I’m preparing for a webinar that focuses on strategies for and barriers to widespread use of transdisciplinary approaches to solving complex problems. During the entomology department’s faculty retreat last week, I worked in a breakout session that included a postdoc and a couple of graduate students. We talked about how to offer more interdisciplinary programs to all graduate students, without students having to gain the experience by doing additional coursework. I wonder how we get to a place that prioritizes real-world problem solving with knowledge gained as an underpinning rather than the metric of success. I suspect we must be willing to jump without having all of the answers, creating bandwidth as we go.
During a separate conversation last week, there was discussion about the attributes of affiliate appointments for department-based faculty and Extension program-based faculty. I believe this is an important step toward improving our current transdisciplinary work. Perhaps it will lead to increased opportunities in our formal education efforts.
This week, departments and committees are holding retreats before the semester’s fast pace takes over. I had a chance to attend a National Science Foundation grant team’s kickoff event to welcome the interns, partners, and mentors. Activities at the kickoff sought to develop an understanding of different perspectives on tribal nation building, and how Native nations view biological resilience research. Thanks to Tarah Sullivan for the invitation! I wish I could have attended a larger portion of the meeting.
The CAHNRS Advisory Council met this week to learn about our work to transform the student experience and efforts to advance the availability of safe, affordable food for all; two of the four pillars of building a more Resilient Washington and world. The plans for visioning our efforts moving forward continue to develop with the important input of the council. This group, too, raised the importance of systems thinking and greater emphasis on a transdisciplinary approach that brings our work into that of our partners, as opposed to a more traditional approach of inviting partners into our work. I greatly appreciate the insights and ideas that come from this group and look forward to our first in-person meeting next month.
The weekend and early part of this week was full of confused drivers as parents dropped off students and navigated a new place. Soon enough, our new Pullman community members will have it figured out. Campus energy has definitely picked up. I look forward to convocation on Friday and welcoming students back.