PITTSBURGH, PA (PTTP) – Feb 22 University of Pittsburgh faculty David Sanchez and Kristin Kanthak have been working with interdisciplinary practices to bridge urban and rural divides in Fayette County.
They have been working in collaborations with the ‘ARC’ otherwise known as the Appalachian Regional Commission to bring sustainability to Fayette County. Together they work with University of Pittsburgh undergraduate students as well, which incorporates interdisciplinary studies even further. As Kristin says, “by definition undergraduates are interdisciplinary” since they are taking classes in all sorts of fields to fill general education requirements.
The students can use their knowledge from different fields in order to come up with creative ideas and bring new excitement and perspectives to the group.
However, when it comes to interdisciplinary work there is often a language barrier. Throughout David and Kristin’s journey working together they have found this barrier to be prevalent and have been provided the opportunity to learn from each other. For example, the word ‘infrastructure’ has very different meanings for them. To Kristin it refers to political institutions whereas David views infrastructure as the physical infrastructure and the critical lifelines that allow a community to thrive.
Throughout their process of working together they have also had a few obstacles to work through. One of them being how it is not natural for separate disciplines to cross; you have to work in order to understand these different prospectives and new ideas. To successfully have interdisciplinary projects and research it takes a lot of commitment.