The Art of (Disciplinary) Fudging

A whimsical piece I wrote on "The Art of Fudging" appeared this weekin the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here's a link courtesy of theDuke News Service: Commentary: The art of fudging (Chronicle of HigherEducation)
Cathy N. Davidson, a professor of interdisciplinary studies and English, on ?the deep roots of disciplinary fudging.? http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i17/17b00501.htm.

The clip is alsoincluded with a live link in the Duke in the News section of DukeToday, www.duke.edu/today.

I argue (relying on Toni Morrison, Howard Gardner, Dan Ariely, Franz de Waal, George Lakoff, etc) that fudging often arises at moments when there is the deepest conflict in a discipline. As an interdisciplinary outsider, one often can see the fudge more clearly than those in the discipline itself. But that's not surprising. As an interdisciplinary outsider, one does not have to answer to the long, involved, complicated, contested history in the same way one does as a disciplinary insider.

Thus, "The Art of Fudging."

---------

Delicious fudgy image courtesy of Flickr community member Angeliker. Please click on it for more images and full documentation.