Academic Boundaries Research Articles

Individualized student-centred education: prototype for an agroecology BSc programme

Students in agricultural universities follow a rather conventional and structured sequence of courses in specific discipline subjects. Here, a BSc programme in agroecology is proposed that will build on the unique competencies and prior experiences of each student, and will combine individual paths through the learning landscape with team projects and other group work to ensure social learning. Drawing on experiential learning theory and action learning, and confronting some of the perceived weaknesses in these theories, the programme is geared to build confidence in graduates to deal with complexity and uncertainty in future agricultural and food systems. Academic study will therefore be combined with field internships and frequent interactions with a range of people who are active in the farming and food system. Much of the learning will be accomplished outside of traditional academic boundaries. This, as well as the proposed blended use of electronic media in education, may present challenges to teachers and faculties. Teachers will need support to reconsider their roles and to redesign courses. Yet, we believe that steps can be taken in the direction of the proposed programme. There are already several examples of models for organizing teaching that can offer inspiration.

American Military History: The Need for Comparative Analysis

I have enjoyed reading Wayne Lee's wide-ranging and stimulating discussion of the im peratives underlying the writing of much academic military history. It is perhaps worth stressing at the outset in a piece in a distinguished scholarly journal, written by academ ics for other academics, that many nonacademic historians write fine military history, and this is one of the subject's strengths. Whether they are former service personnel, civil servants, judges, or professional writers, they often write with greater facility and some times produce better books in certain areas than academics largely because of their pro fessional experience and perspective. That those works are found guilty by association with applied and popular military history within the academy, as Lee points out, is often the worst kind of academic snobbery, though, fortunately, he has not succumbed to it. Yet Lee does not answer a central question raised in his article: Why does this shadow of opprobrium persist undeservedly?1 The most distinguished of British military historians, Sir Michael Howard and Sir John Keegan, in particular, enjoy high prestige in the United States. Is Keegan an aca demic? The point is debatable. Although it can be suggested that he pioneered the form of cultural analysis that has so excited academic military historians for many years, he has been repeatedly scornful of its ramifications, especially the influence that literary criticism and the social sciences (such as international relations theory) exert on both the style of argument deployed and the texture of some of the writing.2 Reading Lee's essay confirmed for me the vague boundaries of military history, especially its academic boundaries. Although there are some points of detail in Lee's assessment with which I would quib ble, I wish to explore in my response a method that is underdeveloped in American mili tary history: the comparative approach to the subject. I have close links to the United States (with family connections), but I am not of it and do not teach in an American university. So, my aim is to attempt to take the argument a stage further, while not adopt ing the irritating habit of Niall Ferguson of assuming that Britain is the source of some unacknowledged superior wisdom. Perhaps something of value might emerge from the reflections of a scholar from across the Atlantic.

