“Having expertise in multiple disciplines is my superpower,” this professor writes
“How should I describe your expertise?” asked a journalist who was writing a story about my research. It was a familiar question, and yet one I secretly dreaded because it wasn’t always clear what box I fit into.
When I began my Ph.D. in an interdisciplinary environmental studies program, students further along in the program warned it was going to be particularly hard for us to get academic jobs. They pointed out that among the brilliant and productive faculty who enthusiastically taught our program, none had in fact received training like ours— they all had Ph.D.s in clearly defined fields.
I knew I was aiming for a faculty position. But the time when I would need to apply for jobs seemed far off, so I set my employment fears aside. I believed passionately in the value of interdisciplinary training, especially for tackling complex environmental problems. And I had chosen to pursue this degree, which I have often described since as a “choose your own adventure” program, precisely because it offered the flexibility to take coursework spanning many traditional academic disciplines.
Eventually it came time to apply for academic jobs, and some of my old fears resurfaced. Very few job postings explicitly sought an interdisciplinary scholar, so I found myself applying for jobs with discipline-specific requirements that often seemed a stretch for me. When I did manage to get an interview, there were inevitable questions about whether I could teach certain core courses that the department needed instructors for.
I eventually found a position that valued my interdisciplinary viewpoint, and I negotiated a joint appointment that reflected my cross-departmental interests. There are still times when I feel like a fraud—I sit in an epidemiology department but I don’t have an epidemiology degree. Yet, more and more, I believe that innovation in science comes when fields collide. I also think it is increasingly possible for interdisciplinary scientists to find a home in academia.
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