Review by Allison Ronda
Augsburg, Tanya. Becoming Interdisciplinary: An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies 3rd ed. Dubuque: Kendall, 2016.
ISBN 9781465290144
Tanya Augsburg has taken on the difficult task of writing a foundational interdisciplinary studies textbook. She is also pushing students to look at themselves and their personal interests to help them decide on their academic and career goals through worksheets and self-reflection.
The textbook is divided into two parts. The first part is focused on understanding interdisciplinary studies. It goes through definitions, learning outcomes, selected short stories, and review questions. The second section is focused on developing professional skills, understanding the rationale and criticisms for interdisciplinary studies, and how to defend the choice to study interdisciplinary studies to the rest of the academic community.
The most useful sections of this textbook are chapter 2, “What is Interdisciplinary Studies” and chapter 5, “The history of Interdisciplinary Studies”. Most importantly, we learn the basic definitions of interdisciplinary studies and what it means to be interdisciplinary. For a student just learning about this field, the explanations held in chapter 2 are essential to being able to utilize the rest of the textbook properly.
In chapter 5, the history of interdisciplinary studies is also vitally important when trying to grasp and explain the field in comparison to specialized or discipline focused areas of academia. I did find the last part of Section 1 useful in making students start thinking about the real-world practicality of this field. This area of academia has some different challenges in terms of producing and putting into practice research and dealing with the conflicts that can arise when working in a group or team setting.
Section 2 of the textbook covers the criticisms and real-world practicality of interdisciplinary studies. Some of the assignments would be useful for students to apply to what they have learned in Section 1 and where they could go from here in interdisciplinary studies. This section changes the flow of the textbook to allow students to engage in the process and develop a constructive way of learning about this field of study. The practical applications also delve into like job searching and working within an interdisciplinary team framework.
There is an entire chapter dedicated towards metaphors to better explain interdisciplinary studies. Augsburg makes the claim that you can make comparisons between two different things using metaphors and this allows you to present interdisciplinary studies in another context. While I enjoyed the metaphors, I found the explanations around interdisciplinary studies muddled and unclear. However, some might find it helpful for students to develop an understanding of the complexity surrounding how to define and characterize interdisciplinary studies.
It can be a formidable task to teach undergraduate and even graduate students about interdisciplinary studies. Most students do not yet have a good understanding about specific specializations and other academic disciplines let alone try to understand how to integrate them together into an understanding of interdisciplinary studies. As a student myself, I find academic textbooks that provide practical worksheets and engage students in the process of learning to be useful. I feel that this textbook meets that criteria and should be given serious consideration for any instructor who is teaching interdisciplinary studies.
Tanya Augsburg has taken on the difficult task of writing a foundational interdisciplinary studies textbook. She is also pushing students to look at themselves and their personal interests to help them decide on their academic and career goals through worksheets and self-reflection.
The textbook is divided into two parts. The first part is focused on understanding interdisciplinary studies. It goes through definitions, learning outcomes, selected short stories, and review questions. The second section is focused on developing professional skills, understanding the rationale and criticisms for interdisciplinary studies, and how to defend the choice to study interdisciplinary studies to the rest of the academic community.
The most useful sections of this textbook are chapter 2, “What is Interdisciplinary Studies” and chapter 5, “The history of Interdisciplinary Studies”. Most importantly, we learn the basic definitions of interdisciplinary studies and what it means to be interdisciplinary. For a student just learning about this field, the explanations held in chapter 2 are essential to being able to utilize the rest of the textbook properly.
In chapter 5, the history of interdisciplinary studies is also vitally important when trying to grasp and explain the field in comparison to specialized or discipline focused areas of academia. I did find the last part of Section 1 useful in making students start thinking about the real-world practicality of this field. This area of academia has some different challenges in terms of producing and putting into practice research and dealing with the conflicts that can arise when working in a group or team setting.
Section 2 of the textbook covers the criticisms and real-world practicality of interdisciplinary studies. Some of the assignments would be useful for students to apply to what they have learned in Section 1 and where they could go from here in interdisciplinary studies. This section changes the flow of the textbook to allow students to engage in the process and develop a constructive way of learning about this field of study. The practical applications also delve into like job searching and working within an interdisciplinary team framework.
There is an entire chapter dedicated towards metaphors to better explain interdisciplinary studies. Augsburg makes the claim that you can make comparisons between two different things using metaphors and this allows you to present interdisciplinary studies in another context. While I enjoyed the metaphors, I found the explanations around interdisciplinary studies muddled and unclear. However, some might find it helpful for students to develop an understanding of the complexity surrounding how to define and characterize interdisciplinary studies.
It can be a formidable task to teach undergraduate and even graduate students about interdisciplinary studies. Most students do not yet have a good understanding about specific specializations and other academic disciplines let alone try to understand how to integrate them together into an understanding of interdisciplinary studies. As a student myself, I find academic textbooks that provide practical worksheets and engage students in the process of learning to be useful. I feel that this textbook meets that criteria and should be given serious consideration for any instructor who is teaching interdisciplinary studies.