How to do interdisciplinarity

Abstract: This essay comments on Stuart Henry’s important contribution to our thinking about the administration of interdisciplinary programs. Though I quibble with a few of the arguments he makes in the last volume of Issues, I focus my remarks on adding to Henry’s suggested strategies for defending interdisciplinarity. I conclude with brief observations on the question of academic appointments and on teaching and learning. Stuart Henry has performed a valuable service to the interdisciplinary mission by clearly articulating the dangers faced by interdisciplinary programs. He is entirely correct in suggesting that we not be lulled into complacency by the fact that our enrollments are increasing in both absolute and relative terms. Interdisciplinary programs are particularly vulnerable in times of budgetary stringency. While the attendance and comments at our roundtable at the national 2005 AIS/AGLS conference suggest that his concerns resonate widely, I likely have a more Pollyannish outlook on the future than Henry. I also quibble with a few elements of Henry’s argument. I think we have to be exceedingly careful with respect to arguments that interdisciplinar