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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>When I first read the Katriel and Leeds-Hurwitz texts, I was struck by the positive tone of each piece – commendably, they seem to me full of excitement and possibility. I used to believe myself an optimist, but perhaps after a couple of decades of critical scholarship that is no longer entirely the case, for Trudy Milburn’s cautionary discussion of “questions to grapple with” resonated with me strongly. After going back and taking another look at my earlier notes, especially on Wendy’s section on Interdisciplinarity, I felt compelled to add my voice here.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>My own experience with interdisciplinarity has been a bit disheartening, to be frank. Although it functions as a buzz word at the institutional level, often finding its way into discourses of strategic goals and initiatives, it seems to me at the departmental level that interdisciplinarity is commonly resisted. The tree metaphor is useful here: folks in different branches not only often have no idea what is happening elsewhere, even in parallel branches where the same kinds of tools (like EC) are being used and the same phenomena are of interest, but also sometimes discount out of hand work done elsewhere, for example not counting towards tenure studies published in cognate disciplines and limiting new hires to scholars with a very particular degree or career trajectory. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I greatly appreciated the historical perspective that Wendy further developed at the beginning of her response, and in a continued spirit of hope for the future I would love to hear from contemporary EC scholars who are successfully working in very interdisciplinary ways. Perhaps your academic home is outside of Communication or you have an appointment across departments. Perhaps you consistently work in interdisciplinary research teams. Perhaps you publish widely outside of your primary field. Please inspire those of us who have met resistance when crossing boundaries: What insights do your positive interdisciplinary experiences offer for this vision of EC’s future?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Thanks,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Kris<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Kris Acheson<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Director of Undergraduate Studies<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Department of Applied Linguistics<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Georgia State University<o:p></o:p></p></div>
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