Can subjects be studied in isolation? DU debates

Shreya Ray / TNN / Jun 10, 2006, 23:49 IST

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While DU introduced interdisciplinarity a couple of years ago, the debate between interdisciplinarity and specialisation still goes on.

Can subjects be studied in isolation? DU debates

NEW DELHI: You can't study Shakespeare without having some knowledge about the text's historical context. And also some knowledge about the philosophical and sociological thought processes of the era.
While Delhi University introduced interdisciplinarity a couple of years ago, the debate between interdisciplinarity and specialisation still goes on.
The interdisciplinary approach is essentially aimed at giving well-rounded approach to education. However, "well-rounded", also means that instead of devoting attention solely towards one subject, you also need to study related subjects.
This is what, say professors, could prevent a student from specialising in the subject. In fact, when BA integrated course and BSc life and physical sciences (the interdisciplinary version of the BA pass and BSc general) were introduced a couple of years ago, there was a huge furore in DU over this.

Said dean, students' welfare S K Vij: "A balance needs to be struck between the two. For instance, literature cannot be studied out of its social context and economics has to be related with history. Likewise to understand commerce, you need to know human behaviour. And yet, you also need to be adept at your specialisation field."
Mihir Deb, Director, School of Environmental Sciences, said: "The criticism about interdisciplinarity is that it is ‘shallow' but this is a very myopic way of looking at things.

There are certain subjects that require an interdisciplinary approach like environmental science that needs to be looked at from the social context." He added that interdisciplinarity doesn't take away from specialisation.
"We have economists working for environmental sciences. They are all hard-core specialists in their field as well," added Deb.
In fact, specialisations have also become interdisciplinary. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, who teaches international relations at JNU, said: "A concept such as 'neo-liberal' is economic but it is also political.
In fact, the danger in the current age, is over-specialisation. People are so deeply involved in their fields that they have no knowledge about related areas."

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