A note on interdisciplinary research, from an arts student

Another morning like others on Appledore Island, we waked up at six, ate breakfast at the dining hall, a few footsteps from our dorm, then slogged to the classroom, a few stairs down a rugged path, with clouded minds still in our half-awake sleeps. The lecture was on systematics, the study of biodiversity through phylogenetic reconstruction and evolutionary pattern, taught by our beloved Dr. Warren Allmon, who jolted us out of drowsiness with his electrifying presence.

It went on for a while, then Warren stopped at his drawing on the board to quiz us on how to group three branches on a hypothetical tree. Amidst some “almost” and “not quite,” I raised my hand to suggest all of them can be grouped together.

“I’ve noticed that you’re quite an inclusive person,” he said to me, implying that my answer was wrong. Everyone chuckled, including me. The class continued with overlapped answers, amusement, and confusion.

Although the specifics of this moment have escaped me, what remains till this day—as the only arts student with no prior knowledge of college biology surrounded by science classmates—is that I was different.

Warren probably saw in me something that others didn’t have, with “inclusive” being an analogy for that gap between me and my classmates. I brought something different to the table. A taste of the humanities for the scientific connoisseurs, as I’d like to say.

And I am proud of it.

Sometimes being a social sciences/humanities person in a room full of scientists does feel like an impostor. You’re the “odd one out.” They know things that you don’t. You inevitably feel left behind.

But keep in mind that the opposite is true, too. You know things that they don’t. You’re more attuned to, and better equipped to analyze, the social transformations happening worldwide, while your peers are “grinding away” to collect cell cultures on a petri dish, for example.

Let it be known to those who still hesitate to switch lanes and fret about dabbling into unfamiliar territories:

1. Both disciplinary realms—arts and sciences—are equally worthy of pursuit and acknowledgement.
2. They overlap more than you think.
3. Embrace yourself and the unknown.

There is much to learn from the sciences, just as there is much that the arts have to offer.

From that moment onwards, I have gained increasing clarity on my decision to pursue an interdisciplinary research journey that merges insights from both kinds of knowledge, somewhere along the lines of policy, ecology, and social justice.

Apparently, there is some purchase to the humanities “baggage” that I brought with me to Shoals Marine Laboratory, from the day I arrived at the port to the day I waved goodbye.

To 10-year-old Nhuan, thinking he would be a fashion designer: You wouldn’t know how much you’ve “evolved.” Look at what you’re writing with a gull feather pen in hand, twelve years later, on an island off the coast of America!