Designing Transdisciplinary Curriculum: A Dialogue between Engineering and Humanities

Abstract

The central problem addressed in this paper is the separation of Engineering Studies from the Humanities in our current engineering curriculum resulting in a myopic educational approach that does not take into consideration the holistic nature of either the planet or the engineering education. This separation of the humanities from the sciences, particularly engineering, has made it impossible for the engineering fraternity to effectively contribute to our twenty-first-century society. In other words, if all engineering problems are primarily human problems, then engineers need to be trained not only in the technical skills of engineering but also in social and human skills that enable the engineer to equally navigate the human world for whom all solutions are built. In this paper after exploring the problem, data is presented from the curriculum innovation that is currently underway at the Plaksha University. A case study of the course section ‘Entangled Epistemologies’ of a new transdisciplinary course called ‘Entangled Worlds’ is given. This paper demonstrates how the curriculum has been designed uniquely with contributions from both Engineering Sciences and the Humanities and thus is able to deliver a holistic understanding.