Interdisciplinary Research in Higher Education: Beyond the Boundaries of Disciplinarity in Humanities

Abstract

Abstract
The twentieth century was a time of great changes and massive transformations on different levels including the relationship between different branches of knowledge. During this period, complex problems and questions have crossed the boundaries of disciplinarity and, thus, have urged the shift from traditional disciplinary research to the collaboration and intersection of different disciplines. However, many researchers and doctoral students seem unable to make a distinction between the use of interdisciplinary, trans-disciplinary and multidisciplinary researches, and they just use the key terms interchangeably. This paper intends to introduce a conceptual framework to guide doctoral students to better understand these key terms, which facilitate their choice according to the nature of their researches. Additionally, it explains why Interdisciplinary approach is important and why it should be given more attention in higher education, especially in literary studies. In addition to that, the article Supports the idea with examples from the researchers experience as doctoral students working on interdisciplinary research following the auto-ethnographic method. The case study of texts about the Mediterranean is introduced as a topic that requires developing interdisciplinary knowledge in different fields such as history, culture, and geography which is both challenging and unavoidable. Consequently, this paper can be a reference for doctoral students at faculties of letters and human sciences to have a clear vision on the main opportunities and challenges of conducting an interdisciplinary research.