Interdisciplinary Quotes

I started out as a physicist; however, I am what I have become. I have evolved, with the help of many colleagues in the international scientific community, into an interdisciplinary scientist. ~ Alan J. Heeger

A large majority of our respondents were inspired by a tension in their domain that became obvious when looked at from the perspective of another domain. Even though they do not think of themselves as interdisciplinary, their best work bridges realms of ideas. Their histories tend to cast doubt on the wisdom of overspecialization, where bright young people are trained to become exclusive experts in one field and shun breadth like the plague. ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I often notice how students can gain the capacity to use certain critical methodologies through engaging with very different texts - how a graphic novel about gentrification and an anthology about Hurricane Katrina and a journalistic account of war profiteering might all lead to very similar classroom conversations and critical engagement. I'm particularly interested in this when teaching law students who often resist reading interdisciplinary materials or materials they interpret as too theoretical. ~ Dean Spade

for instance, the theories and practices of art and photography with anthropological theory and practice (e.g. Edwards 1997a; da Silva and Pink 2004; Grimshaw and Ravetz 2004; Schneider and Wright 2005). The interdisciplinary focus in visual methods has also been represented in Theo van Leeuwen and Carey Jewitt's Handbook of Social Research (2000) and Chris Pole's Seeing is Believing (2004) both of which combine case studies in visual research from across disciplines. The idea that visual research as a field of interdisciplinary practice is also central to Advances in Visual Methodology (Pink 2012a) and is demonstrated by the work of the volume's contributors, as well as by the recent SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods (Margolis and Pauwels 2011). Likewise the interdisciplinary journal Visual Studies (formerly Visual Sociology) provides an excellent series of examples of visual research, practice, theory and methodology. ~ Sarah Pink

I had a good experience in college, but I don't think interdisciplinary education is something that's stressed very much at all. It's generally considered to be something of a bad idea. ~ Peter Thiel

Well, I am a dilettante. It's only in England that dilettantism is considered a bad thing. In other countries it's called interdisciplinary research. ~ Brian Eno

Language of the Gun shows why Bernard Harcourt has earned a reputation as one of our most provocative and informative analysts of the administration of criminal justice. Thoroughly interdisciplinary, he brings to bear on his subject a remarkably wide range of sources. Most striking are his probing interviews with at-risk youths which provide a fascinating and rare glimpse into how they think about guns and gun carrying. This book bristles with insight and information. ~ Randall Kennedy

In the computer industry, you've got an interdisciplinary team of people who can come together, attack the problem, and work in a collaborative style. You knock down one problem after another, cobble things together, and then hopefully turn the crank at some point. ~ Paul Allen

so also Biblical scholars find themselves in alien territory when they move into the astronomical aspects of the task. What is needed, then, is interdisciplinary work and cooperation between the astronomical and theological communities. ~ Colin R. Nicholl

This world is of a single piece; yet, we invent nets to trap it for our inspection. Then we mistake our nets for the reality of the piece. In these nets we catch the fishes of the intellect but the sea of wholeness forever eludes our grasp. So, we forget our original intent and then mistake the nets for the sea.

Three of these nets we have named Nature, Mathematics, and Art. We conclude they are different because we call them by different names. Thus, they are apt to remain forever separated with nothing bonding them together. It is not the nets that are at fault but rather our misunderstanding of their function as nets. They do catch the fishes but never the sea, and it is the sea that we ultimately desire. ~ Martha Boles

School systems should base their curriculum not on the idea of separate subjects, but on the much more fertile idea of disciplines ... which makes possible a fluid and dynamic curriculum that is interdisciplinary. ~ Ken Robinson

Interdisciplinary Studies University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa ~ Anonymous

I take a lean-startup approach: creating agile, interdisciplinary teams that get the minimum viable product to market as soon as possible. It's my job to be entrepreneur-in-residence, an internal change agent. ~ Todd Park

Breakthrough innovation occurs when we bring down boundaries and encourage disciplines to learn from each other ~ Gyan Nagpal

I went to a school in N.Y. that is conceptual and interdisciplinary and modeled after Cal Arts. It is not just painting or sculpture; it was everything mixed together. ~ Thomas McDonell

Founded when Abraham Lincoln believed education could lead the nation out of its darkest days, Ohio State now provides a powerful platform of interdisciplinary academic programs, world-class scholars, outstanding students, and extensive research capabilities. ~ Gordon Gee

An outlier does not lack knowledge but has the interdisciplinary understanding to see things differently. ~ Pearl Zhu

I am enormously pleased to become a part of the Harvard community once again. I look forward to working with the students and faculty members at the Law School and in the History Department, and to experiencing the rich interdisciplinary environment at the Radcliffe Institute. ~ Annette Gordon-Reed

The beauty of interdisciplinary conversation is that the mode of expression is essentially different for each practitioner, even if ideas are shared. ~ Sarah Hall

Medical Device technology is truly interdisciplinary. ~ Chris Toumazou

The science of semiconducting and metallic polymers is inherently interdisciplinary; it falls at the intersection of chemistry and physics. ~ Alan J. Heeger

With their four-dimensional minds, and in their interdisciplinary ultra verbal way, geologists can wiggle out of almost anything. ~ John McPhee

The main insight learned from interdisciplinary studies is the return to specialization ~ George Stigler

In 1986, I was asked by the then-Dean of Science at the University of British Columbia, Dr. R.C. Miller, Jr., to establish a new interdisciplinary institute, the Biotechnology Laboratory. I decided that it was time for me to start paying back for the thirty years of fun that I had been able to have in research. ~ Michael Smith

Knowledge does not result from receipt of information transmitted by someone else without the learner undergoing an internal process of sense making. Piaget also called for interdisciplinary learning ~ Sylvia Libow Martinez