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I know that social science major who refused the category “scientist”. I remember her describing that class afterwards. It’s interesting to see it from the other side of the dynamic, as the professor giving those categories, not the student “refusing” it. I asked her about it tonight, and she says she doesn’t remember refusing it outright, but rather saying that she had never thought of herself as a “scientist”, that that was a word reserved for harder sciences. So in that way, I suppose, she didn’t refuse the label, but just never felt like she had it in the first place.

Questions for Anne:

1. Do you think that being interdisciplinary within rigidly defined disciplines makes you and other professors part of the dancing or the necessary feminism, as defined by Derrida? I’m inclined to say both, as you work within the system of cross-listing and fulfilling requirements, but also force, as Sonal discussed, students to experience more than one discipline at a time.

2. Do you think there is such thing as a feminist science? Or is it actually more like ‘doing science as a feminist’?

Questions for fellow students:

1. Have you noticed a difference in the kind of discussion or types of assignments in class that are cross-listed? Is it better or worse to take a cross-listed class? Are there some combinations that work better than others?

From my own experience, I’ve enjoyed the overlaps between Political Science and Philosophy, but not Comparative Literature and English…which seems counterintuitive to me, as the latter two fields are more closely related. Perhaps it is the bringing together of differences that is effective, not shades of grey.