This is an archived UW-P news item,
originally posted: 1/29/2009.
Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Professor of Communication, has received a Fellowship to the Collegium de Lyon, an institute for advanced studies based in Lyon, France, for spring and summer 2009. Her research topic is the "Social Construction of Interdisciplinarity."
Academic disciplines are socially constructed; as such, scholars in different countries impose a different set of boundaries on their knowledge and thus on their research. But one thing remains constant: the need to cross disciplinary boundaries in order to investigate complex problems, since the world does not arrange itself as tidily as the academy. Interdisciplinary research permits scholars trained in different methods and theories to cooperate in their effort to conduct sophisticated research beyond the reach of a single approach.
Rather than examine interdisciplinarity from the starting points of either projects or organizations, the forms of communication used by specific projects or particular organizations is the focus. Every project and every organization finds its own ways to convey information across a group, yet these are rarely the lens through which scholars document interdisciplinary investigations. Wendy's project at the Collegium de Lyon addresses the question: What communication forms best facilitate interdisciplinary research today?
This is a 'meta' question, relevant to all disciplines. It is of particular interest to the Collegium as an organization desiring to encourage interdisciplinary conversations among the scholars in residence. There are a limited number of ways to convey information across a group, both in person and using various technologies; the goal is to learn the circumstances under which each of these is most productive.
While in France, Wendy is teaching Communication Codes (COMM 440), online. The course uses both D2L and a wiki to permit students to easily communicate with her, despite the physical distance. This is the first online course taught within the Communication department but, given the positive response from students already, it will not be the last.
