your discipline] is such a critical skill because all interdisciplinary research starts from understanding what other people do at a really high sophisticated PhD level.
