[SOLVED] Transdisciplinary Intervention

Prompt transdisciplinary intervention
Describe and analyze how an element of a field of your choosing—perhaps in relation to
your major or a personal interest or conviction—complements, improves, revises, and/or
shows the limits of an element of another field that is in, or is in some way related to, the
natural sciences. You may take “natural sciences” to mean a common thread across natural
sciences, like Heidegger does, or else a particular natural science. Finally, how is your
transdisciplinary intervention significant for either one or both fields?

Possible Format and Considerations

1. In the introduction, introduce the problem or subject matter of the field you are more
experienced with and will be attempting to complement, correct, etc. with another
field. What is the problem or the issue? How do people in the field traditionally
attempt to solve, address, conceptualize, imagine, or discuss it, perhaps ineffectively or
insufficiently? Here, you may opt to have a thesis that posits why bringing in an
element of another field might benefit the first field in a particular way, or ways.
2. Alternatively, begin with an illustration. Especially if you are addressing a problem or
issue, which is not a requirement, perhaps an illustration of the problem will help.Heidegger, for instance, attempts to describe “the jug” in a scientific way. This leads
him to conclude that the scientific description is an inadequate account of the fullness
of the jug. Then, as in the previous paper, step back in the second paragraph and begin
your analysis, perhaps bringing in a thesis toward or at the end of the second
paragraph (or wherever effective).
3. In the body of the paper, discuss your views/points regarding how the one field
complements, revises, and/or corrects the other. Heidegger, for example, proceeds
away from the scientific explanation toward a philosophical-phenomenological
description of the jug, showing how this field better articulates the jug’s essence and
purpose in human relationships. Wright goes on to illustrate how physics better
conceptualizes Blackness in certain respects. Here, illustration may also be helpful.
Heidegger illustrates a gathering, a celebration, where the jug “takes in” and “pours
out,” bringing individuals together, thus showing how a simple scientific explanation
of the jug’s materiality is incomplete. Once again, think of showing vs. telling.
4. Finally, what is the significance of your transdisciplinary intervention? In other words,
why is what you are saying important for one or both fields? You need not stress each
equally. In my work, I primarily stress the importance of quantum mechanics to
rhetoric for the ways in which it helps rhetoricians take affectability, materiality,
resonance, indeterminacy, and the like into account. However, I do offer several points
on why rhetoric is important to physics for encouraging physicists to question their
assumptions, and in giving them the rhetorical tools to do so. The balance and focus
here is up to you depending on your fields and what you feel is most significant.
5. A conclusion can be analytical—like Point 4 above—but it can also use another
illustration to reaffirm and recast your points in a new light. Perhaps there is another
image or event that can show what you are concluding, thereby enabling the reader to
see it in action. Ultimately, it is your decision based on what will be effective for you.
6. Throughout these paragraphs, use Wright, Heidegger, and Barad to help you work
through different ways of approaching transdisciplinary work. Unlike A1, I am not
requiring you to use their work directly. You do not need to refer to Wright,
Heidegger, or Barad. You could if helpful. Yet a successful paper will learn from how
each of them maneuvers among different disciplines to stress the importance of one
field to another. Wright and Barad will be more helpful for the “complementary”
approach, and Heidegger for the “correction” or “revision” approach to this essay.7. Your “self” may or may not enter the paper. If you have experience relevant to your
subject, feel free to include yourself. However, your “self” is only part of the subject,
and personal experience should not bear the weight of your argument. It can, however,
be helpful supplementary material, especially if you are addressing a problem in your
primary field of interest that you have contended with, or have seen in action.
8. Proofread your paper thoroughly and make sure it follows basic MLA format.
Choosing a Topic
♦ Ideally, your primary field, subject, or area of interest will be one you are experienced
or skilled with: your major field of study, a minor field of study, a hobby you have long
pursued, a job you have worked in fairly extensively, an issue you have been
committed to in some professional form, and the like. This will give you the
background and experience to both make the case for a transdisciplinary intervention
and to communicate effectively—that is to say rhetorically—to your target audience in
that field. Once again, the secondary field you are addressing should also be in your
mind as part of the audience, though not the central audience.
♦ Examples of other field or subject pairings:
o Black Studies and physics (Wright’s Physics of Blackness)
o Materialism and philosophy (Jane Bennett’s “vital materialism”)
o Ontology (study of being or existence) and phenomenology (study of the
appearance of things), which is Heidegger’s “phenomenological ontology”
o Visual arts and rhetoric (Laurie Gries’ “visual rhetoric”)
o Ecofeminism and quantum mechanics (Barad’s “agential realism”)
o Rhetoric and quantum mechanics (my own “quantum rhetoric”)
o Rhetoric and music (Thomas Rickert’s “ambient rhetoric”)
o Biology and quantum mechanics (“quantum biology”)
o Psychology and physics (Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli’s work)
o Psychology and evolutionary biology (evolutionary psychology)
o Psychology and neuroscience (neuropsychology)
o Psychology and pharmacology (psychopharmacology)
o Medicine and the humanities (“medical humanities”)
o Again, feel free to be creative. If you feel you are pushing the boundaries of the
prompt, let me know. But consider also fields that may seem to have nothing to
do with one another. Forge new connections, as Susan Wells compels us to do.