Interdisciplinary Fields

The last chapter in Part I examines the boundary work of major communities of practices classified as fields and interdisciplines. New fields arise, Richard McKeon argued, because subject matters are not ready made to respond to all questions, problems, and issues that arise. He called interdisciplinarity an architectonic art of creating new forms and outcomes. The question of where they fit, however, persists. Lynton Caldwell argued the metaphor of fit prejudges the epistemological question at stake. Many fields arose because of a perceived misfit of needs, experiences, information, and structures of disciplinary organization. This chapter identifies patterns and contingencies of specific fields. It begins by describing catalysts, then draws insights from interdisciplinary majors and taxonomies of research and education. It next compares trajectories and outcomes of individual cases. The following sections illustrate trajectories of change and identities, then draws insights from women’s studies and intersectionality. The chapter closes by asking whether there is a distinctive interdisciplinary logic.