Historical Archaeology

Previous articleNext article FreeCurrent ApplicationsHistorical ArchaeologyE.R.WaymanE.R.Wayman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe Seneca Village Project: Recovering New Yorks Lost PastSpeaking about an archaeological dig under way in Central Park, Nan Rothschild of Barnard College, codirector with Diana diZerega Wall of New Yorks City College and Cynthia Copeland of the New York Historical Society, says, Were interested in the normal archaeological and anthropological sets of questions that arise at any archaeological site. At the same time, she and her colleagues believe that their Seneca Village Project goes beyond the boundaries of academia, aiming to reshape New Yorks perception of its own history.Map of Seneca Village before the construction of New York's Central Park, showing the community's streets, houses, and fields. Indicated at right are the edges of city reservoirs.View Large ImageDownload PowerPointSeneca Village, as a mixed community of African American landowners and Irish immigrants, was not a typical nineteenthcentury New York City neighborhood. In 1825, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (known today as Mother AME Zion Church) bought the first land in what would become Seneca Village, and the community grew to include two other churches, including the citys still existent All Angels Church, and a school. When the city decided to create Central Park in the 1850s, it took the communitys land by eminent domain, displacing over 250 residents.Today the Seneca Village Project is seeking to rediscover this forgotten part of New Yorks past. Through archaeological and historical research, the projects codirectors hope to develop a clearer picture of what life was like in this settlement. During the summer of 2005 they explored the park with groundpenetrating radar, looking for the remains of buildings for possible future excavations. Preliminary results from this work also seem to indicate the presence of intact burials, according to Wall.How is this project going to get New Yorkers to rethink their history? Community interaction is a key factor, says Rothschild. This is a project in which weve made a real effort to include the community, the descendant community, she said. It has an advisory board that includes representatives from the communitys two original churches, the Mother AME Zion Church and All Angels church, that still exist in New York City today after their eviction from Seneca Village. The board helps determine the direction of the project (for example, suggesting the search for burials) and assists in its outreach programs. Cornell Edwards, a board member who represents the Mother AME Zion Church, which relocated to Harlem after being displaced from Seneca Village, explains the projects importance to the community: Its an educational program. We want people to be aware of the history to see that historys preserved. The project has held various public forums throughout the city. Edwards has found that his fellow New Yorkers are often surprised to learn about the community.This lack of awareness is not surprising. African American history is not well understood and often overlooked. The projects codirectors believe that their project has the potential to help correct this problem. Seneca Village represents the large black presence in the North, in New York, which is largely ignored [for this time period], said Wall. Most people are unaware that there were African American communities in New York before the early twentieth century. The project also raises the issue of slavery in the North. In fact, slaves in the state of New York were not completely emancipated until 1827two years after free African Americans founded Seneca Village.The inhabitants of Seneca Village valued their position as landowners because it gave them the right to vote. Rothschild, in fact, sees the settlement as a middleclass communitynot middleclass in jobs but in that they owned land. Walls historical research has shown that the children of Seneca Village received higher levels of education than African American children residing in other parts of the city.The codirectors would like to see Seneca Village and its inhabitants receive proper commemoration in Central Park, whether it is through markers or an exhibit. Such commemoration would provide balance to Central Park: visitors could gain a better understanding of the parks rich, complex history as well as appreciate its beautiful landscapes. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 47, Number 2April 2006 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/503065 Views: 263Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Academic Boundary Work in Non-Western Academies

Is academic boundary work in non-western academies different from that in the modern and contemporary West? In what ways are they different? What are the consequences of these differences for academic production? This study approaches these questions through a comparative-historical analysis of modern Japan and China. The cases show that because non-western academies have the option of importing modern academic institutional formats from the West, they do not experience the ‘expansion’ types of academic boundary work. Because of the comparatively abrupt and fast-paced academic modernization in non-western academies, traditional scholarly communities are often powerful and they become the major target of ‘monopolization’ types of academic boundary work. General intellectuals and the state become major targets of ‘protection of autonomy’ types of boundary work. Through comparative analyses, the author finds that the exclusion of traditional scholars from positions in modern academic organizations contributes to academic boundary work against traditional scholars. The author also finds that undesirable social, cultural, political and economic contexts tend to pressure academics to venture outside professional boundaries to do general intellectual work for the civil society. A developed general intellectual field could, on the one hand, alleviate this pressure and, on the other, lend general intellectuals a stronger platform to interfere with academics. The author concludes that a strong and centralized state tends to frustrate academics’ efforts at boundary work, while a weak state gives academics the freedom to build tight academic boundaries, on the one hand, and allows them to undermine academic boundaries through political activism, on the other hand.

Organizational Process Models of Budgeting

There are several reasons for the obscurity of the organizational process model. Perhaps the most important is the widespread acceptance of the standard economic model, which holds that spending outcomes are determined by the supply of and the demand for publicly provided goods and services and that competition somehow constrains elected officials to serve the tastes and preferences of the median voter. The best way to define the organizational process model is to follow its interesting etiology across time and academic boundaries, focusing on the work of Herbert Simon, Aaron Wildavsky. John Padgett, John Patrick Crecine, and P.D. Larkey. We divide the development of the organizational process model into four distinct phases: pronouncement, formalization, differentiation, and diffusion, look in turn at each of these phases, and conclude that the time has come for scholars to revisit the model, exploring its potential for contributing not only to formal budget theory but also to other fields of public policy and management as well.

