Remarks by Karen Linkletter

Student Speaker

Several weeks ago, while teaching, I invoked the psychological impact of World War I on Britain, the growing burden of empire, and the social history of a generation lost to brutal trench warfare.  Par for the course for a college, or perhaps high school history class, but I was teaching a private cello lesson in my home studio.  Yes, we discussed proper bowings, intonation problems, and other issues of technique, but I believe one cannot play the Elgar Cello Concerto without an understanding or a sense of the time in which Edward Elgar lived and wrote that great work. 

I am probably one of the oddest, yet most appropriate, representatives of Claremont Graduate University to speak at commencement.  My undergraduate degree is in English literature, I have an M.B.A. from the Drucker/Ito School, and now, a Ph.D. in History.  And how have I made a living for the last ten years or so?  I work as a professional musician and private teacher.  You must be thinking, “she has the worst case of identity crisis I have ever seen.”  Actually, I have found that all of this education, as well as years of work experience, has formed me into the performer and educator that I am.  I draw on all aspects of my background when I work, which not only is enjoyable for me, but is stimulating and challenging for my students: encouraging them as well to reach beyond the boundaries of traditional disciplines.

Our institution prides itself on fostering, in the words of our President, “holistic, transdisciplinary thinkers” who can function outside of the narrow constraints of their own disciplines.  We have not yet, as a university, articulated a clear, precise definition of “transdisciplinary thinkers,” relying instead on differentiating them from interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary scholars.  In spite of this nebulous definition, I believe there are some excellent illustrations of what we would call transdisclipinary study that can be used as models.  In the dissertation writing and research group that was such a contribution to my own work, the Hillcrest Transdisciplinary Research Fellows blend Religion, Social History, Economics, Cultural Studies, Management, Political/Intellectual History, Philosophy, Legal History and Sociology in their dissertations.  Although our individual projects are vastly different, we always found common ground.  I cannot credit my peers, Fay Botham, Dan Cady, Glenn Mitoma, and Sara Patterson enough.

I also happen to be married to a transdisciplinarian, although he wasn’t aware that he was one until I told him.  A geologist by training throughout his academic career, George researched and wrote a dissertation under the traditional graduate school model of strict, disciplinary focus.  The title of his dissertation was “Weathering and Soil Formation in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica.”  He also followed the standard paths of teaching and post-doctoral research, but has now been living in the transdisciplinary world of engineering and environmental consulting for over 30 years.  He is currently helping to reorient the Geological Society of America away from its traditional emphasis on narrow, disciplinary concerns to broader issues that impact the world community.  He regularly works on teams involving individuals from a host of areas of expertise, addressing everything from soil and groundwater contamination, traffic concerns, noise and air pollution, land use battles, and even immigration and associated issues of race and class.

Back home at CGU, we have a number of examples.  Corey Sinclair is combining studies in management, music, and the broader humanities in evaluating the impact of the internet on people’s music listening and concert going habits.  Will Krieger branched out from his traditional archaeological training in field work to include courses in history, philosophy, and languages in his study of the philosophy of archaeology.  On our faculty, Robert Dawidoff has applied his years of experience and training in intellectual history to study various aspects of the history of the American song.  Peter Drucker is the model of transdisciplinary study, with his blending of history, philosophy, religion, economics, and political theory into his work with management and organizations.

So, while we may not have a tidy, precise definition of transdisciplinary study, we have several examples of it in the sciences, the arts and humanities, and the social sciences.  Clearly, transdisciplinary research does not replace training and grounding in the traditional disciplines.  By definition, one cannot be an expert in every field; specialization is a necessity in graduate education.  But, as Peter Drucker noted years ago, knowledge workers, or specialists, must share the goals of the institutions and organizations of society for which they work, while still pursuing their individual interests. And, in today’s pluralist society, experts within each discipline must have respect and understanding for those from others.  As John Seeley Brown, our commencement speaker points out in “Sustaining the Ecology of Knowledge,” we need both the inward-looking, creative artists and designers as well as the outwardly-oriented, application-minded engineers and business people.  The key is in bridging the gap between the two, or finding ways in which these two mindsets can work together to benefit society.  Transdisciplinary scholarship at its best is a remarkable model of this very objective.

Thus, I believe that CGU’s transdisciplinary emphasis can only help us all with respect to our employment status.   For those wondering if the traditional post-graduate teaching path is for them, the CGU transdisciplinary model may be particularly useful.  Indeed, in what for many disciplines is a difficult job market in terms of traditional college teaching positions, research appointments, or other such work in the academy, a more transdisciplinary, holistic approach may be the key to obtaining employment.  Those trained in management are schooled in reinventing, marketing, retraining for new knowledges that are in demand.  Other disciplines might take note of such flexibility and willingness to think differently.

Even if your degree is in a traditional, specialized field, and your planned career, too, is neatly confined to the boundaries of an academic discipline, you will likely be faced with the need to retool or re-engineer yourself at some point in your life.  No discipline remains static over time, thankfully.  My field, history, has been enriched by the infusion of interpretations of historical events from multiple perspectives.  Keeping current with scholarship within one’s own discipline itself often requires changing one’s own very views of that discipline.

I personally hope to use my degree to teach, specifically, to bridge the wide chasm between management and humanities students through a series of interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary courses.  We shall see.  We don’t live in an ideal world, and transdisciplinary study is not always well received.  Some historians see my work as tainted by its association with business, as the subject of my dissertation is the intellectual origins and history of Peter F. Drucker and his management theories.  Some business people are unsure as to how to take the philosophical and theological implications of my argument.  In another area of my life, some music educators do not see the value of teaching the history of World War I to a cellist learning the Elgar concerto.  I can’t teach it any other way.  In any event, we will always face those who view graduate education solely as a kind of membership to an exclusive club, a way of setting themselves apart from others, rather than as a vehicle for creative scholarship that benefits the academy and greater society.  Your graduate degree does indeed confer status, status you have earned and are entitled to.  But such status also carries with it commensurate responsibilities.  Never forget that. 

Whether you go on to teach, conduct research, create art, perform music, manage a company, or work for an institution, I hope that your CGU education and degree mean something more than simply training in a narrow field or discipline.  I hope they mean you have learned how to enjoy learning, how to share that learning with others, and that there is no end to a true transdisciplinary education.