Conversations Across Social Disciplines

What can bioethnography tell us about how we measure water access? What can archival research tell us about why policies fail? What happens when we quantify where teachers look to understand the dynamics of race in the classroom? What can randomized control trials tell us about diabetes self-management?

Social problems are complex, multi-layered, and historically embedded. Addressing them requires methodological and interdisciplinary innovation that moves beyond conventional approaches. However, this can be challenging. Crossing disciplinary boundaries can surface differences in language, training, and expectations about evidence and impact. Yet it is precisely in working through these differences that new insights and more effective responses become possible.

This event brings together researchers from Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, and Social Work to talk about how they are pushing methodological boundaries to better understand and address urgent social issues. Panelists will discuss the epistemological orientations embedded in different approaches, learnings from cross-disciplinary collaboration, and what methodological experimentation makes possible in both scholarship and practice.

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