Globalization and World History

July/August 2004 · Historically Speaking promisingnewinsights, particularlysince differentregional studies still applyrather divergentmethodologies to related historical phenomena . For example, historians ofEurope and East Asia tend to apply different sets of questions to 20th-centurytransformations of political cultures in bothworld regions. However , both in Europe and East Asia certain developments such as the advent of mass media, mass mobilization, and political radicalism were indeed related to similar structural transformations and influences. A methodological synthesis can thus produce more than a coherent frameworkfor a global analysis—it can lead to cross-fertilizations between area-specific research approaches. But there is a price to payfor experiments with genuine group research. For example, there is the question of historical narrative and especially the problem ofauthorship. A derivative issue, which may even be of central concern for younger scholars who have notyet established themselves, is that the academic reward system does nottrulyacknowledge collective efforts. In that way, coauthored publications can only remain a byproduct ofsome personal research project. But even strictly personal research projects can aim atsketchingoutglobal constellations byfocusing on two or three regions as probes of a wider constellation. In other words, a small number of national or cultural cases could be studied making use of primary source material and then related to other regional experiences, forwhich the historian would necessarily have to rely on secondary literature. Such studies could provide an important bridge between the disparate disciplines ofhistorical comparison and the historiography ofintercultural relations, transfers , or encounters. Theyembed the detailed analysis of a limited number of cases into a larger, global perspective. Certainly the study of global processes blurs previouslyestablished academic boundaries , and many projects with a global scope will be interdisciplinary in nature. However, different academic fields are likely to retain some aspects of their disciplinary cultures, and historiographycan certainlyadd its own elements to the rapidly expanding study of global flows and structures in the widest sense. Historiographycan contribute a narrative tradition, which tends to be filled with less academic jargon than the literature of other fields and is less captive to rigid theoretical frameworks. And it can provide meticulous source work and an appreciation oflocal details, which are essential for understanding global dynamics and constellations in their full complexity. Dominic Sachsenmaier is assistantprofessor ofglobalhistory in the GlobalandInternationalStudiesprogram at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a member ofthe New GlobalHistory Initiative basedat HarvardandM.I.T. Hisaward-winning Ph.D. thesis, Die Aufnahme europäischer Inhalte in die chinesische Kultur durch Zhu Zongyuan (Institute Monumenta Serica , 2001), waspublished in Germany. He is abo the main editor o/Reflections on Multiple Modernities: European, Chinese, and Other Perspectives (Brill, 2002). Globalization and World History Robbie Robertson Globalization is often regarded as a very modern condition. It is not. Humans have experienced at least threeverydistinctwaves ofglobalization during the last five centuries. These waves have each transformed the context in which humans live, and the ways that humans view themselves and theirworld. In particular, they have made possible the developmentofglobal consciousness. Itis likely that human futures will be increasingly linked to the evolution ofglobal perspectives and their applications. Understanding Globalization Traditionally, historians have not engaged in debates on globalization as much as academics in other disciplines. This has been unfortunate . The lack ofhistorical depth in many studies on globalization weakens their claims to validity and limits our understanding of globalization. Ifwe are to strengthen global awareness, we must contextualize globalization historically. To contextualize globalizationhistorically is not an easymatterbecause we are still captive toways ofthinkingthatderived from earlier responses to globalization. These earlier responses stressed nationalism and the role ofthe state in national development. In addition , perspectives developed bytransnational entities increasingly now monopolize our views on globalization. Theystress that globalization is veryrecent (a result oftheir activities ) and economicallydriven. Historical perspectives , however, enable moreinclusive and richer meanings ofglobalization. In my recent book, The Three Waves of Globalization, I describe globalization as the outcome of human interconnections. Human-interconnections-as-globaUzationis a very different beast from its corporate brand. This globalization is about human empowerment and democratization, a focus that for the historian can rescue the human story from the parochialisms ofthe past and provide glimpses ofhumanity's common history and shared interests. World history can have no greater goal...

