Osnabrück Summer Institute on the Cultural Study of the Law

In keeping with OSI tradition, we’re pleased to launch our institute with a workshop on interdisciplinarity, which this year will be convened by Arthur Rose and Devin Zuber.

The introductory workshop begins the OSI’s weeklong exploration of the relationship between law and culture by addressing the challenges and opportunities offered by ‘interdisciplinary’ approaches to research and teaching. Moving beyond a single discipline is both exciting and increasingly necessary in the face of the world’s ‘wicked’ problems. But it can also be uncomfortable, uncertain and lonely, confronting emerging scholars with multiple potential subject areas whose integration poses unexpected pitfalls. Drawing on readings about interdisciplinarity and emphasising the students’ individual research projects, this session will approach interdisciplinarity through a focus on experimentation, a complex form of knowledge production that often operates beneath the level of discipline, in response to concrete problems, to establish its objects of inquiry. Together, we will think about how we decide on the definitions, groups, issues and situations we study, and how this awareness may help us adopt new research strategies. Along the way, we will engage with cognate issues such as the translatability and transferability of texts and concepts; the representations of gender, race, and sexuality; and the role of the critic in society. This workshop will provide a foundation for the other discussions in the week by encouraging its participants to reflect upon the assumptions, ethos, and value of their critical practice.