Crossing the Disciplinary Boundary: Pedagogical Conjunctions in the Humanities and the Sciences

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Campbell ◽  
Jungah Kim ◽  
Neal Bruss
Keyword(s):  
Disciplinary Boundary

Concerning curatorial practice in ethnological museums: an epistemology of postcolonial debates

Curatopia ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Larissa Förster ◽  
Friedrich von Bose
Keyword(s):  
German Journal ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
Disciplinary Boundary ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Ethnographic Museums ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
The Face

Based on our experience as editors of a debate on ethnographic museums in a German journal, we analyse the conditions and limits of the current debate on the ‘decolonisation’ of ethnographic museums in the German-speaking context. Strictly speaking, the German debate lags behind a bit in relation to the Anglophone debate, but in the face of the re-organisation of the Berlin ethnographic museum as ‘Humboldt-Forum’ it provides crucial insights into the epistemology of unfolding postcolonial debates. We diagnose certain pitfalls of this discussion, e.g. a tendency towards antagonisms and dichotomisation, an overemphasis on the topic of representation and on deconstructionist approaches, an underestimation of anthropology’s critical and self-reflexive potential and too narrow a focus on ethnographic collections. From our point of view, decolonisation must be a joint effort of all kinds of museum types - ethnographic museums, art museums and (natural) history museums as well as city museums, a museum genre being discussed with increased intensity these days. As a consequence, we suggest a more thorough reflection upon the positionality of speakers, but also upon the format, genre and media that facilitate or impede mutual understanding. Secondly, a multi-disciplinary effort to decolonise museum modes of collecting, ordering, interpreting and displaying is needed, i.e. an effort, which cross-cuts different museum types and genres. Thirdly, curators working towards this direction will inevitably have to deal with the problems of disciplinary boundary work and the underlying institutional and cultural-political logics. They eventually will have to work in cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional ways, in order to reassemble disparate collections and critically interrogate notions of ‘communities’ as entities with clear-cut boundaries. After all, in an environment of debate, an exhibition cannot any longer be understood as a means of conveying and popularising knowledge, but rather as a way of making an argument in 3D.

First International Congress of Africanists

1963 ◽  
Vol 6 (01) ◽  
pp. 38-42
Keyword(s):  
Coming Of Age ◽  
International Congress ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Disciplinary Boundary ◽  
Preliminary Planning ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana ◽  
African Intellectuals ◽  
Boundary Lines

After more than two years of preliminary planning, the First International Congress of Africanists convened at the University of Ghana, Legon, on December 11, 1962. More than 600 scholars and observers attended the sessions, and both the size of the Congress and its organizational problems make an adequate report difficult. This brief summary by the editor of the Bulletin has been compiled with the assistance of other ASA members present in Accra; it attempts to convey a sense of the conference atmosphere as well as record its formal sessions. The proceedings of the Conference will be published by UNESCO. The conference opened with an address by President Nkrumah in which he stressed the importance of African studies in revitalizing Africa's cultural heritage, and in developing a sense of nationality and Africanness. He considered in detail the development of African studies as a serious academic study, the coming of age of African intellectuals, and the necessity of utilizing a subject such as sociology in planning for an African future, contrasting this with anthropology which he felt had little to offer modern Africa. His speech helped to establish a tone for the conference; in addition to academic matters strictly defined the conference participants found themselves concerned with such questions as the role of African and non-African Africanists, differing viewpoints of English and French speakers, and geographic and disciplinary boundary lines. Perhaps naturally at a first international conference, there were many preliminary problems to sort out before serious scholarly discussion could take place.

scholarly journals Sacred (re)Collections

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Torsten Janson ◽  
Neşe Kınıkoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Symbolic Politics ◽  
Disciplinary Boundary

