PostNormal Times

Claremont Graduate University
PostNormal Times

PostNormal Times is a podcast for our complex reality and unpredictable world—a world where the stakes are high and innovation is crucial. Andrew Vosko, PhD, associate provost and director of transdisciplinary studies at Claremont Graduate University (CGU), and his guests explore ideas that transcend traditional academic boundaries and address our most pressing needs. Get ready to challenge your assumptions.

  1. 11/01/2024

    Peter Drucker: Transdisciplinary Pioneer

    0:00: Andrew welcomes guests Bernie Jaworski, who’s the Peter F. Drucker Chair in Management and the Liberal Arts, and Trevor Anthony, who’s a cultural studies PhD fellow.   3:10: Andrew introduces the episode’s thesis: Peter Drucker—generally considered the father of management—is one of the 20th century’s great unrecognized transdisciplinarians.   4:37: Bernie discusses his professional journey, including 15 years as a traditional academic as a tenured professor at the University of Southern California, 10 years as a management consultant with the Monitor Group, and then 13 years in his current position as the Drucker Chair.   8:45: Bernie describes a cornerstone of Drucker’s vision and work: the role of organizations in the functioning society.   11:30: Trevor adds commentary on Drucker’s background and how his experience of the collapse of the Old World in Europe as a youth left him with a respect for results. He connects and contrasts what he calls Drucker’s “constructive” vision with the popular “critical” tradition of the humanities and specifically of cultural studies.    15:35: Following Andrew’s notion of the challenges and opportunities of world collapse, Bernie describes Drucker’s revolutionary contributions to topics such as values, mission, purpose, and ethics in the realm of business in the 1950s—and thus why Drucker considered management a liberal art.   22:00: Andrew prompts a discussion of Drucker’s self-description as a “social ecologist.”    30:00: Andrew, Bernie, and Trevor discuss the essential optimism embedded in Drucker’s work, the practice of management, and transdisciplinary work in general.

    51 min
  2. 07/15/2024

    Tougher Than It Looks?

    0:04: Host Andrew Vosko welcomes guest Patricia Easton, professor of humanities.   1:45: Patricia talks about her tenure overseeing the transdisciplinary studies program at Claremont Graduate University and her background as a philosopher.    4:50: Patricia talks about the evolution of the sciences from natural philosophy into various branches and sub-branches connected by bridge laws.    8:51: Patricia talks about the breakdown of bridge laws in the attempt to connect the sciences to the humanities, such as history, as they were forced to acknowledge the complexity of the material world.    9:57: Andrew and Patricia discuss the role the Second World War played in advancing the need and practice of applied—transdisciplinary—knowledge.    12:28: Andrew considers the roots of transdisciplinarity in Jean Piaget.    14:45: Andrew and Patricia discuss synthesis as a key aspect of transdisciplinary work.   20:16: Patricia discusses her students’ processes for coming to grips with so-called “wicked” problems.    25:00: Patricia discusses a case study featuring the integration of the arts and public health initiatives.    26:48: Andrew and Patricia discuss the arts as knowledge generation.   36:12: Andrew brings up the moral and ethical dimension of transdisciplinary work.   38:08: Patricia talks about the challenges and complexity in achieving work for the public good.   41:55: Andrew talks about the transdisciplinary mindset that results from the recognition of the complexities involved in “wicked” problems, ethical research, etc.    47:47: Andrew and Patricia talk about who put the trans in transdisciplinarity, and why.

    52 min
  3. 12/14/2023

    Future-Proofing Your Future

    0:00: Host Andrew Vosko welcomes guest Michelle Bligh, interim executive vice president and provost of CGU and professor of organizational behavior in the Division of Behavioral & Organizational Sciences. 1:30: A Claremontian, Michelle traces her trajectory from an undergraduate at Pomona College to how an anthropology course changed her direction. 4:15: Andrew elaborates on the debt that transdisciplinary thought owes anthropology. 5:30: Michelle describes how a study abroad program led her to a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, and then into a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies and then a management PhD. 11:30: Michelle describes how serendipity—the 9/11 attacks—led her back to Claremont. 15:30: Andrew talks about the challenges and opportunities that occur in moments of crisis, when worlds collapse, and how we tend to react. 17:50: Andrew talks about the value of a transdisciplinary education in future-proofing your future. 19:40: Michelle talks about her decision to join CGU. 22:45: Michelle talks about what she learned from her first experience teaching. 24:50: Michelle describes mentoring as a collaboration. 30:45: Michelle describes two noteworthy classes that she has been teaching for over 20 years, including one in leadership/followership, and an MBA course in management she taught at the NEOMA Business School in France with 24 students from 24 different countries. 38:00: Michelle talks about navigating another world collapse after returning to the United States during a heavily charged political moment and having to advocate leadership. 42:30: Andrew talks about the need to embrace complexity when advancing true solutions. 46:00: Michelle talks about making the jump from dean to provost. 49:10: Andrew and Michelle talk about the beauty of imperfect systems. 52:30: Andrew asks if the current crisis of higher education is actually another world collapse. 57:00: Michelle discusses the opportunities presented by world collapse and the possibilities to be extracted through transdisciplinary work for reconfiguring education.

    1h 1m

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

PostNormal Times is a podcast for our complex reality and unpredictable world—a world where the stakes are high and innovation is crucial. Andrew Vosko, PhD, associate provost and director of transdisciplinary studies at Claremont Graduate University (CGU), and his guests explore ideas that transcend traditional academic boundaries and address our most pressing needs. Get ready to challenge your assumptions.

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