Volume 24, Number 1, March, 2002

Disciplining Feminism. Ellen Messer-Davidow, Disciplining Feminism: From Social Activism to Academic Discourse. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. Paper (ISBN #0-8223-2843-7); Cloth (ISBN #0-8223-2829-1). Reviewed by Julie Thompson Klein, Professor of Humanities, Interdisciplinary Studies Program, Wayne State University. Disciplining Feminism provides an insightful and sometimes sobering view of one of the most highly-regarded exemplars of an interdisciplinary field. Part 1, "Confronting the Institution-Disciplinary Order," begins when the movement itself began in the 1960s and 1970s. Part 2, "Institutionalizing and Intellectualizing Feminist Studies," extends further into and beyond the 1970s with an examination of how projects were articulated, academic studies formatted, and a new discourse proliferated. Part 3, "Crystallizing the Future," returns to the subject of political struggle and scholarly change during the 1990s with a comparison of conservative and feminist projects. The methodology is a hybrid of narrative, discourse analysis, and archaeological readings of disciplinary histories combined with survey research, ethnographic fieldwork, and socio-political analysis of organizations and the process of knowledge production.

An IdEA Whose Time Has Come. The University of South Dakota recently launched an innovative Interdisciplinary Education and Action (IdEA) Program. The IdEA Program is an institutional graduation requirement for undergraduate students that pairs interdisciplinary study with an "Action" component. The program requires students to complete nine credits of interdisciplinary thematic study in their last two years on campus. As part of their theme work, students will contribute to the community with a service, research, or creative endeavor.

Publishing Interdisciplinary Scholarship. By Joan B. Fiscella, Bibliographer for Professional Studies and Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago. This is the second in a series of articles to provide information abbout journals which invite scholarship that is interdisciplinary, identified by language that incorporates cross-disciplinary or multidisciplinary interests. In this article, I examine three journals: Literature and Psychology, Mosaic, and Southern Review. [Other articles in this series appear in the October 2001 and May 2002 editions of the AIS Newsletter.]

Travel Grants Available to Graduate Students Presenting at AIS Conference. The Association for Integrative Studies has limited travel funds available for graduate students who are accepted to give a presentation at the 2002 AIS National Conference.

AIS Member Appointed to Prestigious Research Chair Position. The Educational Intervention Research Center (CRIE) is delighted to announce the appointment of a Research Chair, by the Canadian Research Chair Program, to Professor Yves Lenoir (Ph.D. Sociology), tenured professor and director of the center. In addition, the Research Chair received approval from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) which supports the improvement of technological equipment.

Job Opening

Call for Nominations ... The Boulding Award. Nominations are now being accepted for the prestigious AIS-sponsored Boulding Award. This award is to be given to a person who has clarified or expanded the concept and the scholarly or public understanding of interdisciplinarity through a combination of the following: teaching, scholarship, and integrative community involvement. The award is to be given to one whose writings or professional performance has made major, long-term contributions to the concept or the enactment of interdisciplinarity.

Conference Announcements

Volume 24, Number 2, May, 2002

Two Cultures: Yet Another Look. Michael Finkenthal, Interdisciplinarity: Toward the Definition of a Metadiscipline? American University Studies, Series V Philosophy, Vol. 187. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2001. 144 pp. Paperback (ISBN# 0-8204-4078-7). Reviewed by Thomas D. Paxson Jr., Professor of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Michael Finkenthal's Interdisciplinarity is a large book, in terms of the wealth of ideas proffered and the wide range of topics touched upon, though physically a slim volume of 144 pages. A physicist, Prof. Finkenthal has read widely in areas of the humanities; he has written a book that is in some ways an heir and in others an update of C.P. Snow's justly famous The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.

BRIE Program in Biogeochemistry at Penn State. The Biogeochemical Research Initiative for Education (BRIE) program is specifically designed to break down institutional barriers in order to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and training on the Penn State campus. The aim is to impact environmental engineering, geochemistry, soil science, and microbiology through the training of a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists prepared and motivated to advance fundamental, applied, and non-traditional research careers. The program is designed as an example of how interdisciplinary science can best be promoted.

