Thinking outside the box

As a graduate student, Karen Beazley studied in Dal's expanding Interdisciplinary PhD program. (Nick Pearce photo)

From amid my pages of research and interview notes, a vision of Leonardo da Vinci appears. He regards my laptop computer with interest, examining it from different angles and stroking his beard thoughtfully. He pulls out a notebook and begins to sketch. The notebook is already overflowing with descriptions and drawings of machines, the human body and more.“Leonardo,” I say,“Please tell me what interdisciplinarity really means. Of all people, you should know.” He looks at me quizzically, smiles gently, puts down his notebook and, with a broad sweep of his hand, takes in my entire office and the view from the window. Without a word, he returns to his sketching.

The big picture

“We (universities) are on the threshold of a new golden age of knowledge where we’ll bring the parts from all the disciplines together to advance the understanding of the universe in ways that we didn’t think were possible before,” says Dalhousie Vice-President Academic Dr.Alan Shaver.

What is Dr. Shaver’s vision for interdisciplinarity at Dalhousie? “It’s really the natural evolution of our disciplinary strengths.With those strong disciplines we will have that flowering of interdisciplinarity, which will make us more attractive to undergraduates. It will make us more attractive to professors starting their careers. This will attract resources — brains first, and money— and we’ll have more impact on people, to the benefit of people.”

Multiple perspectives

As a student in Dalhousie’s Interdisciplinary PhD program, Karen Beazley brought multiple perspectives together. Now, as associate professor and director of the School for Resource and Environmental Studies in the Faculty of Management, she continues and expands that work.

Her doctoral thesis, “A focal-species approach to biodiversity management in Nova Scotia,” integrated environmental studies, biology and philosophy.

Dr. Beazley says the Interdisciplinary PhD program “gave me the opportunity to create my own committee, create my own research subject which was interdisciplinary, and pull these various perspectives together to answer questions that related to not only how do we go about maintaining biodiversity, but why should we? What is the ethical or moral imperative — or is there one?”

Students enrolled in the Master of Environmental Studies and Master of Resource and Environmental Management programs also draw upon multiple perspectives. For example, in one term, resource and environmental management students take three interrelated courses that examine the sociopolitical, biophysical, law and policy dimensions of their field. Dr. Beazley says interrelationships are highlighted through common case studies, which culminate in students presenting findings and recommendations in a workshop open to students, faculty and stakeholders in the issues.

Connecting in this way prepares future leaders able to contend with the complexities posed by as yet unknown environmental challenges. “It really prepares them and gives them some experiential learning in dealing with the kind of processes and issues that they are going to face out in their jobs as environmental managers and scholars,” Dr. Beazley says.

Inspiration

The Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology is not just interdisciplinary in title. As assistant professor, Liesl Gambold strives to show students “We share a goal, and that is understanding human beings and human behaviour.”

By taking courses from sociologists and social anthropologists, students can become stronger in both fields. Dr. Gambold says her own research view is enhanced as a member of the interdisciplinary department.

“I’m encouraged and inspired to look at different angles, and the discussions with my colleagues are what inspire me most,” she says.“Sometimes you’ll say,‘Oh, I have this idea, here it is,’ and then I’ll be talking to a colleague who’s a sociologist and they’ll say, ‘Well I think you should look at it this way.’ I might not see it in that way initially but inevitably I’ll come back to my office and think,‘Well, I hadn’t thought of that, but….’”

Teamwork

“I think there’s a major societal need to address the isolation and the insulation of the different health professions and how that impacts on each and every one of us,” says Will Webster, Dalhousie’s Dean of Health Professions. He gives as an example a stroke patient who faces a battery of professionals asking the same questions with little communication or coordination among them.

Communication and coordination underlie the development of new interprofessional elective courses, learning tools, workshops and increased opportunities for work placements. They are also evident in Seamless Care: An Interprofessional Education Project for Innovative Team-Based Transition Care, a Health Canada-funded project. This has seen Dalhousie medical, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry and dental hygiene students “learn with, from and about each other while they assist patients to develop the knowledge and skills to manage their conditions effectively,” says Dr. Judith McFetridge-Durdle, associate professor in the School of Nursing and a principal investigator in the study.

