Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Programs

Graduate education at Virginia Tech is transcending traditional disciplinary perspectives and promoting collaborations across colleges, departments, and academic units. Today's societal problems are complex and must be understood and solved through the collaboration of multiple disciplines rather than by insulated thinking and action (Repko, 2008). As Karl Popper states, "We are not students of some subject matter, but students of problems. And problems may cut right across the borders of any subject matter or discipline" (The National Academy of Sciences, 2005, p.16). Interdisciplinary education and research embraces diversity, inclusiveness, educational breadth, and inter-dependence, promoting a person-oriented rather than a product oriented attitude towards graduate education, thus creating novel learning and discovery opportunities that are needed to train our future professoriate, workforce, and leaders. Committee on Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine. (2005). Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press. Repko, A.F. (2008). Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.