Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 11:32:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Brian A. Connery" <connery-AT-Oakland.edu>
Subject: Re: PLC: Fish



Fish gave a talk, "Being Interdisciplinary Is So Hard to Do," at
MLA eight or nine years ago, and published it in *Profession*
six or seven years ago.  I expect he was on about the same thing
when he visited Reg's class.

The thesis, as I recall it, was more logical than institutional
(that is, the dean has nothing to do with it) and basically
comes down to the idea that "interdisciplinariness" is a
misnomer, because it implies that you're doing two or more
things at once.  If you are practicing what some would call
interdisciplinariness, you're actually creating a discipline
which is fully integrated and stands on its own. While the
genealogy of the discipline you're practicing may be
heterogeneous, what you're doing--if you're doing it well--is
its own discipline. 

Like many of Fish's theses, the core here is rather simple and
commonsensical, once you cut through the grandiose blather.


Note to Reg and others: my Unix has been down for some days now.
What a delight to return to find this list up, running,
populated, and animated. Good show.

All best &c.,

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Brian Connery			
connery-AT-oakland.edu 
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