The Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (GSIRI) offers Education and Human Ecology (EHE) graduate students an opportunity to collaborate in interdisciplinary research. The chief mission of GSIRI is to enhance collaboration, creation, and contribution amongst diverse graduate student burgeoning expertise in order to address the pressing educational issues that exist in our society.
The National Academy of Sciences (2005) defines interdisciplinary research as “research by teams of individuals that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge” (p. 188). Innovation and invention of unique ideas are more likely to take place outside the boundaries of disciplines, as such, EHE graduate students can benefit from cross-pollination with different sub-disciplines or fields of study. Such an approach offers a richness that can be applied to real world challenges. A major goal proposed by the Dean of EHE, Dr. Pope-Davis, is the integration of diverse research skill sets from across EHE. This proposed graduate student research initiative is a step towards meeting that goal.