IMC 2003: Sessions
Session 903: Doing Interdisciplinarity: A Round Table Discussion
Tuesday 15 July 2003, 19.30-20.30
Organisers: | Andrew F. Butcher, Aberystwyth University Mary Swan, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds |
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Abstract | Achieving interdisciplinarity is a widespread ambition in Medieval Studies, not least in the IMC. Most medievalists agree that doing interdisciplinarity involves proficiency in a number of skills and practices and in a wide range of literatures, and some sort of synthesis of them. We advocate such practices, but do we really interrogate what we mean by them? This round table gives us the chance to reflect on interdisciplinarity, and to ask some key questions: Is it really possible to be interdisciplinary? If so, how do we achieve it in research and in teaching? Are we in fact doing multidisciplinarity? Or are we always imprisoned in our disciplines? We will consider these issues, and also the implications of interdisciplinarity for our practice as medievalists, the constraints upon our practice, and how we might overcome them. |