Interdisciplinary Education at Wayne State University
Interdisciplinarity is one of the most frequently cited imperatives for curricular change. Comparable to interdisciplinary research, this trend is evident across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. There are many reasons. Over the course of the twentieth century, the emergence of new interdisciplinary fields led to new academic programs. The landscape of higher education expanded to include a diverse array of fields, including American, women’s, ethnic, and cultural studies as well as urban, environmental, international, area, and science, technology and society studies. Neuroscience, molecular biology, and materials science also spawned new academic programs, in addition to gerontology, criminology, information sciences, and media studies.
Educational reform has been a catalyst for additional forms of interdisciplinary study, from degree granting programs and cluster colleges in the tradition of liberal studies to theme-based approaches and integrated cores in general education. A host other curricular reforms have expanded the profile of interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning, prominent among them heightened problem-focus across the curriculum, learning communities, first-year and capstone seminars, clustered and linked courses, and innovative pedagogies that foster collaboration, community, and connection-making. Within the disciplines, incorporation of interdisciplinary new scholarship is reinvigorating the major, and complex problems of practice in law, medicine and health sciences, social work, and business have fostered new approaches to professional education.
In the coming academic year, the Interdisciplinary Education link on this site will expand to include examples of interdisciplinary study and resources at undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels.