In One Peer and Out the Other: Preparing
Students for the Future of Knowledge
Production
Kelli Barr
University of North Texas
kelli.barr@unt.edu
Session Abstract
In addition to representing graduate student voices, graduate student governments can
also function to expand our constituents’ horizons of opportunity. In particular, graduate
student governments can play a vital role in raising awareness regarding an important and
volatile debate currently gripping the academy. Discussions regarding the value of
interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research raise important questions for young scholars:
What is the future of the disciplinary structures that govern our education as graduate
students? For example, is it wise for budding researchers to yield to pressures to specialize
early and strongly in a narrow field of inquiry, or to communicate primarily (or, perhaps,
only) with a small and select group of professional peers? Do we have any other choice?
This session explores the governance dimensions of disciplinary structures within the
academy. Of particular focus will be the most effective role for graduate student
governments in this critical debate concerning the gulf between academic knowledge
production and its uptake by broader communities.
The State of knowledge: Who are our peers?
• Disciplinary peers
• Multidisciplinary (MD) peers
• Interdisciplinary (ID) peers
• Transdisciplinarity (TD) peers
Who have mostly been our peers?
• Disciplinary peers
• Multidisciplinary peers
• Interdisciplinary peers
• Transdisciplinarity peers
If ID is the answer, what is the problem?
The problem is with the problems:
-
Climate change (or, climate chaos)
Pervasive environmental degradation
Widespread social inequality
Sustainability/sustainable development
Political and economic instability
What is the value of ID?
Unidirectional knowledge flow:
Academics  Society
Problems have been defined historically without
inclusion of those who experience those problems
In short:
The academy has disciplines; the world has problems.
How does this relate to self-governance?
Graduate and professional student
organizations (GPSOs) can be critical for
building institutional support to provide
opportunities for students to pursue many
different types of research.
Institutional barriers
• Research culture
– Emphasis on one ‘right’ model
• Assessment or evaluation processes
– Indicators of quality/impact
• Publication industries
• Philosophical prejudices
What can we do?
• Be a resource for openly discussing research strategies
– Research quality/impact assessment
– Collect evidence to advocate to your administration
• Highlight and reward a diversity of disciplinary, MD, ID,
and TD research on your campus
– Focus on broader impacts
• Work with administration to provide small grant funding
– Develop MD, ID, and TD research habits as grads
• Build relationships between academy and surrounding
community for students to take advantage of