Abstract This article discusses how state-organized, memory-cultural production drawing on religious signifiers contributes to a sacralization of Turkish public memory institutions and public space. This reinforces an Islamic-nationalist imagination of contemporary Turkey. The article explores state-led, disciplinary interventions in museal space (the Sacred Trusts exhibition of relics at Topkapı Palace Museum) and commemorative ritual in public space, display and education (the rise, fall and recalibration of Holy Birth Week (Kutlu Doğum Haftası). Drawing on theories of symbolic politics, nationalism, memory and space, the article elucidates the sacralization of Turkish memory production as a contesting yet malleable negotiation of nationalism. Innovative Islamic memory practice and ritualization requires careful discursive and disciplinary boundary drawing, catering to theological sensitivities and Sunni-orthodox mores. Then again, the spatial boundaries between various memory-cultural domains are becoming less distinct. Today, Islamic-nationalist imaginaries surface in the interstices of public memory institutions, public education and everyday public space.

scholarly journals THE EMERGENCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL ECONOMICS: AT THE CONTESTED BOUNDARIES OF ECONOMICS, GEOGRAPHY AND REGIONAL SCIENCE

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmeen Rahman ◽  
Robert Dimand
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Monopolistic Competition ◽  
Location Theory ◽  
Regional Science ◽  
Trade Theory ◽  
Disciplinary Boundary ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Boundary Making ◽  
The 1960S

We explore disciplinary boundary-making in geographical economics or “the new economic geography” with attention to the approaches taken by, and attempts at communication between, scholars with primary affiliations in economics, geography and regional science. The Dixit-Stiglitz general equilibrium approach to monopolistic competition and increasing returns was applied to agglomeration and location by Paul Krugman, who had previously pioneered the “new trade theory” building on the Dixit-Stiglitz model, and, independently and slightly earlier, by Masahisa Fujita and his student Heshem Abdel-Rahman starting from regional science, a tradition with its own departments, doctorates, conferences and journals distinct from economics and geography. Economic geography, as studied by geographers, had already taken a quantitative and theoretical turn in the 1960s, reviving an earlier tradition of German location theory overshadowed within geography after World War II by areal differentiation. Another strand of economic geography pursued by geographers was influenced by economic theory, but by non-neoclassical Marxian and Sraffian economics. Debates between these scholars raised questions whether these analyses were multidisciplinary, drawing on distinct disciplines, or crossed disciplinary boundaries (as when geographical economics in the style of economists is undertaken in geography departments) or transcends disciplinary boundaries, or involved the emergence of a new discipline.

scholarly journals Synoptic Vision: Metatheory, Conceptualisation, and Critical Realism

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Frauley
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Disciplinary Boundary ◽  
Boundary Maintenance

This paper takes recent sociological debate about “transdisciplinarity” (Carroll 2012; Puddephatt and McLaughlin 2015; Mišina 2015) as a springboard for elaborating on the sociological relevance of meta-theoretical engagement, particularly with critical realism. Sociologists need to more forcefully acknowledge the importance of engaging with metatheory if they are to think more productively and creatively about how the philosophical assumptions that have shaped the production of theories, research design, research practice, and the organisation of our field facilitate and delimit the production of insights about the multifaceted nature of sociological objects and practice. As meta-theorising promotes the neglected procedure of conceptualisation (as opposed to operationalisation) and because it is transdisciplinary (promoting the shedding of disciplinary boundary maintenance while remaining rigorous and methodical), it should be routinely engaged by social scientists to yield conceptual synthesis and fuller, more adequate forms of explanation of their particular objects of investigation.

scholarly journals Student Learning and Conference Design: The Case of Interdisciplinary / Multidisciplinary Woolf

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Martin ◽  
Kathryn Holland ◽  
Taylor Witiw
Keyword(s):  
Nous Avons ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Disciplinary Boundary ◽  
Boundary Crossings ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Premier Cycle ◽  
Scholarly Teaching ◽  
Modernist Studies ◽  
Humanities Students