Publishing Interdisciplinary Scholarship. By Joan B. Fiscella, Bibliographer for Professional Studies and Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago. This is the third in a series of articles to provide information abbout journals which invite scholarship that is interdisciplinary, identified by language that incorporates cross-disciplinary or multidisciplinary interests. In this issue, I review three journals, all of which focus on ethnic studies in the U.S.: American Indian Culture and Research Journal, African American Review, and Ethnic Studies Review. [Other articles in this series appear in the October 2001 and March 2002 editions of the AIS Newsletter.]

Former AIS President Wins Teaching Award. Dr. Roslyn Abt Schindler, Associate Professor and Interim Deputy Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program (ISP) in the College of Lifelong Learning (CLU) at Wayne State University, is the 2002 recipient of the CLU Excellence in Teaching Award. Roz Schindler is a longtime AIS member and former president of the AIS (1997-99).

Julie Klein Honored. Julie Thompson Klein, Professor of Humanities in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program of the College of Lifelong Learning at Wayne State University (WSU) in Detroit, Michigan, longtime AIS member, and former president of AIS, has beeen elected into the WSU Academy of Scholars. It is an organization of faculty who have achieved international recognition in their scholarly fields.

Conference Announcements

• 24th Annual AIS Conference, "The Liberating Arts: Global Connections and Challenges," October 3-6, 2002, Hosted by Interdisciplinary Studies Center at Drury University, Springfieldl Missouri. Conference registration form included.
• National Conference on Alternative Higher Education, October 11-13, 2002, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University, New York, NY.

Volume 24 Number 3, October, 2002

Introducing "Health Care, Technology, and Place": Understanding the New Landscape of Western Health Care. Article by Kelly Murphy, Knowledge Transfer Manager, and Peter C. Coyte and Patricia McKeever, Co-Directors of Program in Health Care, Technology, and Place, University of Toronto. Health Care, Technology and Place (HCT&P) is the world's first transdisciplinary research training program designed to advance understanding of the new landscape of Western health care. Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, with partner institutions across Canada and Europe. HCT&P was launched as a doctoral and post-doctoral training initiative at the University of Toronto in June 2002. Our mandate is to equip a cadre of visionary scholars to chart new lines of research that are appropriate to the fundamental and complex reconfiguration of health services in the 21st century.

Hybrid Vigor Institute Publishes Two New Journals

Volume 24, Number 4, December 2002

Humanities 2000, An Innovative Collaboration at the University of Toledo. An article by Beth Casey, Professor of English, Bowling Green State University. This past summer I had the opportunity to work with three colleagues from Bowling Green State University on an assessment team for an interdisciplinary project entitled Humanities 2000, headquartered at nearby University of Toledo. The results of this assessment should greatly encourage faculty who have considered working with secondary school teachers to assist in the design of interdisciplinary courses and programs. Such collaboration we learned can be highly successful. Although some student outcomes were ones that many of us are familiar with, we also learned of additional results involving transformation and empowerment for both secondary teachers and students. It was an exhilarating experience and made me all the more happy to have been a contributor to Julie Klein's AIS-supported volume, Interdisciplinary Education in K-12 and College: A Foundation for K-16 Dialogue. At the time the book was assembled, many of us wondered if we were too much in advance of our time. Humanities 2000 provided evidence that this was not the case.

Wanted Interdisciplinary Syllabi. By Marcia Bundy Seabury, Associate Professor of English, Hillyer College at the University of Hartford. AIS is expanding its website to feature some model interdisciplinary syllabi. We invite you to submit your syllabi and other course materials for possible inclusion in its listings.

Call for Nominations ... The Boulding Award. Nominations are now being accepted for the prestigious AIS-sponsored Boulding Award. This award is to be given to a person who has clarified or expanded the concept and the scholarly or public understanding of interdisciplinarity through a combination of the following: teaching, scholarship, and integrative community involvement. The award is to be given to one whose writings or professional performance has made major, long-term contributions to the concept or the enactment of interdisciplinarity.

Job Openings

Call for Proposals

• 25th Annual Conference of the Association for Integrative Studies, October 9-12, 2003, hosted by the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. With proposal submission form.