In this post, Anthony Skerik, co-editor of the Hot Topic: Navigating complexity through interdisciplinary learning and teaching, provides a Reflective Round-up of the 11 blog posts in the series (published July 2025), and offers five reflections to carry forward. Anthony is a third year undergraduate student on the MA Interdisciplinary Futures programme at Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Reflection lives at the heart of not only interdisciplinarity but education as a whole. In this sense, reflection is not a conclusion but a practice that allows us to engage complexity with curiosity rather than avoidance. As the Navigating Complexity Through Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching series ended, we were left with more questions than answers — as so often happens with interdisciplinary education. The answers to these questions lie in a set of reflections we carry forward: five reflections that guide us as we build corridors between disciplinary silos.
Reflection 1: Does interdisciplinarity live in mindset rather than in method alone?
Interdisciplinarity is often described as a set of methods: combining subjects, tools, or perspectives. But, as Professor Sabine Rolle reminded us in the first part of our interview, “That really depends on how you define interdisciplinarity — it’s a contested term.” For me, that contest lies in realising that interdisciplinarity is less about technique and more about orientation: openness, curiosity, and the ability to connect across differences.
This shift has been especially noticeable as we move into Honours years. At first, I tended to treat interdisciplinarity like a toolkit or something to be applied to problems. Now I see it as something that changes me as a thinker. As I put it recently,
“It’s been interesting to see how much those reflective skills and interdisciplinary approaches from our classes have shifted my perspective — in every part of my life, not just at uni.”
That change matters because it shows that interdisciplinarity isn’t confined to the classroom. It travels with us — into friendships, teamwork, and future careers — as a mindset that helps us sit with complexity rather than avoid it. Carrying this reflection forward means remembering that interdisciplinarity isn’t just a method to master, but a way of seeing and engaging with the world.
Reflection 2: Students bring more than skills; they bring stories, contexts, and perspectives.
Discussions about ‘readiness’ often lean toward assuming students need a solid disciplinary foundation to enter interdisciplinary learning. But in reality, it’s the rich diversity of students’ lived experiences that matter; their passions as well as academic and personal histories become the true foundation. As Meri Suonenlahti observed,
“we come into the lessons as our whole selves: with our interests; extra-curriculars; personal lives; academic backgrounds; cultural differences…”
I’ve felt this shift personally. At the start of my degree, I thought the value I brought to collaborations was mainly about academic skill or technique. Over time, though, I realised it’s the different life lenses my peers and I bring that create fertile ground for creative, empathetic learning. That realisation reshaped how I approach teamwork. I’m now more tuned into the stories behind each perspective and intentional about creating space for them.
Carrying this forward means moving beyond readiness checklists. Interdisciplinary learning thrives when everyone’s narrative is honoured as equal to their academic preparation. Thus the idea of readiness needs to transform from not a standard to meet, but as an opportunity to learn from the variety of perspectives in the room.
Reflection 3: What makes a degree ‘real’ in the eyes of academia?
Interdisciplinary programmes still face scepticism. They’re sometimes described as less rigorous or dismissed as ‘not real’ degrees, compared with the security of long-established disciplinary pathways. That scepticism forces us to confront the hierarchies that reinforce tradition and narrowly defined expertise, and that are rooted at the core of higher education.
For students, this isn’t just an abstract debate; it’s personal. When your degree’s legitimacy is questioned, so is your identity and future. I’ve felt that tension myself — the sense of having to defend my choices, of carrying the burden of proof. But legitimacy also shows up in the day-to-day work. As Samantha Banner reflected on her own experience of interdisciplinary teamwork:
“We struggled, but in those struggles, we learned far more than we would have if everything had gone smoothly.”
That messiness is not a weakness, it’s part of what makes the degree demanding.
Carrying this reflection forward means being alert to how value is assigned in higher education, and refusing to internalise scepticism as a sign of weakness. Instead, I see legitimacy as something we build through the work we do, the collaborations we form, and the contributions we make beyond the university.
Reflection 4: How interdisciplinarity can prepare graduates for roles that don’t even exist yet
One of the hardest questions facing a new programme is: what happens when your students graduate? With no alumni track record, interdisciplinary degrees can feel vulnerable to doubt about employability. But perhaps that’s the wrong way to measure value. Instead of preparing us for one specific career, interdisciplinarity equips us with habits of adaptability, creativity, and resilience that matter wherever the future takes us.
This perspective helped me rethink employability itself. At first, I assumed employability was about showing how my studies matched existing jobs. Now I see it differently: it’s about learning to thrive in uncertainty, to connect across fields, and to create opportunities rather than only seek them. As Gavin McCabe put it, interdisciplinarity trains us to “navigate complexity and ambiguity” — qualities every employer will need, even if the roles aren’t yet on job boards.
Carrying this reflection forward means treating employability less as a checklist and more as a posture of readiness. The real test of interdisciplinarity is not fitting neatly into today’s careers, but being prepared to step into or even shape the ones still to come.
Reflection 5: How governance, assessment, and culture can either hold back or enable interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it lives inside institutions. Yet universities are still structured around disciplines seen in their governance, assessment, and culture. These systems often struggle to recognise interdisciplinary work, and I’ve felt the tension myself: it’s one thing to practise new forms of thinking, but another to see them squeezed into frameworks designed for single subjects.
But interdisciplinarity doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel. As Sabine Rolle has suggested, the structures we already have give stability and coherence to the university. The task is not to throw the wheel away, but to add to it: a new spoke that strengthens it, a new angle that helps it turn more smoothly in a complex world. And as Jenny Scoles observed in her research, interdisciplinarity is “messy, contested, and evolving” — a reminder that the wheel itself is always in motion.
Carrying this reflection forward means recognising that institutions won’t transform overnight. Instead, interdisciplinarity adds to what exists, gradually making the wheel of higher education turn in ways that are better suited to navigating the complexity ahead.
Carrying our reflections forward
These reflections don’t close the book on interdisciplinarity – they open it wider. This series reminded us that complexity won’t disappear, legitimacy won’t come easily, and institutions won’t change overnight. But it also reminded us that mindset matters, that stories matter, and that together we can keep the wheel of higher education turning toward a more connected future. As we carry these reflections forward, the challenge is simple: keep the conversation alive — in classrooms, in research, and in the long interdisciplinary road ahead and above all, reflect on how interdisciplinarity is reshaping the way you learn, teach, and engage with the world.
Anthony Skerik
Anthony Skerik is a student at the University of Edinburgh and a member of the inaugural Interdisciplinary Futures class of 2027. His work explores how interdisciplinary thinking can be applied to real-world challenges, with a particular interest in conflict, innovation, and co-creation. He has held multiple positions within the University’s Information Services Group (ISG), supporting projects that bridge technology, communication, and education. As a co-editor of the Navigating Complexity: Preparing for the Future through Interdisciplinary Education blog series, he is committed to highlighting student perspectives and documenting the evolving landscape of interdisciplinary learning.
