Disciplinary Maps Introduction
It’s critical, if you hope to become an effective interdisciplinary thinker, that you have an appreciation for (and some background in) more than one discipline. It’s also critical that you have the skills to effectively analyze, synthesize, and learn important discipline-specific information – across multiple disciplines.
The Disciplinary Maps assignments progressively guide you through a thorough investigation of two disciplines (generally your two concentration areas – although Organizational Studies students may pick Organizational Studies and one other disciplines of interest) by providing you with an opportunity to investigate / research key characteristics of these disciplines.
Here are a couple of important things that you may need to consider:
If “Business” is one of your concentration areas, you must pick one specific business related discipline (i.e., marketing, finance, operations, business economics, leadership / management, etc.) for that map. Understand that “business” isn’t a discipline – it’s more of an “umbrella” that has a number disciplines underneath).
Foreign languages may be difficult to conceptualize for this type of assignment. Students who have a foreign language as one of their concentration areas generally attack this assignment in one of three ways:
o You can use a cultural focus. For example, for “Spanish” you might look into Hispanic cultural studies. Here you’ll find plenty of textbooks and research / journals that should allow you to collect the kinds of information I’m looking for.
o You can use a linguistics focus. For example, ideas associated with the structure, history, interpretation and application of languages in general, and your chosen language, in particular. Linguistics is a well established discipline with plenty of literature.
o You can use an educational focus. For example, ideas associated with how to teach / learn foreign languages – like ESL. You should be able to find plenty of good information for this assignment using this focus as well – although you’re mainly probing in a sub-field of the discipline of Education.
Please contact me ASAP if you are having difficulty figuring this out. This is not an assignment that you want to procrastinate on – it will take a considerable amount of time and effort to develop each of your maps!
Why It’s Important
The Maps Assignments will give you an opportunity to explore the epistemologies of each of your disciplines of interest / concentration areas, reconnect with your passions and interests in these fields, and lay the foundation for integrative thinking. Many students find that this assignment is what really gets them thinking about their disciplines in a holistic manner. You may find that, for the first time so far in your education, you really understand what these disciplines are “all about.” In fact, I would venture to say that, by really doing a thorough job on your Maps, you’ll be able to talk more intelligently about your disciplines of interest than a typical recent graduate from those disciplines!
By investigating and learning (or relearning) key ideals, concepts, theories, research directions, and methodologies of your disciplines, you’re embarking on a critical first step toward the successful integration of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries. And the notion of integration is really what interdisciplinarity is all about! There’s really no way around it – the Maps assignments are the critical first step in developing a foundation for interdisciplinary studies.
Disciplinary Maps (Part One) Assignment Instructions
Research the following information for each of your concentration areas / disciplines of interest. This means you will be answering each of the following prompts twice – once for each of the two disciplines you are investigating.
Use the headings below as section headings in your paper, and be sure to address each of the prompts thoroughly.
Also, please DO NOT be tempted to head to Wikipedia (or any other online source) and “copy and paste” what you think might be appropriate responses to the prompts. Your work should be in your own words, and each prompt should draw from at least a couple of different sources – which you clearly identify in the body of your paper.
1) Description of Discipline / Subject Matter
Briefly describe the purpose and concerns associated with each of your chosen disciplines. What are some of the broad concerns that each of your chosen disciplines addresses? What types of subjects, problems and issues are each of these disciplines concerned with?
2) Sub-fields Within the Discipline
How are each of your chosen disciplines divided or segmented? Describe the structure of each of your chosen disciplines from an academic perspective (how it’s studied) and from a practitioner perspective (how it’s applied). Carefully describe the types of subjects, problems and issues addressed by each sub-field.
Hint: For these first two Disciplinary Maps prompts, introductory textbooks are great places to go to find this information. Also, be sure to check out ASU (and other universities) to see how individual schools / departments describe their respective disciplines…
IMPORTANT!!!
Prior to getting started on this assignment, be sure to carefully review the following additional information / learning tools designed to help you get the most out of your Maps assignments:
Read through the full assignment description and examples posted in the module 3’s readings. When doing so note that the examples are of full papers. You are being asked to complete the same assignment except it has been divided into 3 smaller parts or assignments.
Click through each of the document links that you find there, in particular:
• Library research Tutorials: Work through the “Library Research Tutorials” document (and associated tutorials). This will take you at least an hour, and will provide you with all of the information / skills that you will need to do university-level library research.
• Disciplinary Maps Library Guide: The Disciplinary Maps libguide at: http://libguides.asu.edu/bis – Click on the “Disciplinary Maps” tab and check out the “Description of Discipline” and the “Subdisciplines / Subfields” content areas.
• Sample Student Responses: The sample Disciplinary Maps prompts (the sample paper includes all of the Disciplinary Maps prompts – you’re only answering the first two for this assignment).