UCLA

This dissertation is a qualitative, ethnographic study of a graduate student interdisciplinary program at a major west coast research university. It focuses on educational encounters that occur between the student members of the program. The program is part of current trends to reinvigorate the humanities through engagement with other professional disciplines. These new areas have been organized around the banner of the new humanities, which often address large-scale, global problems through the creation of new knowledge frameworks and experimental methodologies. The program that was studied combines the humanities with spatial disciplines to understand contemporary cities in Asia Pacific, notably Los Angeles, Tokyo, Mexico City, and Shanghai. This dissertation examines the program from an educational standpoint, focusing on the pedagogical processes at work within and the long-term effects that it had on students, including trajectories of research and professional practice, as well as their understanding of contemporary cities. It argues that through a variety of encounters that are structured within the educational space, new interdisciplinary academic identities are created, which last longer than the program itself, spreading into lives and future work. It proposes a pedagogical theory where this happens through a process of collective and collaborative learning, thinking, and making. Empirically, it draws on participant observation from across five program years and follow-up interviews with a wide range of students.