According to Joe Moran’s Interdisciplinarity, “the long-standing division between the humanities and the sciences remains a resilient obstacle to interdisciplinary study.”(Moran 134) Moran’s chapter, Science, Space and Nature, goes in depth and “explores some of the connections that have been made in recent years between literary studies and the sciences.” (Moran 134) After reading through Moran’s chapter, I was able to see how the two disciplines that had once seemed so far from one another had suddenly grown closer together.
Earlier this month, I attended an ESEA, Elementary & Secondary Education Association, meeting where Professor Christine Green gave a presentation on literacy and its application to all disciplines. Professor Green emphasized that literacy can be practiced in all disciplines, not just English. Professor Green commenced her presentation by providing us with the definition of literacy, “the quality or state of being literate, especially the ability to read and write.” Throughout her presentation, Professor Greene provided examples of how literacy can be incorporated into certain disciplines, including the sciences. She explained to us that in order to think like a ‘scientist’ we have to be able “to read and write like one.” For instance, if one was to conduct a scientific experiment they would have to be able to read and understand certain scientific terms as well as write and respond to the material.
Therefore, as I read through Moran’s chapter I came across the terms travel writing and ecocriticism which led me to recall Professor Green’s presentation on literacy. Travel writing, according to Moran, is a genre of writing that intermixes “fiction, autobiography, history, reportage, and natural history.” (Moran 153) Ecocriticism can be defined as “drawing on the recent insights of the sciences, particularly biology, in order to read literary and cultural texts.” (Moran 157) In addition, the term ecocriticism illustrates how the two disciplines, humanities and science, connect because “ecocriticism explores the relationship between literature and other forms of culture and the natural world, often combining this with a commitment to raising awareness about environmental issues.” (Moran 154) As I continued to read more about these two terms, I saw travel writing as an example of “writing like a scientist” and ecocriticism as an example of “reading like a scientist” just like Professor Green had explained during her presentation.
Moreover, this connection between Professor Green’s presentation on literacy and Moran’s chapter, Science, Space and Nature, helped to further my understanding on how the two disciplines, humanities and science, interlace. According to Professor Green’s presentation, literacy plays a vital role in all disciplines and without it various disciplines would be difficult to comprehend. Therefore, without the humanities discipline certain aspects of the science discipline would be difficult to understand.