[game_edu] Building an Interdisciplinary Identity in a (Mostly) Non-Interdisciplinary Academic World

[Susan Gold]

I saw this article (Chronicle, April 1, 2010) earlier this year and  
after pondering it for awhile, thought I would share it with everyone.  
Yes, Games are in a very wierd intersection of disciplines, but that  
is what makes us so special. We should not be afraid because we are  
unconventional in academia.

All my best
Susan

Building an Interdisciplinary Identity in a (Mostly) Non- 
Interdisciplinary Academic World
By Ethan Watrall
Hi there, my name is Ethan and I’m an archaeologist.  Well…maybe not  
exactly. I haven’t run an excavation in years, and I don’t teach in an
anthropology department.  Ok, lets try this again.  Hi my name’s Ethan  
and I’m a digital historian.  Ok, thats a little better, its got the
“digital,” and I also live (mostly) in a history department.  But, my  
PhD isn’t in history.   Hmmmm…ok, how about digital humanist? Well,
its got the “digital,” so that’s good.  I also “live” in the digital  
humanities community, work with many people who identify themselves as
digital humanists, and have received digital humanities grants.   The  
problem is that I’m not a humanist.  Ok, mmmm…Game designer?
No. Serious game designer? Not really..its what I work on, not what I  
am. Oh bother, what the heck am I?

The problem, dear readers, is that I’m an interdisciplinary scholar.   
I sit on the happy intersection of several domains (both traditional and
“progressive”).  As such, it is always a challenge for me, as well as  
many other who swim in these crazy interdisciplinary waters, to build
and maintain an academic identify.

In many ways, the institution is at the root of this problem – not the  
scholar.  Many institutions pride themselves on encouraging
interdisciplinary scholarship (I would hold up my institution as an  
example of this).  However, the reality is that its a heck of a lot  
easier to
have a traditional, one field identity (English, Geology, Physics,  
etc) than it is to create and maintain an interdisciplinary identity.   
The very
structure of most universities are based on a model of one scholar =  
one discipline (the unit of “discipline” being the department).
Departments are usually walled gardens, little islands of thought and  
practice that are surrounded by moats filled with sharks and
patrolled by giant killer robots with instructions to kill on sight  
(what?  your department doesn’t have giant killer robots?).  Tenure &
promotion standards (which guide the activities for junior faculty –  
as well as many tenured faculty) are based in the department (and
usually vary wildly between departments).  On top of that, there is a  
lot of discipline/department-based inflexibility when it comes to
teaching in an interdisciplinary space.  Departments are often quite  
territorial about subjects that they see as their own (try teaching a  
class
that has “Computer Science” in the title when you are in an Fine Art  
department, for example)   Some universities don’t even have a
mechanism for recognizing team teaching – which is a hallmark of  
instruction in many interdisciplinary spaces.
You also have to factor graduate education into the equation as well.   
You are admitted to a department (or perhaps a program), and in that
department, you are educated in the arcane arts and secret handshakes  
of that discipline.  In the vast majority of your graduate classes, you
only mingle with initiates of your own secret academic society.  You  
becomes familiar with a specific set of journals and a specific set of
conferences.  The end result are graduate students (who turn into  
professional scholars of one kind or another) who are firmly rooted in
one particular discipline.

Obviously I’ve set up a bit of a straw man here. There are many  
exceptions to everything I’ve said.  There are departments that tangibly
embrace interdisciplinary scholarship and teach their grad students  
(from the ground up) how to be interdisciplinary scholars.  However, I
would argue that these cases are the exception, and not the norm.   
Now, its important to realize that I’m not trying to launch a wholesale
indictment of university practice.  I am, however, working hard to  
reveal some of the challenges involved with forging an interdisciplinary
identity.

So, what is an interdisciplinary scholar to do? The bottom line is  
that you have to work hard at building an interdisciplinary identity,  
and
work even harder to maintain that identity.  In this context, here are  
three strategies for doing just that.  As is customary, this list is  
hardly
comprehensive.  These are essentially the result of my own personal  
ruminations (some of which I’ve personally put into practice) – so,
take them in the spirit that they are given.