‘Les routes entrecroisées’: trajectoires et engagements des antiquisants français au XXe siècle

Throughout the 20th century, a significant minority of French classicists (that is, specialists of Antiquity) committed themselves as intellectuals, appealing to scholarly and moral values stemming from republican convictions. This article analyses the origins of this political engagement within a professorial group frequently associated with an explicitly assumed neutrality, or who supported the authorities. Owing to their specific understanding of the relevance of classical scholarship for contemporary issues, leading classicists frequently reinterpreted the complex posterity of the Dreyfus Affair during major crises such as the Occupation and the Algerian war. A study of these classicists' civic and republican commitments reveals close relationships between interdisciplinarity, international bonds of research and friendships, and statements of heterodox political discourse, outside traditional academic boundaries.

A Community-based Approach to Health Literacy Using Participatory Research

Literacy is considered one of the most important determinants of health among Canadians (Ronson & Rootman, 2004). Engaging communities in identifying the critical connections between literacy and health is an important aspect of addressing health literacy. This article describes how participatory research, undertaken through university-community partnership, resulted in the identification and prioritization of actions to improve practices and policies addressing health literacy needs of largely rural population in Atlantic Canada. The Health Literacy in Rural Nova Scotia Research Project studied links between literacy and health by exploring the experiences of people living in rural northeastern Nova Scotia. A multidisciplinary research team from St. Francis Xavier University (including faculty from the Adult Education, Human Nutrition, and Nursing Departments), partnered with five community-based literacy and health organizations in three counties, within the Guysborough Antigonish Strait Health Authority (GASHA), to a) explore factors that influence ways adults limited in literacy access and act upon health information and services; and b) identify strategies for that build upon existing capacities for achieving health. This collaborative research project explored the lived experiences of people whose daily lives are determined by limited literacy, as well as the insights of professionals who provide education and health-related services to them. Community leaders, with awareness of the socio-economic conditions in the region, also provided their insight on how literacy and health interacted. A Community Participatory Research Approach Community-based research is increasingly being called for to enhance understanding of the complex issues that affect our health (Seifer & Calleson, 2004). More specifically, participatory research can engage community members who have the knowledge, experience, and expertise related to such issues. Participatory research is a systematic inquiry, with the collaboration of those affected by the issue being studied, for purposes of education and taking action or effecting change (Green et al., 1994). This approach is known to take considerable time and commitment from all who are involved. However, efforts can lead to outcomes that are relevant beyond academic boundaries with knowledge transferred to various community stakeholders, resulting in community-led actions addressing important health problems (McCaulay et al., 1999). Community partners involved in the participatory research project, described in this article, were clear from the onset that the aim of the research should be to effect in policies and practices to build capacity for health among residents in their communities. This participatory research project stemmed from local community health board's concern that low literacy could be preventing some residents' access to health resources, services, and information. This problem was brought to the attention of university researchers, who were able to access some preliminary funding to undertake district workshops in the fall of 2000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (National Literacy Secretariat Valuing Literacy in Canada Strategic Grant Program). The aim of these sessions was to determine if this issue was deemed by community members and practitioners to merit further study, how the research should be undertaken, and who should help guide the process of inquiry, Workshop participants included adult learners in literacy programs, adults with low literacy skills not in programs, as well as practitioners and managers from the fields of community health and literacy Their input confirmed the need to explore the links between health and literacy in their communities; it also informed the design of the study. For example, they recommended that personal interviews should be conducted with individual adults who have experienced literacy difficulties, while focus groups should be used to encourage dialogue among practitioners from literacy and health practice settings. …