Dr. Webster says geography is an obstacle in interprofessional learning among the faculty’s eight schools, one college and two programs. He envisions a central building where the professions’ interconnections are fostered through shared classrooms, administrative and social spaces. He also sees a literal “bridge to health and social wellbeing” linking other health profession buildings such as the Forrest and Tupper, so “faculty and students are moving through the same space both horizontally and vertically.”

Horizontal and vertical connections are essential in Dalhousie’s planning for a new master’s degree in public health. The project, which creates opportunities for cross-faculty and cross-university collaboration, provides another occasion to meet a social need and strengthen interprofessional learning.

Impact

If you’re looking for names of researchers on lab doors in the School of Biomedical Engineering, look again.

“Nobody’s name is on the doors because it’s part of the communal model that we use to encourage the sharing of resources and the building of mutual things,” says Mike Lee, who played a pivotal role in the school’s creation.

Openness and flexibility create an environment for interdisciplinarity to flourish — an atmosphere appreciated by PhD student Marianne Ariganello. Under the guidance of Dr. Lee and his colleague, Rosalind Labow at the Universityof Ottawa Heart Institute, Ms. Ariganello is studying reasons for failure in replacement heart valves made from tissue.

“When we look at replacement valves that have failed we find they have tears and macrophages (a type of white blood cell) associated with them.We’re not sure if the tears start first and macrophages come and exacerbate the environment or if macrophages notice something about the tissue and initiate that tear. My area is to try and see if I can figure out what went first,” says Ms. Ariganello, who presented her research in Australia at the last World Biomaterials Congress.

Ms. Ariganello’s research could help lead to an extension of the life of tissue replacement valves, resulting in patients requiring less frequent surgery. Dr. Lee, a professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering and in the Department of Applied Oral Sciences, has also seen the real-life impact of his research. A stent he designed — a device used to open arteries to aid blood flow — is used in Canada and in Europe.

Interdisciplinary work is invigorating but not easy. Dr. Lee says the school faces the challenges of securing resources from the university and finding its place.“There are times at the university when we’re nobody’s child. We’re sort of peripheral to the main mission of engineering and medicine, but we share a tremendous common mission amongst us.”

Interactions

The Institute for Research in Materials at Dalhousie has some 100 affiliated faculty members from six faculties and 18 departments. The focus, however, isn’t on the individual disciplines but on the problems they can help solve collectively by studying the “interactions between and among the structure, processing and performance of materials,” says Dr. Mary Anne White, director of the institute and a university research professor of chemistry and physics.

Interdisciplinary work often involves collaborations with government, industry and academia. For example, Dr. White and her research group have discovered some materials that “can absorb a lot of energy when they change phase” and remain as solids. Now, with colleagues in a cross-country Solar Buildings Research Network, “We’re incorporating these materials into building materials that will absorb solar energy during the day and then re-radiate this energy at night.”

Securing funding for the institute remains a challenge. But looking ahead, Dr. White has a positive vision for interdisciplinarity.“I think it will continue to grow. I doubt it would overtake disciplines, but I think it will continue to grow and the interactions within the university in interdisciplinary groups will continue to increase.”

I now understand what Leonardo da Vinci meant by the sweep of his hand. Interdisciplinarity is everywhere and all-encompassing.

It demands big-picture thinkers who are unafraid to tackle complex, often messy problems and willing to meet the communication challenges that arise when different disciplines — each with their own terminology and approaches — collaborate. It’s a concept that can be embraced by learners early on, and it’s an understanding critical in an age where terms like pandemic, global warming and sustainability are common.

I’ve learned that those engaged in interdisciplinarity can face challenges such as securing funding and receiving scholarly recognition comparable to those focused on a single discipline. I’ve also discovered that interdisciplinary study and research at Dalhousie is inspiring, broadening and potentially life-changing.

Marie Weeren is the president of 10th Floor Solutions, a public relations writing business in Halifax.