Bibliography

Bibliography main page; Theorizing UI; Doing UI;Types of UI; Calls to action; Barriers to UI; Proposed solutions; Funding; Critiquing DI; Who does UI; Where UI is or can be done; Being disciplined

Proposed Solutions 

These entries provide suggestions, guidance, and/or methods for how to overcome barriers to the pursuit of undisciplined inquiry.

Archibald, J.-A. 2008. Indigenous Storywork. University of British Columbia Press.

Publisher Abstract: Indigenous oral narratives are an important source for, and component of, Coast Salish knowledge systems. Stories are not only to be recounted and passed down; they are also intended as tools for teaching. Jo-ann Archibald worked closely with Elders and storytellers, who shared both traditional and personal life-experience stories, in order to develop ways of bringing storytelling into educational contexts. Indigenous Storywork is the result of this research and it demonstrates how stories have the power to educate and heal the heart, mind, body, and spirit. It builds on the seven principles of respect, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, holism, interrelatedness, and synergy that form a framework for understanding the characteristics of stories, appreciating the process of storytelling, establishing a receptive learning context, and engaging in holistic meaning-making.

Categories: Theorizing UI; Doing UI; Types of UI; Proposed solutions; Where UI is or can be done

Atleo, E. R. / Umeek. 2005. Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview. University of British Columbia Press.

Publisher Abstract: Western philosophy has long held scientific rationalism in a place of honour. Reason, that particularly exalted human quality, has become steadily distanced from the metaphysical aspects of existence, such as spirit, faith, and intuition. In Tsawalk, hereditary chief Umeek introduces us to an alternative indigenous worldview -- an ontology drawn from the Nuu-chah-nulth origin stories. Umeek develops a theory of "Tsawalk," meaning "one," that views the nature of existence as an integrated and orderly whole, and thereby recognizes the intrinsic relationship between the physical and spiritual. By retelling and analyzing the origin stories of Son of Raven and Son of Mucus, Umeek demonstrates how Tsawalk provides a viable theoretical alternative that both complements and expands the view of reality presented by Western science. Tsawalk, he argues, allows both Western and indigenous views to be combined in order to advance our understanding of the universe. In addition, he shows how various fundamental aspects of Nuu-chah-nulth society are based upon Tsawalk, and what implications it has today for both Native and non-Native peoples. A valuable contribution to Native studies, anthropology, and philosophy, Tsawalk offers a revitalizing and thoughtful complement to Western scientific worldviews.

Categories: Calls to action; Proposed solutions; Theorizing UI; Doing UI; Critiquing DI; Barriers to UI; Where UI is or can be done

Bartlett, C., Marshall, M. & Marshall, A. 2012 Two-Eyed Seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing. J Environ Stud Sci 2, 331–340

Entry asks the question - in developing curricula that weave in indigenous ways of knowing, what can curriculum developers do to ensure that their efforts remain true to indigenous ways of knowing and indigenous knowledge systems? Entry discusses development of and problems with the Integrative Sciences, a science degree program at Cape Breton University, run by members of the Mi-Kmaw community of the Eskasoni First Nation. Authors discuss with lessons learned from their experience, including being guided by two-eyed seeing, which authors claim is their most “profound” lesson (p. 334, 335). Authors then discuss how two-eyed seeing can be pursued, and explains how two-eyed seeing as an ongoing process that enables recognition of indigenous knowledge systems. Entry then discusses how two-eyed seeing fits with broader calls for transdisciplinary research, and considers some critiques of the concept.

Categories: Theorizing UI; Doing UI; Calls to action; Proposed solutions

Burkhart, B. 2019. Indigenizing Philosophy Through the Land: a Trickster Methodology for Decolonizing Environmental Ethics and Indigenous Futures. Michigan State University Press.

Author Abstract: Land is key to the operations of coloniality, but the power of the land is also the key anticolonial force that grounds Indigenous liberation. This work is an attempt to articulate the nature of land as a material, conceptual, and ontological foundation for Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and valuing. As a foundation of valuing, land forms the framework for a conceptualization of Indigenous environmental ethics as an anticolonial force for sovereign Indigenous futures. This text is an important contribution in the efforts to Indigenize Western philosophy, particularly in the context of settler colonialism in the United States. It breaks significant ground in articulating Indigenous ways of knowing and valuing to Western philosophy—not as artifact that Western philosophy can incorporate into its canon, but rather as a force of anticolonial Indigenous liberation. Ultimately, Indigenizing Philosophy through the Land shines light on a possible road for epistemically, ontologically, and morally sovereign Indigenous futures.