A Plea for an Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of Arab Oral Tradition

In reviewing the history of scholarship in the field of oral literature, we find that the theory of oral-formulaic composition and performance is one of its most outstanding landmarks. The application of this theory in its traditional conception as proposed by Milman Parry and enunciated by Albert Lord is rather sterile and restricted, however, in that it applies only to the poetic genre looked at strictly from a formal literary perspective. It is a surface-structure-oriented theory with very meager intellectual yield, not to mention being prone to gross misapplication. Examples of such limited approaches and misapplications are the works of James Monroe (1972) and Michael Zwettler (1978) on the tribal poetry of Pre-Islamic Arabia. Jack Goody, Eric A. Havelock, Walter Ong, and others have tried to broaden the anthropological and psychological implications of the theory to include not only an oral mode of composition but also an oral mode of thinking and the processes of oral discourse in general. The discussions since then have shifted to focus on the oral stage versus the writing stage of Culture and what effects the introduction of script has on the individual and on the society as a whole. The emphasis now is on the examination of the structure and working of human memory and cognition and the means through which oral societies store, organize, and retrieve knowledge, pass on their traditions, and maintain cultural continuity through successive generations. What started as an insular theory of textual criticism is now turning into an interdisciplinary enterprise. The scholarship of oral literature has crossed academic boundaries to straddle many disciplines, ranging from aesthetics to linguistics to communication to psychology to anthropology to folklore, and many more. This broadening of the academic base has been very fruitful in bolstering the theories and methods of the field. Yet there is another direction that the field needs to reach out toward and investigate more thoroughly, namely the connectedness of literature to the rest of culture in oral societies.

The Intersections of Identity and Politics in Archaeology

▪ Abstract This paper traces the conjunction of two interrelated epistemic phenomena that have begun to shape the discipline since the early 1990s. The first entails theorizing social identity in past societies: specifically, how social lives are inscribed by the experiences of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and so on. The other constitutes the rise of a politicized and ethical archaeology that now recognizes its active role in contemporary culture and is enunciated through the discourses of nationalism, sociopolitics, postcolonialism, diaspora, and globalism. Both trends have been tacitly shaped by anthropological and social theory, but they are fundamentally driven by the powerful voices of once marginalized groups and their newfound place in the circles of academic legitimacy. I argue that our disciplinary reticence to embrace the politics of identity, both in our investigations of the past and our imbrications in the present, has much to do with archaeology's lack of reflexivity, both personal and disciplinary, concurrent with its antitheoretical tendencies. The residual force of the latter should not be underestimated, specifically in regard to field practices and the tenacity of academic boundaries.

Conceptualising, processing and developing: the construction of an interdisciplinary framework for working with children and young people

The second term of office for a ‘New Labour' government in the United Kingdom has brought with it increased pressure for those working with children and young people to work in interdisciplinary ways. Yet only limited attention has been given to exploring and defining the common skills, knowledge and values needed to promote such activity. In addition, established approaches to vocational education and training frequently reinforce long-held ideas of the importance of promoting ‘specialisms’, separation and occupational difference. This article calls into question such approaches by advocating the need for the development of an interdisciplinary framework that should inform education and training activity for all those working with the young. In turn, it is specifically advocated that the production of such a framework requires the creation of opportunities for consultation where common areas of work can be considered and differences in perception and approach examined through open and constructive dialogue. The main concern of the authors is to demonstrate what can be achieved when a willingness to work across academic disciplines and occupational boundaries is displayed.

Understanding HRD: a research based approach

This paper essentially explores the theoretical perspectives of Human Resource Development (HRD), by providing an overview of the range of theoretical paradigms, which are applied in both the USA and Europe. This affords a deeper understanding of the academic boundaries and scope of the discipline of HRD. It applies a conceptual framework to a comparative analysis of current research in HRD, facilitating analysis in relation to theoretical stance, empirical contexts and methodological position for a range of specific research projects and the wider research community, as reported in recent literature. The paper concludes by presenting a range of critical reflections on HRD research.

