[Ethnocomm] e-seminar

[Kris Acheson-Clair]

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.

 

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. 

 

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?

 

Thanks,

Kris

 

 

Kris Acheson

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Department of Applied Linguistics

Georgia State University



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