As defined in the article "The History of the Academy and the Disciplines", "an academic discipline is a field of study in higher education. It is field that is taught, studied, and researched in a college or university setting". For me, my academic career has focused on human biology (a sub-discipline of the natural sciences), psychology (a sub-discipline of the social sciences) and law (a sub-discipline of the humanities). To some, this may seem like an odd combination, but my experiences in and outside of school have pushed me to find a way to encompass all of my passions into a career.
For as long as I can remember, I have been deeply fascinated with human biology. As a kid, I loved playing doctor with my siblings (as seen below) and I loved reading books about the human body- as an elementary schooler I even tried to read the copy of Physician’s Desk Reference that was in the basement of my childhood home, despite the fact that I didn’t understand a lot of it. As a student with ADHD, I found respite in science classes at school because they were very hands-on and often involved doing instead of listening. I also loved how pertinent having knowledge about human anatomy is- I often struggled to see the importance and relevance of learning things like trigonometry, but there is no denying that knowing more about how your own body works is a good thing.
My fascination with the nervous system came later, from a combination of taking an anatomy and physiology class as well as AP Psychology. The day that I held a brain in my hands for the first time was an experience I’ll never forget. I was absolutely floored that the small, uniformly grey piece of flesh had once controlled an entire sheep. This was were its thoughts, emotions, and behaviors had come from, and I was just holding it in my hands. And frankly, enduring two weeks of smelling formaldehyde and having to use tools such as "skull crushers" on a baby pig really shows you if you're into science or not.
In AP Psychology, we had an entire unit focused on abnormal psychology. While I loved learning about the different neurotransmitters and structural abnormalities that caused psychological disorders, I also really appreciated how being educated in this discipline allowed me to better understand and help my friends and family who had mental illnesses. For me, I have found that these two disciplines (biology and psychology) are both interesting and very applicable to every day life, something that really draws me to them.
Unfortunately, the beginning of my interest in criminology and law is not as great of a story. Now, after taking a few classes about the legal system, I can come up with a better explanation as to why I think law is interesting, but initially the only thing I had to go off of was the fact that I thought that Legally Blonde was a really good movie.
(I still think that)
Though much of this blog is dedicated to showing and explaining why interdisciplinarity is so important, it is also important to remember how important it is to have a strong basis in each discipline. As the article "Where We Begin" puts it, "without the disciplines, interdisciplinarity would have nothing to build on, nothing to incorporate or weave together in order to find solutions to world problems." Developing a knowledge in different disciplines is what allows you to be able to use interdisciplinarity as a tool, so while being a "jack of all trades" is incredibly helpful, being a "master of none" isn't as great. In the future, I hope to use the knowledge that I have in these three different disciplines to bring people together, and find new and innovative solutions to pertinent problems in our world.
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