Fifty Years of Interdisciplinary Teaching in Academe

Robert J. Nash has been a professor in the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont, Burlington, for 50 years. He attained graduate degrees in English, religious studies, applied ethics and liberal studies, and educational philosophy from Boston University, Northeastern University, University of Dayton, and Georgetown University, respectively. In 2003, Nash was named Official University Scholar in the Social Sciences and the Humanities at the University of Vermont, only the second faculty member in the history of the College of Education and Social Services to be so honored at that time. He has received the Joseph Anthony Abruscato Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship at the University of Vermont and the Gordon Fielding Lewis Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research from Pi Gamma Mu Honor Society, the largest social sciences honor society in the world. His books have won three separate Critics’ Choice Awards given by the American Educational Studies Association—one of the largest numbers ever awarded by this national scholarly association.

• Introduction – Section I. From Essentialism to Reconstructionism to Existentialism: The Early Impact of Theodore Brameld’s Work on My Philosophy of Education – An Introduction to the Sociopolitical Vision of Theodore Brameld (1904–1987) – To Be an Effective Educator, One Must First Be a Philosopher of Education – Looking at Specific Strategies in Brameld’s Teaching Philosophy – My Philosophical Evolution to Postmodern Existentialism – What Does the Quest for Meaning Have to Do With Interdisciplinary Study and Practice? – Section II: Creating an Interdisciplinary Education for College Students – Why the Need for an Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program? My Self-Study Report for the University of Vermont, 2018 – Offering My First Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar Four Decades Ago – Offering My First Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Seminar – Crossover Pedagogy: One Type of Interdisciplinary Coteaching – Section III. A Series of Personal Reflections on Teaching and Learning – What I Believe About Teaching and Learning: A Series of Hard-Won Teaching–Learning Aphorisms – A Letter to Robert: "What I Took Away From the Interdisciplinary Program" – Scholarly Personal Narrative Writing (SPN): An Anonymous E-Mail From a Junior Faculty Member – How to Teach Scholarly Personal Narrative Writing (SPN): A Syllabus – Deep-Meaning Learning: Ethics of Helping Relationships – Deep-Meaning Learning: Religion, Spirituality, and Education – Conclusion: An Anniversary Letter to My Readers.

“I have known Robert J. Nash for almost 20 years as a revered colleague, co-author, and friend. Dr. Nash has given his authentic self for several decades to the University of Vermont, his profession, his students, his colleagues, and to his friends. Dr. Nash goes through life as a mentor to many, always learning along the way. People will come away from reading this book feeling inspired and hopeful that their careers can be filled with generosity, ethics, and an in-depth understanding of humankind. Indeed, university presidents may come and go, students will come and go, but professors like Dr. Nash remain the bedrock of higher education.”—Richard Greggory Johnson III, Social Equity Fulbright Scholar and Professor and Department Chair of School of Management at the University of San Francisco