Higher education has long been departmental in nature (dating back to the 19 th century), and becomes more restrictive as a student moves from "interesting" Freshman seminars bridging a wide range of topics, through their major courses in a departmental area and finally into graduate school, where a single department awards their degree based on a usually narrow set of course requirements and a thesis or dissertation. However, in the 21 st century, investigators are finding that there are often tools, information, resources and even points of view from other disciplines that can elucidate and even answer the problem they are studying. Many studies recommend "big" solutions that require fundamental changes to hiring, promotion and tenure, funding and support, and evaluation of grant proposals and publications in cross-disciplinary areas. This study suggests a "small" solution: the creation of a compendium of arts-science-humanities cross-disciplinary curriculum that will encourage faculty to offer such courses.

Read more at http://seadnetwork.wordpress.com/white-paper-abstracts/final-white-papers/breaking-down-the-silos-curriculum-development-as-a-tool-for-crossing-disciplines-in-the-arts-sciences-and-humanities/