Develop a Brand: Brand is incredibly important.  I know this sounds  
crass and super “stupid PR marketing speech,” but its true.  Let be
1 of 2 6/5/10 12:48 AM
What products and/or services do you offer? Define the qualities of  
these services and/or products.
What are the core values of your products and services? What are the  
core values of your company? What is the mission of your company?
What does your company specializes in? Who is your target market? Who  
do your products and services attract?
The Chronicle of Higher Education 1255 Twenty-Third St, N.W.  
Washington, D.C. 20037
honest here, brand is really another word for identity, and identity  
is what we’re trying to get at here, right?  Your brand serves as a
foundation upon which you construct your scholarly house of cards.  In  
many ways, your brand will serve as your measuring stick when
you go to make choices about things like the journals you’ll submit  
work to, the grants that you’ll shoot for, and the collaborations &
partnerships you’ll enter in to.  Don’t know the best way of coming up  
with your academic brand?  Ok, try this little exercise.  Google
“building a brand” (or some such phrase), and you’ll get a list  
similar to the one below.  Answer all of these questions (replacing  
words like
“company,” “product” and “service” with more academic-y words), and  
you’ll be well on your way to developing your own personal
scholarly brand.

As an aside, when I was writing this, Tom Scheinfeldt pointed me  
towards something he  wrote on his own blog called
“Brand Name Scholar”
(http://www.foundhistory.org/2009/02/26/brand-name-scholar/).  The  
piece has some great points, and is well worth reading in this
context.

Give your “discipline” a name: If you were at a cocktail party (do  
people really have cocktail parties anymore?) filled with other
academics and were asked what you did, you would want to be able to  
bust out a 2-3 word name for your “discipline” at the drop of a hat
(n.b. this is really part of the “branding process,” I just thought it  
should stand alone because of its importance).  You don’t want to be
fumbling around trying to explain what you do.  You could be the  
smartest person in the room, but if you can’t tell people what you do
(quickly and succinctly), then no one is gonna take you that  
seriously.  So, give your “discipline” a name, and become practiced at
describing it whenever prompted.  For me, its “Cultural Heritage  
Informatics.”

Fight for more flexible tenure and promotion requirements: For all the  
obvious reasons, this is a tough one.  On one hand, the
ways in which department’s reward scholars with promotion and tenure  
is very closely linked to maintaining an interdisciplinary identity.
On the other hand, agitating for more flexible tenure and promotion  
requirements is often the game of those who’ve already been tenured.
By way of example as to the impact that tenure and promotion  
requirements have on an interdisciplinary scholarly identity – one of  
the
most troublesome trends as of late at my institution is that  
department are being asked to provide their Dean with a list of the AAA
journals in their field. The (not particularly well hidden) subtext  
here is that if you aren’t publishing in those journals, you aren’t  
doing high
quality scholarship.  And if you aren’t doing quality scholarship,  
your chances of being promoted or tenured aren’t particularly good.  The
problem is that the journals that are usually added to such a list are  
what you would call “traditional core journals.”  The result is that  
many
of the journals relevant to your particular out of the way  
interdisciplinary patch of academic ground won’t garner the same level  
of respect
or “tenure credit” as you might get if you were publishing in one of  
these core journals.  What’s worse is that your work might be
completely inappropriate for any of these journals.  So, what what are  
you supposed to do?  Fight for more flexible tenure and promotion
requirements, that’s what!

Ok, now its your turn. Are you an interdisciplinary scholar? How do  
you maintain your identity. Are you trying to become more of an
interdisciplinary scholar? How are you building your identity?  C’mon  
now, don’t be shy, feel free to share.

Image by Flickr user Mykl Roventine / Creative Commons licensed
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Building an Interdisciplinary Identity in a (Mostly) Non-Interdis... http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Building-an-Interdisciplinary/23080/

-- 
Susan Gold
In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom!
- J. G. Ballard







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