Institutional Structures, Barriers, and Opportunities for Interdisciplinary Change in Higher Education

Abstract: Part of the ongoing challenge of interdisciplinary knowledge production is the shifting political and economic context of higher education. In pursuing interdisciplinary research and educational activities, interdisciplinary scholars often cite institutional barriers as impediments to their work of bridging disciplinary silos. But sometimes, what are deemed barriers are intentional university structures that respond to broader political and economic trends. In this study, we interrogate the malleability of what is a stable structure and what are opportunities for change through two tenets of critical theory: disciplinary power and ideology critique. We employ a narrative methodology to conduct interviews with members of two interdisciplinary faculty teams and administrators working at a public land grant university in the United States. The first interdisciplinary case originated as an organic collaboration between faculty across disciplines. The second case was a product of a larger university-wide interdisciplinary initiative. Findings from these two cases situated within the university political economy reveal parallel challenges in cross-college interdisciplinary development. The institutional contradictions in the results reflect historical patterns of university-market logics and interdisciplinary initiatives. However, these structures were not deterministic for the faculty. The same structures that yielded the institutional contradictions were also sites for faculty and staff to resist and disrupt traditional practices.