Plenary Address

Stacia Dreyer
Assistant Research Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University

Opportunities and Challenges in Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration

While the study of pressing issues from an interdisciplinary perspective is not new, funding agencies are increasingly calling for interdisciplinary research and collaborations. The academic publication record across the natural and social sciences and humanities reflects this trend. But what exactly is this type research and what is it good for? In this talk, Dr. Dreyer will discuss the multiple definitions of interdisciplinarity and the underlying assumptions that guide the call for this research. Using examples from her own research, she will discuss opportunities and challenges in interdisciplinary research and collaboration. Dr. Dreyer will also discuss her formative experiences at Truman State University, where she took multiple courses within the Junior Interdisciplinary Seminar Program.

Dr. Stacia Dreyer is an environmental social scientist broadly interested in the human dimensions of environmental issues. As an Assistant Research Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University, she works on projects related to the food-energy-water nexus, renewable energy, and other environmental and sustainability issues. She also serves on the Social Science Advisory Committee for the Puget Sound Partnership, a state agency which leads the effort to restore and protect Puget Sound. She received an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology and Behavioral Economics with the Sustainability Solutions Initiative at the University of Maine in 2014. After receiving her Ph.D., she completed three years of post doctoral training in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington. Dr. Dreyer first became involved in the field of conservation and environmental psychology while completing her M.Ed. in Environmental Education at Western Washington University. Most importantly, she completed her B.A. in Psychology at Truman State University. As a first-generation undergraduate student, she was a proud participant in the McNair Scholars Program while at Truman.

Dr. Dreyer’s interdisciplinary scholarship and mentoring has received international, national, and local fellowships and awards. As a 2012 Endeavour Research Fellow, she completed part of her dissertation research at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Western Australia and published her research on the Australian carbon pricing policy in Nature Climate Change. She was a Social Science Immersion Workshop Fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center from 2015-2016. In 2016, Stacia was awarded the University of Washington Postdoctoral Mentoring Award for her outstanding mentoring of graduate students.