Interdisciplinarity - Julie Thompson Klein

In this volume, Julie Klein provides the first comprehensive study of the modern concept of interdisciplinarity, supplementing her discussion with the most complete bibliography yet compiled on the subject. Spanning the social sciences, natural sciences, humanities, and professions, her study is a synthesis of existing scholarship on interdisciplinary research, education and health care.

Klein argues that any interdisciplinary activity embodies a complex network of historical, social, psychological, political, economic, philosophical, and intellectual factors. Whether the context is a short-ranged instrumentality or a long-range reconceptualization of the way we know and learn, the concept of interdisciplinarity is an important means of solving problems and answering questions that cannot be satisfactorily addressed using singular methods or approaches.

Julie T. Klein is a professor of humanities at Wayne State University and former president of the Association for Integrative Studies. A Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, she is the author of a book on the playwright John Gay and has had an umber of articles published in scholarly journals.