Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/237465

Title

Storming the silos of scholarship and segregation: crossing HASS borders and encouraging inter-disciplinary and mutli-disciplinary research and practice in creative industries

Author(s)

Croker, Carol-Anne

Abstract

This paper proposes that within humanities and arts faculties in our universities exist too much emphasis on narrowly focused discipline-specific research of benefit primarily for the rewards of academic promotion and publication, rather than addressing the educational needs of our current co-hort of students, the digital native generation. Whilst generalised liberal arts degrees are especially useful in developing a common ‘cultural heritage’ for our undergraduate students, allowing for alternate models of higher education pedagogy and practice along the lines of “the Melbourne Model” for Graduate level scholars. To argue that there actually can be shared cultural heritage shared by Australian, and indeed our International students negates all the proactive research and scholarship in the HASS sector since the 1970s, when ownership of certain knowledges were privileged over other forms of knowledge within the academy. Too often academics feel constrained to work within the dominant paradigms of their disciplines and not investigate the potential synergies between their areas of expertise and those of their colleagues down the hall way. Collaborative multi or inter-disciplinary research is not only desirable at all university HASS faculties, it should not be left to the Centres of Research Excellence who can leverage Competitive Grant Funding for such investigations. To provide the transferable and generic skills demanded of our graduate students by the Industry and Business sector, we must inculcate a passion and desire for knowledge in our students that is applicable for future 21st century jobs and industries that we cannot even conceptualise. To achieve this goal our university education must be inclusive (Bradley Report) and to ensure innovation (Cutler Review) we must stop thinking across outmoded binary divisions, like Sciences and Humanities, or even the mini-disciplinary turf wars between Cultural Studies, Literary Studies, Media Studies, Gender Studies, Creative Industries and even Sociology. Of primary concern to me, a Performing Arts graduate, a Media Production graduate, Education graduate, and Dual-sector experienced academic in both Professional and Creative Writing, I know the most valued research is situated between narrow disciplinary focus where we can all be called to defend and reflect upon our previously unquestioned assumptions and pedagogies.

Publication type

Conference paper

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Higher Education, Lilydale

Source

Paper presented at the Border Crossings Conference, Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, 10-12 December 2012

Publication year

2012

Keyword(s)

HASS;  Higher education;  Inter-disciplinary research;  Multi-disciplinary research;  Pedagogy;  Research

Publisher

Flinders Institute for Research in the Humanities, Flinders University

Publisher URL

http://www.flinders.edu.au/ehl/firth/firth-conferences/border-crossings-2012/abstracts.cfm

Copyright

Copyright © 2012.

Peer reviewed