Categories: Calls to action; Proposed solutions; Theorizing UI; Doing UI; Critiquing DI, Types of UI

Jenkins, C. 2021. “Do Gender Norms Enforce a Divide Between Literature and Philosophy?” in New Statesman.www.newstatesman.com/ideas/agora/2021/07/do-gender-norms-enforce-divide-between-literature-and-philosophy

Project Abstract: in this piece Jenkins highlights how a definition of philosophy as the discipline inquiring into objective, universal, and impartial truths is used to divide philosophy from literature, and how this divide is gendered. Philosophy’s supposed objectivity and impartiality is masculine, while the partiality of literature and its ability to induce strong emotions is feminine. Jenkins highlights how this gendered divide is invoked by philosophers and writers themselves, and explains why this divide should be abandoned.

Categories: Critiquing DI; Barriers to UI; Proposed solutions

Kimmerer, R. W. 2013. Braiding Sweetgrass. Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions.

Publisher Abstract: An inspired weaving of indigenous knowledge, plant science, and personal narrative from a distinguished professor of science and a Native American whose previous book, Gathering Moss, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing. As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what it means to see humans as "the younger brothers of creation." As she explores these themes she circles toward a central argument: the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the world. Once we begin to listen for the languages of other beings, we can begin to understand the innumerable life-giving gifts the world provides us and learn to offer our thanks, our care, and our own gifts in return.

Categories: Proposed solutions; Doing UI; Types of UI; Who does UI; Where UI is or can be done; Barriers to UI

Kimmerer, R. W. 2022. “The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance,” in Emergence Magazine.

Author Abstract: As Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and ecological systems to reimagine currencies of exchange?

Categories: Theorizing UI; Doing UI; Barriers to UI; Types of UI

Leon, A., Mendes, W., and Jovel, E. 2019. “Decolonizing Framework for Land-based Pedagogies,” in Canadian Journal of Native Education 41, pp. 37-58.

The entry concerns the implementation of indigenous knowledge practices and decolonization of pedagogy by the Medicine Collective and the Indigenous Health Research Education garden at UBC in Vancouver. Authors describe how sharing food and food knowledge strengthens relationships across different First Nations and strengthens potential for advocating for indigenous land-based knowledge, while operating within a colonial institution. The entry describes how the Medicine Collective implements a five-component based approach to indigenous land-based pedagogy, and describe how this approach can help “re-imagine the interconnectedness of “all my relations”” (p. 43). The entry also discusses challenges faced engaging with the ever-changing student body and staff members at UBC, as well as challenges the members of the Medicine Collective faced trying to balance their own protocols with supporting the protocols of other First Nations. Authors then suggest next steps UBC could take to integrate indigenous land-based pedagogy.

Categories: Doing UI; Proposed solutions; Calls to action

Loveless, N. 2019. How to Make Art at the End of the World: A Manifesto for Research-Creation. Duke University Press.

Publisher Abstract: In recent years, the rise of research-creation—a scholarly activity that considers art practices as research methods in their own right—has emerged from the organic convergences of the arts and interdisciplinary humanities, and it has been fostered by universities wishing to enhance their public profiles. In How to Make Art at the End of the World Natalie Loveless draws on diverse perspectives—from feminist science studies to psychoanalytic theory, as well as her own experience advising undergraduate and graduate students—to argue for research-creation as both a means to produce innovative scholarship and a way to transform pedagogy and research within the contemporary neoliberal university. Championing experimental, artistically driven methods of teaching, researching, and publication, research-creation works to render daily life in the academy more pedagogically, politically, and affectively sustainable, as well as more responsive to issues of social and ecological justice.

Categories: Calls to action; Theorizing UI; Proposed solutions; Doing UI; Critiquing DI; Being disciplined; Types of UI

Ludwig, D. and El-Hani, C. 2025. Transformative Transdisciplinarity: An Introduction to Community-Based Philosophy. Oxford University Press.

Publisher Abstract: In the face of planetary crises -- from biodiversity loss to climate change to food security -- transdisciplinary methods promise effective and just responses through equal collaborations. However, transdisciplinarity also creates complex challenges by bringing together different actors with different frameworks, like scientists, Indigenous and local communities, and policy makers. Successful collaboration among such actors requires navigating different forms of knowledge, worldviews, values, and positions of power. In Transformative Transdisciplinarity, David Ludwig and Charbel N. El-Hani synthesize insights from the philosophy of science and empirical action research to address these challenges through a framework of partial overlaps. On the one hand, the framework highlights the overlapping concerns and perspectives of actors that provide common ground for collaboration and mutual understanding. On the other hand, it emphasizes partialities that require navigating differences and tensions between actors. This book addresses the fundamental epistemological, ontological, and political questions of transdisciplinarity through this framework of partial overlaps, aiming for a transformative vision of collaborative science in the face of planetary crises.

