Creating Interdisciplinary Campus Cultures: A Model for Strength and Sustainability »

Julie Thompson Klein is a professor of humanities in English and interdisciplinary studies at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She is past president of the Association for Integrative Studies (AIS) and former editor of the AIS journal, Issues in Integrative Studies. Klein consults widely both nationally and internationally and is the author and editor of many books, including Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice; Crossing Boundaries; and Humanities, Culture, and Interdisciplinarity. She is also associate editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on Interdisciplinarity.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Founded in 1915 by college presidents, AAC&U now represents the entire spectrum of American colleges and universities—large and small, public and private, two-year and four-year. AAC&U comprises more than 1,200 accredited colleges and universities that collectively educate more than seven million students every year.

Creating Interdisciplinary Campus Cultures

"Interdisciplinarity" has become a mantra for change in higher education and is embodied in a rich variety of forms and practices that challenge how we think about knowledge, research, and education. Yet, despite widespread desire for change on campuses, proponents are often uncertain about how to go about planning, implementing, and sustaining interdisciplinary programs and projects.

Creating Interdisciplinary Campus Cultures offers administrators, faculty, and planning groups a primer for interdisciplinary change with a portfolio of practical, concrete strategies for actualizing this change. These proven techniques are anchored in a conceptual framework that unites insights from organizational theory, higher education studies, and the literature on interdisciplinarity.

Creating campus cultures that enable rather than impede interdisciplinary work and thought requires a systematic approach to identifying current activities and interests, leveraging existing resources, benchmarking best practices, building capacity and critical mass, targeting strategic initiatives alongside generally loosening barriers, and creating a platform for higher levels of strength and sustainability. Topics also include criteria of program review, the interdisciplinary career lifecycle, and endowment building. These strategies are not meant as one-size-fits-all prescriptions for every campus or as universal formulas or sets of rules, but rather provide informed awareness of nationwide developments and lessons of theory and practice that will improve local decision making and implementation.

Sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Creating Interdisciplinary Campus Cultures is an essential resource aimed at developing and maintaining institutional support for interdisciplinary work and giving campuses the tools needed to ensure that their work is successful and sustainable.

The Author.

Foreword.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction: A Model for Interdisciplinary Change.

1 Mapping National Drivers of Interdisciplinary Change.

2 Bridging National and Local Maps.

3 Platforming Interdisciplinarity.

4 Fostering Programmatic Strength and Sustainability.

5 Monitoring the Interdisciplinary Career Life Cycle.

Conclusion: Countering Myths and Situating Practices.

Resources.

Glossary for a Core Vocabulary.

References.

Index.