Deconstructing boundaries: Out on the inside?

This paper explores multiple identities and their place in postmodern thinking, drawing on the arguments of MacLure (1996) and Stronach (1996) in seeking ways of accommodating and embracing multiplicity, and weaving a polyphonic text of postmodern voices in support of the discussion. The author explores the value of focusing on the self as the subject of inquiry and considers the benefits she has experienced in remaining on both sides of social, sexual and academic boundaries, particularly in relation to maintaining social status and capitalizing on both insider and outsider identities. She adopts the metaphor of the fold (Deleuze, 1993) in exploring existence between boundaries, and considers the implications of this metaphor for new concepts of self. Finally, the author employs the images of hybrid and trickster (Haraway, 1992) in considering ways forward for queer theory and the exploration of identity.

Popular Theory: Canadian Feminist Folklore and Ethnology in the 1990s

Feminist folklore emerged in the 1970s in the United States to uncover women's past silences, expose male biases in reference tools and methodologies and document women's folk expression on its own terms. The tracks of feminist folkloristics in Canada have developed more or less independently and with fundamentally different concerns and issues. The models have developed through exchanges across disciplines and beyond academic boundaries. Collaborative works predominate in bilingual French and English formats. Theorizing and analysis have primarily come from and studied the mainstream and are Canadian in subject as well as origin. As popular theory, Canadian feminist folkloristics offers alternative, potentially transformative models.

ACADEMIC NOMADISM: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY OF RELIGION

AbstractThrough a narrative of the author's personal academic nomadism, the concepts of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies are explored. It is argued that while interdisciplinary studies are currently being praised, insufficient attention seems to be directed at the methodological challenges involved. Rather a line of strategic avoidance seems to be adopted. Drawing on insights from migrant studies the author compares the questionable concept of migrants as potentially "falling-between-cultures" with the fear of "falling-between-disciplines" sometimes experienced by scholars attempting to move within various disciplines. While there are important reasons why academic boundaries are retained, their existence may also influence the way scholars approach the field in an undesirable manner. By examples from the study of Islam/Muslims, the author illustrates how the boundary between, for example, social anthropology and history of religion tends to become mixed up with boundaries in the field in such a way that our understanding of the field may become seriously distorted. Exploring what transcending boundaries truely involves, the author discusses the meaning of concepts like strategic avoidance, tacit knowledge and triangulation in action, and reflects on their usefulness in terms of actually establishing interdisciplinary studies and/or scholarship.

BUILDING ENDURING UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIPS: SHAPING AND DEPLOYING A FUNDING WHIRLPOOL IS TIME WELL SPENT.

Sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation, this paper investigates specific strategies utilized by faculty and administrators to build enduring research partnerships with for-profit firms. Following the literature and utilizing theories of professionalization, we focus on interpersonal relationships as important well springs of funding opportunities and explore the strategies (if any) faculty utilize to maintain and extend their autonomy as well as the strategies (if any) administrators use to manage faculty's relationships with firms. We conducted lengthy, probing in person interviews of 49 faculty and administrators and discovered their efforts to sustain research funding by developing complex webs of connections that provide access to individuals, knowledge, know-how, materials, equipment, and resources. These exchanges disregard any academic boundaries that might exist, spanning the traditional research realms of federal agencies, corporate foundations, and philanthropic institutions, and stretching to embrace the commercial marketplace with its venture capitalists, production managers, and corporate buyers. Our findings suggest that both faculty and administrators utilize strategies to build and leverage funding whirlpools to sustain research groups and industrial partnerships. As predicted by theories of professionalization, faculty develop webs of relationships that diminish administrative control and administrators create connections that divert faculty activities to benefit the institution. This paper describes the existence, formation, and strength of

Cultural Studies and Canons: Asian Cinemas across Disciplines and Institutions

Cultural Studies has been formative to my pedagogical practices and scholarly development-encouraging me to think across disciplinary borders, question canons, address questions of cultural hybridity and identities, and actively move outside conventional academic boundaries by validating different types of knowledge and experience.

