TNDY 401G - "Transdisciplinary Studies: Theory and Practice"

Tuesdays, 4:00 - 6:50 p.m.

Wendy Martin (School of the Arts and Humanities), the first holder of the George and Ronya Kozmetsky Chair in Transdisciplinary Studies, will serve as the primary instructor. The course will meet weekly and feature faculty members from across CGU and Claremont College
academic programs as well as visiting scholars who will give lectures and lead discussions on transdisciplinary scholarship in their respective fields. These faculty lecturers will talk about how thinking beyond the boundaries of their specializations has contributed to their work, and the work of their colleagues. Theoretical and methodological issues in the context of the university as a community of scholars will be explored.

Description:
This course will provide an analysis of transdisciplinary perspectives in a range of fields (including Arts and Humanities, Education, Psychology, Economics, Politics and Policy, Management,
Information Systems and Technology, Mathematics, and Religion), with a focus on the methodological challenges and disciplinary impact of transdisciplinary scholarship and practice across the university. The primary goal of this course is to give students an over-view of
transdisciplinarity in a range of disciplines as well as a sense of how transdisciplinary work might enrich their own perspectives, research projects, and graduate study, in general.

This course will be taught in a lecture-discussion format. CGU Faculty and Visiting Scholars will present their perspectives on transdisciplinary theory and practice in their disciplines. A Question and Answer session will follow these lectures. In addition, students from multiple disciplines will participate in discussion groups, and will work together on collaborative research projects throughout the semester. Students will be expected to think and write critically about the implications of Transdisciplinary issues for their own fields and their own scholarship. A portfolio of work for the semester will be submitted, along with presentations during the last week of classes.

This course is offered on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis and will satisfy the transdisciplinary requirement for Ph.D. students.

TNDY 401H - “Creating and Crafting an On-line Journal in Transdisciplinary Studies”
(This course is open only to students who have been nominated by their dean.)

Tuesdays, 1:00 PM to 3:50 PM 

As part of the Transdisciplinary Studies Program, this seminar will focus on conceptualizing,  organizing and editing an on-line journal which will be sponsored by the Claremont Graduate University; this journal will involve faculty from CGU and elsewhere as well as CGU students in all fields.

This seminar will focus on the nuts and bolts of founding and editing a journal; in addition to creating a rationale and editorial structure for the journal, we will organize the first four issues in preparation for launching the journal in fall 06.

The enrollment for this seminar will be limited enrollment to two students from each School who have been nominated by their Deans; in order to create a truly transdisciplinary publication, there will be equal representation from all of the Schools at CGU. Ideally, students in this seminar will continue to have an on-going connection with the journal while they are at CGU.

This seminar will involve considerable research and discussion of transdisciplinary work in all fields that is being done both nationally and internationally; scholars and students in these fields will be both our contributors and our audience. 

Faculty from CGU  and elsewhere will participate in this course as consultants on the impact of transdisciplinary scholarship on their respective fields and as advisors about all aspects of the editorial process.

Economics & Political Science:
Levitt, Steven (with Stephen Dubner).  Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.  New York: Harper Collins, 2005.