Categories: Calls to action; Critiquing DI; Barriers to UI; Theorizing UI; Proposed solutions

Maracle, L. 2015. Memory Serves. NeWest Press.

Publisher Abstract: Memory Serves gathers together the oratories award-winning author Lee Maracle has delivered and performed over a twenty-year period. Revised for publication, the lectures hold the features and style of oratory intrinsic to the Salish people in general and the Sto: lo in particular. From her Coast Salish perspective and with great eloquence, Maracle shares her knowledge of Sto: lo history, memory, philosophy, law, spirituality, feminism and the colonial condition of her people. Powerful and inspiring, Memory Serves is an extremely timely book, not only because it is the first collection of oratories by one of the most important Indigenous authors in Canada, but also because it offers all Canadians, in Maracle's own words, "another way to be, to think, to know," a way that holds the promise of a "journey toward a common consciousness."

Categories: Calls to action; Theorizing UI; Doing UI; Proposed solutions; Critiquing DI; Being disciplined; Who does UI; Where UI is or can be done

Murthy, V. 2023. “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community.”https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf

Author Abstract: This advisory calls attention to the importance of social connection for individual health as well as on community-wide metrics of health and well-being, and conversely the significant consequences when social connection is lacking. While social connection is often considered an individual challenge, this advisory explores and explains the cultural, community, and societal dynamics that drive connection and disconnection. It also offers recommendations for increasing and strengthening social connection through a whole-of-society approach. The advisory presents a framework for a national strategy with specific recommendations for the institutions that shape our day-to-day lives: governments, health care systems and insurers, public health departments, research institutions, philanthropy, schools, workplaces, community-based organizations, technology companies, and the media.

Categories: Calls to action; Proposed solutions; Where UI is or can be done

Truman, S. 2022. “Undisciplined: Research-Creation and What It May Offer (Traditional) Qualitative Research Methods” in Qualitative Inquiry 29.

Entry discusses feminist materialisms, feminist-informed ethical, theoretical, and artistic engagements with research planning to production to dissemination. Entry also discusses how theories from one discipline are subjectified when they are taken up by researchers from different disciplines. E.g. taking a theory that attempts to describe the world and using (or appropriating) it to explain one’s own engagement with an institution. Entry provides a particular method for UI that the author has developed. Describes a series of “movements” or stages to the process. These are: Situated speculation; rigorous activation; emergence (or emergent emergency); affirmation (or affirmative refusal); more-than-representation. Entry also proposes what universities can do to support UI. This includes: Move away from supervision under “factory model” of academia (factory model = function of academia to produce standardization, efficiency, compliance); encourage reading and give time for reading; collaborate with students on research-creation projects; allow exploration at early stages of career; redefine career benchmarks; cultivate ways of engaging with theory and with empirical methods; have enabling constraints (avoid ‘anything goes’); pay people (and pay them upfront, and pay them for repeated uses of their work). 

Categories = Doing UI; Proposed solutions

Truth and Reconciliation Committee of Canada. 2015. Calls To Action.https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/calls_to_action_english2.pdf

Project Abstract: A list of proposals that aim to redress the legacy of the Residential School System in Canada and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation. 

Categories: Calls to action; Proposed solutions

University of British Columbia. 2020. UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan.https://aboriginal-2018.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2021/06/UBC.ISP_StrategicPlan2020-SPREAD-Borderless-REDUCED.pdf

Project Abstract: A report detailing the steps and initiatives UBC has undertaken as part of the Canadian reconciliation process, and a plan for next steps.

Categories: Calls to action; Proposed solutions

Unveiling the Essence and Impact of Transdisciplinary Research

Undisciplined Project report from the Research on Research Institute

https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.27088756

Project Abstract: the entry investigates how research funders define UI, and looks at a variety of ways of defining UI from different funding bodies. The entry posits that “UI” is polysemous, and the authors describe 3 facets of meaning for UI: Academic/non-academic partnerships; values; and societally impactful research outcomes. The entry describes how proposals for UI research can be properly evaluated, which requires institutions to utilize mixed panels with diverse perspectives of expertise and/or stakeholders, in order to counteract biases, ensure balance, and to address power imbalances within panels. The authors also provide recommendations for how funders can support UI projects across different researchers, including providing time for partnerships to develop, providing funding for early stages of projects, and guiding and training for applicants for funding of TDR projects. The authors also discuss how when UI goes wrong, differences between participants become salient over their shared research goal(s)

Categories = Calls to action; Proposed solutions; Theorizing UI; Funding