Miami University

Newell recognized for contributions to interdisciplinary studies

William H. Newell (School of Interdisciplinary Studies) has received the Kenneth E. Boulding Award from the Association for Integrative Studies (AIS), a national professional association for interdisciplinary teachers, scholars and researchers.

The award is given to a person who has made major, long-term contributions to the field and has clarified or expanded the concept, understanding and enactment of interdisciplinarity. Because it is given to someone of outstanding accomplishments, it is only awarded on rare occasions.

His “overall contribution to the theoretical, pedagogical and institutional development of interdisciplinary studies in the United States is unparalleled in its sustained and particular qualities of exuberance, variety and excellence,” the Boulding committee said in its nomination letter.

Newell has served as AIS’s most active consultant and external evaluator and spearheaded an effort to train other interdisciplinary consultants. He founded and directed for a decade the Institute in Integrative Studies, which provided intensive training for faculty and administrators.

He has a long history of creating and editing significant and path-breaking works such as Interdisci-plinarity: Essays from the Literature (1998) and “A Theory of Interdisciplinary Studies,” recently published in Issues in Integrative Studies. He also puts those theories into practice, particularly in the areas of curriculum development and pedagogy. As a professor of interdisciplinary studies for three decades, he has created more than a dozen different, rigorous and cutting-edge courses.

He was the founding president of AIS and has served as its executive director for 25 years.

Date Published: 11/20/2003
Volume: 23   Number: 16