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: the ‘post’ in ‘postmodern’

As teacher educators we are in perhaps one of the most demanding of professions in terms of constant upgrading of qualifications and updating of skills and knowledge, keeping abreast of new developments in education. As we question the relevance of what has become traditional discourse to inform our practice (such as Marxism on the Left of the political spectrum and various forms of discourses of the Right) we raise serious questions as well in reference to the ideological basis for academic boundaries that have become established, that have in effect structured the way in which we have been taught, the way we have engaged in learning, and in turn, the way we engage in our own practices of teaching and learning in our dealings with subject disciples and knowledge formations. It is now that we are seriously criticizing such discourses as having ignored the socially constructed nature of what is taught, how it is taught, and not only the underpinnings of the way they are evaluated, but how they are actually valued. This paper points to some of the implications of postmodernism for practioners.

Harmful Speech in Intergroup Encounters: An Organizational Framework for Communication Research

Verbally disturbing communication, or what is broadly referred to as harmful speech (e.g., racist, sexist, and ageist speech), is a growing but fragmented area of inquiry in need of integration. In an effort to capitalize on various traditions’ insights and make connections across academic boundaries, the authors present a model for summarizing findings and generating and guiding research for several intergroup forms of deprecating speech. To begin, seven of the more established research areas—verbal aggression, gender, age, physical disability, ethnicity, jurisprudence, and rhetoric—are overviewed. These are then integrated into a model that describes the dynamics and processes underlying the type of communication that results in harm. The general utility of the framework lies in (a) its comprehensive elucidation of many types of harmful speech; (b) its specificity, because it allows for the complexity and interaction of a variety of situational, psychological, affective, social, and communicative factors; and (c) its ability to serve as a complex and heuristic model that can frame and guide future research.

Strategic Ideas in the Rise of the New Anthropometric History and their Implications for Interdisciplinary Research

Although university administrators traditionally give some support to interdisciplinary research and the academic community has always participated, diligent efforts are being made to improve productive communication across disciplines. At my university, centers and institutes have mushroomed in the past couple of decades. Often transcending familiar academic boundaries, these operations bring together experts from numerous fields to engage in applied rather than basic research, and progress frequently hinges on using specialty knowledge in unfamiliar ways. institutes weaken centripetal academic forces and promote communication of ideas that help solve complex problems naturally encompassing various specialties. Economic history has joined in the growth of interdisciplinary activity. most recent Economic History Association meetings, for example, featured a theme of The Interdisciplinary Conversation of Economic History, where papers blended economic history with ideas from diverse fields such as law, human biology, physical anthropology, agricultural botany, and comparative literature. If connections across fields can be quite productive, it is instructive to consider the circumstances under which they flourish. Scholars should consider examples of successful interdisciplinary research for insights into the general process. How and under what conditions should interdisciplinary research be undertaken? What procedures or practices might enhance the chances of success? This essay considers these questions using the new anthropometric history as a case study. blend of history and economics with human biology, medicine, and physical anthropology has clarified several questions important to economic historians. Emerging some 20 years ago, the field evolved in the subsequent decade to address long-standing problems in slavery, mortality, inequality, and living standards during industrialization. Ideas ultimately determine the success or failure of a new approach, but researchers have noted that marketing or promotion and other factors are also relevant, especially in the short run. Ideas, however, are most interesting to a wide spectrum of readers and their study has the most general relevance for other areas. Therefore, the first portion of the essay discusses the evolution of ideas in the early years of the field. objective of this section is not to review the anthropometric literature in general (this was recently done), but to expand on those aspects of the field's early development that are relevant for success in the early stages of interdisciplinary activity more generally. second section considers implications of the rise of the new anthropometric history for conducting interdisciplinary research.