In the last decade or so, many research universities, government agencies, and private foundations have issued clarion calls for more interdisciplinary research and teaching. The reason for all of this activity is that cross-disciplinary work improves our collective ability to solve real-world problems, which usually don’t respect disciplinary boundaries, and enhances scholars’ and researchers’ creativity by exposing them to different ways of thinking and new information. Efforts to foster cross-disciplinary research within science has led to a considerable literature on “team science,” but there is little work on fostering interdisciplinary efforts between scientists and scholars in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.
Discussions between scientists and non-scientists are even more difficult than conversations within science. After attending interdisciplinary seminars where disciplines were quite diverse, I interviewed a sample of the faculty in attendance and concluded that cross-disciplinary conversations are particularly challenging for academics. The different disciplinary habits of mind cultivated ...
