Linköping University was founded around the 1970s as a flagship for ideas about interdisciplinary knowledge formation, often in the face of strong headwinds. Today, keywords such as "cross-border" and "unbiased" are common in academic discussions, publications and in talk about research funding. While "interdisciplinarity" may sound obvious, talk of interdisciplinarity and integrative learning can be perceived as disarmingly fresh. Interest in interdisciplinary research and learning in education, research, policy work, and professions varies over time and is influenced by both internal and external factors. Awareness of global problems in education, energy, health, environment, security and technological development today leads to a renewed interest in interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary thinking.
Course content
This course offers a critical introduction to the history, philosophy, sociology and practice of interdisciplinary studies. Interdisciplinarity is considered in historical contexts and in relation to traditional academic disciplines. We discuss how disciplinary norms and epistemic models organize academic research, and to what extent and how are they challenged by interdisciplinary approaches.
The course also addresses ontological assumptions upon which different interdisciplinary traditions rest and that they project, and examines interdisciplinarity as a particular type of cognition. We focus on interdisciplinary interpretations of truth and objectivity, address issues of communicative rationality and social studies of science and technology.
The course proceeds to compare different kinds and forms of interdisciplinary research, its relational dynamics, and methodological premises. We critically analyze differences in interdisciplinary collaborations between the humanities, social sciences, hard and natural sciences, etc.
The course also tackles the relations between interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, postdisciplinarity and antidisciplinarity both within and outside the Western-centric knowledge production paradigm.
Finally, we touch upon the research policy milieus for interdisciplinary studies and possible career paths for interdisciplinary researchers.
Practical information
The course comprises 7.5 credits and is given within the framework of the doctoral programme in Educational Work, Linköping University, Campus Norrköping. It is carried out at half-speed, and is only given if there are enough participants. The course leader is Associate Professor Lars Wallner, IBL. The course is open to doctoral students from all universities and colleges – but please note that the course is given on site in Norrköping. We welcome applications from all subjects, themes and graduate schools. For information, contact Lars Wallner. Welcome with questions about the course or your registration!
