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Interdisciplinarity in the Scholarly Life Cycle: Learning by Example in Humanities and Social Science Research
This open access book illustrates how interdisciplinary research develops over the lifetime of a not in a single project, but as an attitude that trickles down, or spirals up, into research. This book presents how interdisciplinary work has inspired shifts in how the contributors read, value concepts, critically combine methods, cope with knowledge hierarchies, write in style, and collaborate. Drawing on extensive examples from the humanities and social sciences, the editors and chapter authors show how they started, tried to open up, dealt with inconsistencies, had to adapt, and ultimately learned and grew as researchers. The book offers valuable insights into the conditions and complexities present for interdisciplinary research to be successful in an academic setting.
This is an open access book.
This is an open access book.
435 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 1, 2023
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January 24, 2026
I was torn between a 3* and a 4* for this title.
The problem is that the title does not capture the contents of the book. The 'scholarly life cycle' is not present in the edited collection. What we have is an uneven series of essays that - mostly - applies interdisciplinarity to a topic in the humanities and social sciences.
Many of these case studies are very specific - intellectually and in terms of geography - so the generalizability of the research is unclear.
However there are a few outstanding chapters. The introduction from Karin Bijsterveld and Aagje Swinnen is outstanding. I was also impressed by Aagje Swinnen's chapter, “Examining personal and cultural narratives of aging: literary gerontology revisited.”
What was lacking was the concrete discussion and scaffolding of interdisciplinarity. What it is. How it is configured. Why it is configured. If those questions could have been framed by the 'scholarly life cycle' - that would have been brilliant.
As it stands, there are a few great chapters with important sentences. Further integration of 'the project' was required.
The problem is that the title does not capture the contents of the book. The 'scholarly life cycle' is not present in the edited collection. What we have is an uneven series of essays that - mostly - applies interdisciplinarity to a topic in the humanities and social sciences.
Many of these case studies are very specific - intellectually and in terms of geography - so the generalizability of the research is unclear.
However there are a few outstanding chapters. The introduction from Karin Bijsterveld and Aagje Swinnen is outstanding. I was also impressed by Aagje Swinnen's chapter, “Examining personal and cultural narratives of aging: literary gerontology revisited.”
What was lacking was the concrete discussion and scaffolding of interdisciplinarity. What it is. How it is configured. Why it is configured. If those questions could have been framed by the 'scholarly life cycle' - that would have been brilliant.
As it stands, there are a few great chapters with important sentences. Further integration of 'the project' was required.
Displaying 1 of 1 review