Academic conferences are events geared to disciplinary specialization, and much of the SoTL literature regarding scholarly gatherings addresses their benefits for graduate student apprenticeship. In our organization of the 22nd Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, we explored other forms of pedagogy to augment an academic professionalization approach. In particular, we created opportunities for cross-disciplinary teaching and learning, which have particular potential for Humanities students who may end up applying their discipline-specific training in non-academic contexts and in unexpected ways. This paper explores the possibilities and limitations of the cross-disciplinary initiatives that we developed for Interdisciplinary / Multidisciplinary Woolf. Inspired by the interdisciplinarity of the early 20th century British author Virginia Woolf and the current critical movement known as the New Modernist Studies, we outline the theories behind our approach to conference pedagogy and reflect upon our intentions and methods. We also assess learning outcomes in relation to both apprenticeship and non-traditional models of conference-based instructional design, and consider the institutional structures and practices that both enable and limit the scope of cross-disciplinary research and its dissemination at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels. By moving away from the field of literary studies and sharing our scholarly teaching perspective in the context of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, we attempt to put into motion the potentially transformative disciplinary boundary-crossings that motivated the 2012 Woolf Conference. Les colloques universitaires sont des événements axés sur la spécialisation des disciplines et une grande partie des publications en ACEA concernant les rencontres savantes traitent de leurs avantages pour l’apprentissage des étudiants de cycles supérieurs. Lors de la préparation de notre XXe Colloque international annuel sur Virginia Woolf, nous avons exploré d’autres formes de pédagogie afin d’élargir l’approche de professionnalisation académique. En particulier, nous avons créé des opportunités d’enseignement et d’apprentissage pluridisciplinaire qui présentent un potentiel particulier pour les étudiants des humanités qui vont peut-être finir par mettre en application leur formation spécifique à leur discipline à des contextes non-académiques et de manières inattendues. Cet article explore les possibilités et les limites des initiatives pluridisciplinaires que nous avons développées pour notre colloque intitulé Woolf Interdisciplinaire / Pluridisciplinaire. Inspirés par l’interdisciplinarité de l’auteure britannique du début du XXe siècle, Virginia Woolf, et par le mouvement critique actuel qu’on appelle Études du nouveau modernisme, nous présentons les théories sous-jacentes à notre approche de la pédagogie des colloques et proposons une réflexion sur nos intentions et nos méthodes. Nous évaluons également les résultats d’apprentissage par rapport à l’apprentissage lui-même et par rapport aux modèles non traditionnels de conception de l’enseignement basé sur les cours magistraux et prenons en considération les structures et les pratiques institutionnelles qui favorisent mais qui limitent également l’étendue de la recherche pluridisciplinaire et sa diffusion aux niveaux du premier cycle, des cycles supérieurs et des professeurs. En nous éloignant du domaine des études littéraires et en partageant notre perspective d’enseignement intellectuel dans le contexte de l’Avancement des connaissances en enseignement et en apprentissage, nous tentons de mettre en mouvement les possibilités de franchissement des limites disciplinaires transformateur qui ont motivé le colloque sur Virginia Woolf de 2012.

scholarly journals How Behavioural Economics Relates to Psychology - Some Bibliographic Evidence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Braesemann
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Behavioural Economics ◽  
Academic Background ◽  
Disciplinary Boundary ◽  
The Core ◽  
Bibliographic Data ◽  
Statistical Results

Whether behavioural economics has a fundamental influence on economics is debated by behavioural and heterodox economists as well as by methodologists and historians of economics. At the core of this debate is the question whether behavioural economics is shaped by large-scale content imports from psychology, or whether these transfers have been too selective to challenge dominant approaches in economics. This study contributes to the debate in analysing a variety of bibliographic data from the disciplinary boundary between economics and psychology. Two datasets from the boundary of behavioural economics and psychology are compared to sets of economic and psychology publications in quantifying the use of mathematics, the share of empirical contributions, the authors’ academic background, and their cross-citations via network analysis. In contrast to proposals made by some methodologists and behavioural economists, the statistical results confirm content transfers from psychology via behavioural economics only to a limited extend. The observed level of interaction provides evidence for a selective import of specific psychological findings by a small number of established investigators in behavioural economics. These findings were then intensively debated as divergences from rationality within the growing, but econ-centered community of behavioural economists.

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