Description: Interdisciplinarity, a favorite buzzword of faculty and administrators, has been appropriated to describe so many academic pursuits that it is virtually meaningless. With a writing style that is accessible, fluid, and engaging, Lisa Lattuca remedies this confusion with an original conceptualization of interdisciplinarity based on interviews with faculty who are engaged in its practice.
Whether exploring the connections between apparently related disciplines, such as English and women's studies, or such seemingly disparate fields as economics and theology, Lattuca moves away from previous definitions based on the degrees of integration across disciplines and instead focuses on the nature of the inquiry behind the work. She organizes her findings around the processes through which faculty pursue interdisciplinarity, the contexts (institutional, departmental, and disciplinary) in which faculty are working, and the ways in which those contexts relate to and affect the interdisciplinary work. Her findings result in useful suggestions for individuals concerned with the meaning of faculty work, the role and impact of disciplines in academe today, and the kinds of issues that should guide the evaluation of faculty scholarship.
Brief description: Co-author with Joan S. Stark of Shaping the College Curriculum: Academic Plans in Action, Lisa R. Lattuca is assistant professor of higher education in the Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Counseling Psychology at Loyola University, Chicago.
Review Quotes: Lisa Lattuca's work is a significant and powerful contribution to the literature on higher education. With enthusiasm, I recommend this book to faculty and graduate students who study higher education, institutional leaders, deans, and chairpersons of tenure and promotion committees seeking to develop deeper understanding of less traditional forms of scholarship, and faculty members engaged in or considering doing interdisciplinary work.
--Ann Austin