For your final discussion of the week, it unfolds in two parts as usual. It builds on the idea of interdisciplinarity.

Part 1:

• I want you to think about what interdisciplinarity means and I want you to post your thoughts on any pop cultural item you are interested and note two different disciplines that could look at it and a comment how they’d look at it (and you can even note if you think they’re doing it wrong). Note: you can use any discipline you’d like, not just social science. This is to highlight how there isn’t only one approach to understanding but many.
  • example:
    • I could talk about the TV show Bones and there are a variety of ways it can be looked at through various disciplines. First, I’d probably want to focus on political science, especially because the TV show is placed within a governmental institution, the “Jeffersonian,” and highlights the close interplay between cultural entities and government funding. Also, I’d probably want to point out that the main character is a forensic anthropologist (an extremely niche area) and regularly uses anthropological concepts (albeit problematically and not always inline with the discipline at various points). Or, I could look at it sociologically, especially the organizational structure (who performs which roles, who has power, etc.) as it has a generally strong vertical structure (and they use conflict in that structure, the main character not wanting to follow rules, as a point of interest).

Part 2:

• I want you to respond to one peer with a short point of at least one additional discipline that could be applied to the pop cultural item they discussed
  • example
    • For the show Bones, one additional discipline to include could be chemistry, specifically the type of work they regularly employ in the show to be able to to make their arguments (including how they get the time it requires wrong). Another example could be gender studies. I recall a well argued post I read (alas, I can not recall where… maybe a blog or a magazine article) that pointed out that the show forced in a romantic/marriage plot line and in doing so changed the dynamic of the show and the main character’s focus, undermining their strength and autonomy.