Useful, and Not Wrong: Interdisciplinarity as Public English Studies Practice

Abstract

This paper presents a model of English Studies that accounts for its methods, objects of study and knowledge produced. Proposing that English Studies produces knowledge that is relevant to the discipline and beyond it, the paper outlines the range of publics for which English Studies might be useful. On the basis of that model, it focuses on interdisciplinarity as a public English Studies practice, locating interdisciplinarity in the first instance as engagement with the public that consists of other disciplines within academia. It offers a three-fold taxonomy of interdisciplinarity: synthetic interdisciplinarity, synchronic interdisciplinarity and locative inter¬disciplinarity. Each is explained in turn and modelled visually in relation to the English Studies model offered at the outset, and its key elements: disciplines, methods, objects and knowledge. Each type of interdisciplinarity is illustrated with reference to my own practice of it, including my storylistening work, my collaborative research into artificial intelligence, and my BBC broadcasting. The case is made throughout for the necessity of disciplinarity for any productive interdisciplinary work, as well as for the flexibilities required in order to practice it effectively. The paper emphasises the value that interdisciplinarity presents to English Studies in terms of public advocacy for its practices and as an impactful extension of them, enabling the knowledge English Studies methods produce to be useful beyond the discipline.