Dear All,
I want to initiate a discussion here. These days, I can see a new group of researchers in academia, who do their research (PhD, Post-Doc) on inter-disciplinary issues. While that seems to be very obvious as well as necessary in times when we need to move towards integration rather than working in silos, these researchers face a difficult time when they have to make a career choice in terms of which area/department should they apply for a tenure position, or even contractual teaching/research positions. If the person fits in two areas - for example, sustainable development as well as policy, or entrepreneurship as well as strategy, or bio-technology as well as environmental science - how does the researcher decide which area to get into for an academic position, which are, most of the times, conventionally named/structured areas? What does it require or mean to say that 'this is the right decision and that not'? I see new age researchers, who are working on emerging areas, face this problem. Often, this leads to confused hiring by the university, or confusion in the mind of the researcher, who is also an about-to-be teacher/instructor. So my questions for this discussion are: (a) Why is this happening? (b) What are the solutions? (c) What should the PhD/post-doc researcher do in such a situation?
Thanks and Regards,
Subhanjan
The relatedness of science and social-economical context will lead to new modes of knowledge production.
they should be confident enough after, PhD or postdoc for competing situations with other candidates
I think that most scholars have a primary field in which the majority of their theoretical and conceptual underpinnings are found. One benefit of working on cross- or trans-disciplinary projects is that everyone has a basic understanding of the important "stuff," but nobody has to be an expert in everything. In other words, a strong division of expertise and labor exists in these teams.
In my opinion, when applying for positions, a wise early-stage scholar will articulate experience in such teams as the demonstrated ability to make connections with other fields. He or she is testing theory and advancing scholarship through applied research. This background is viewed as valuable, in my hiring experience anyway.
My advice: Do excellent work and be a solid team member and opportunities will find you.
(a) Sign of Times! We all live on an ever-growing interdisciplinar era... especially young fellows, who were already casted in that pattern, are expected to lead!!
(B) I would suggest that young researchers should not take this “traditional” way of thinking to shape their career... whatever “side” of an interdisciplinar “coin” the young researcher choose, the other will naturally come along, what should be expected in any top department!!
I agree with professor Zawislak. Nowadays, it has been increasingly harder for oneself to get clustered within only one field of knowledge. I see that whatever it is one is studying, there has been a trend towards interdisciplinarity, which is in a greater extent, enriching for sciences as well as for scholarship in itself.
Furthermore, this argument does not only apply to different fields, but also to district theoretical apparatuses. Most of the greatest breakthroughs in many areas were achieved by researchers not getting restricted to neither one field nor one theory.
In this sense, I take advantage to thank professor Zawislak for his excellent examples and analogies during his lectures on Economics in which he had the ability to bring forth, with great conceptual rigor, Physics, Economics, History, Math and other sciences altogether.
Thank you all for sharing your insights. I was particularly able to relate to them easily when I imagined what they mean in my context:
(a) "a wise early-stage scholar will articulate experience in such teams as the demonstrated ability to make connections with other fields"
(b) "do excellent work and be a solid team member and opportunities will find you"
(c) "it is sometimes possible to work in interdisciplinary teams and still do work that fits well in a disciplinary framework"
(d) " young researchers should not take this “traditional” way of thinking to shape their career... whatever “side” of an interdisciplinary “coin” the young researcher choose, the other will naturally come along"
(e) " whatever it is one is studying, there has been a trend towards interdisciplinary, which is in a greater extent, enriching for sciences as well as for scholarship in itself"
Everything is connected in a certain degree. I cannot think academia in nests.
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