The students of Liberal Arts conducted an inaugural essay competition with the theme of 'The Role of Interdisciplinarity in our Lives' as part of our 'ECHO: Louder for Those in the Back' launch event.
Mr. Arun DM and Ms. Anagha Biju judged the submissions, and the result was a tie between Elijah Amish Nair and Vyakhya Vashishth of 2BALIB.
The following are the winning essays:
1. Multifaceted Opportunities by Amish Elijah Nair of 2BALIB
“Jack of all trades, master of none.” This is a phrase that is used for someone who, although is not a maestro or is not perfect at one certain skill, is good at handling many different fields of work and the like. This prepares them for life and the many things that it brings with it. Though used as a term to belittle people who are not masters in their art, there is a more complete version to this phrase that actually summarizes it much better. It goes something like this, " Jack of all trades, master of none, but better that master of one."
An interdisciplinary life is a life filled with different opportunities and chances that can lead to some amazing experiences. Before we get into its role and benefits, what is the meaning and essence of interdisciplinary? Interdisciplinary in its essence is not being confined to a certain branch of knowledge or technicality and understanding the way each branch interacts with the other. This helps by not only preventing seclusion of people and their space but also helps them to come together to solve issues and find methods of optimizing their branches to put up the best work.
A simple example would be from the world of science and technology. The branch of electro-magnetism came with the mixing of the two namesake branches and this helped solve many confusions that scientists had and also lead to many innovations that we use in our daily lives and of great benefit to us.
One of the major issues that people have with the introduction of an interdisciplinary lifestyle is that focus is lost because the person instead of putting all their effort into one subject have their fingers in different pies. But such a thought stems from an uneducated mind. Interdisciplinarity doesn't mean not perfecting one's craft. It means learning one's craft in a way that does not shutout everything and everyone else, but instead they are sensitive and develop themselves and what they do with that mindset.
In an effort to introduce interdisciplinarity to the Indian education system, the National Education Policy proposed in 2020 by the government of India sought to overhaul the older system and policy and bring in interdisciplinarity as one of the core principles of our education system. This is done through many different steps like the introduction of technology based educational tools and Liberal Arts as a course in higher education
The Liberal Arts programme is also based on the idea of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals and to include interdisciplinarity as an aspect into the life of college students. Instead of guiding them like a horse on blinders, it opens their eyes to the world and encourages them to explore various subjects like History, Political Science, English, Computer Science and the like and helps them understand each subject in its own context and the context of different and varied disciplines while keeping in mind sustainability and its impact on the planet.
An article written anonymously for The Open University states many benefits, especially for students. This includes critical thinking skills, application of different disciplines, consideration of varied viewpoints, motivation and sustained interests due to the opportunity of accessing various topics and subjects. As time moves forward and connection, communication and globalization take over the world, opportunities for interdisciplinarity in varied subjects will increase manifold and open up a lot of scope especially in the field of sustainability.
While interdisciplinarity can and does have an enormous impact on our lives, it is still in the stage of infancy and can have a greater impact on our life and society as a whole once its embraced more completely.
2. The Role of Interdisciplinarity in our Lives by Vyakhya Vashishth of 2BALIB
There are so many factors that shape us as human beings, including but not limited to the food that we eat, the communities we belong to, the friends we make and the culture that we grow up with. All of these contribute to our personalities, which ultimately shapes society as a whole.
The one aspect here that everyone fails to look at is the interdisciplinary nature of these factors. We often fail to understand their importance in our daily lives.
Interdisciplinarity brings different subjects and ideologies together to provide us with a wider perspective of the events and situations that surround us. We are able to connect with ourselves and the people around us in a better manner which eventually leads to the progress of society as a whole.
Lets have a look at socio-political issues, for example. We need to understand the impact it would have on the economy of the region impacted by them as well as its environment as a whole. For example, the Russia-Ukrainian War has posed a threat to not only the military and political relations of both the countries, but also a threat to the health of the civilians along with a humanitarian crisis at hand. All in all, it is a hindrance in the path of sustainable development for Ukraine and other nations as well. Paying attention to all of these factors before taking political action is very important in administration, and hasty steps often lead to massive backlash.
This is just one example that points out the importance of interdisciplinarity in our lives. Our identities are being constantly formed by the narratives we choose to put forth for the coming generations and if those narratives are just restricted to one perspective, then they might become problematic. Interdisciplinarity brings to the table a sense of inclusiveness-which is somewhere still lacking in human society due to various factors of human interaction and thus facilitates a better understanding of society as a whole. Thus, interdisciplinarity as an outlook aids further understanding of the events happening in our lives and shapes us not only as individuals, but also as alert citizens of the society.
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