Yale Symposium Highlights Multidisciplinary Approaches in Higher Education

Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) took center stage at a Yale symposium on April 5, 2025, when Dean Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, led a discussion with four distinguished Yale faculty members on the challenges and opportunities in higher education.

The event at William L. Harkness Hall was one of two symposia marking Maurie McInnis’ inauguration as Yale’s 24^th president. Faculty members, leading thinkers from various disciplines, explored how Yale uses a multidisciplinary approach to address complex problems – combining different perspectives to enhance understanding and find optimal solutions.

The Yale faculty who participated on the panel were:

• Dr. Ned Blackhawk, PhD, Howard R. Lamar Professor of History
• Dr. Heidi Brooks, PhD, senior lecturer in organizational behavior at Yale School of Management
• Dr. Enrique De La Cruz, PhD, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and the head of Yale’s Branford College.
• Daniel C. Esty, JD, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy; clinical professor of environmental law and policy, and director of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy

They discussed the intersection between academia and practice, including Yale’s impact on communitas and how university faculty, students, and staff collaborate across policy and political divides to make the world a better place.

The conversation echoed YSPH's vision of linking science and society, making public health foundational to communities everywhere. As Dean Ranney explained, the field of public health works across disciplines. “This intellectual closeness is something that’s tremendously interesting to me, and one of the things that sets Yale apart in the world.”

Dean Ranney began the conversation by asking the faculty members to describe their academic journeys and how they bring their knowledge and experiences into the classroom. Their answers touched upon ideas including how to find opportunities in the gap between current experiences and aspirations and using the past to inform the future.

“If you pay attention to life, there’s a whole curriculum laid out in front of us,” said Dr. Brooks. “There’s a way we can look at the gap between what we’re experiencing and what we wish we were experiencing, individually and collectively, and call that the opportunity to bridge the gap.”

Dr. De La Cruz highlighted the importance of critical thinking. “In the classroom, we emphasize not teaching what to think, but teaching students how to think. When you acquire knowledge from learning, you can connect dots that you’ve never seen, and this changes the entire landscape and perspective of what you do. And with that comes a great deal of independence, comes a great deal of comfort and assurance. And on a good day, it brings a great deal of confidence.”

As a historian, the past helps Dr. Blackhawk shape new knowledge and new learning. The first tenured Native American at Yale, he is the author of The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, which won the 2023 National Book Award in nonfiction.

“The field that I committed to didn’t really exist when I started graduate school, and certainly not at the primary academic programs in America,” he said. Creating change by applying knowledge, learning new things, and challenging interpretative paradigms “has been deeply satisfying personal experience,” Blackhawk said.

The discussion pivoted to interdisciplinary collaboration at Yale and how the idea of interdisciplinarity is changing in the 21^st century. “In the field of public health, we work inherently in collaboration with other fields,” Dean Ranney said. “Public health is foundational to many parts of society.”

Esty, a professor at Yale Law School and Yale School of the Environment with secondary appointments at Yale School of Management and the Jackson School of Global Affairs, commented: “I spend a lot of time on public health and have public health students in almost all my classes.”

These days, knowledge creation requires a broader view that considers complex societal challenges,” Professor Esty said. “It’s a joy to be at a place that has endorsed that view,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to be in a place where the big development campaign of the past few years has been for Humanity.”

Dr. De La Cruz added, “You don’t need to be interdisciplinary if you’re solving a very simple problem that’s specialized, but certainly complex problems require broad perspectives to truly solve them.”

“It’s so amazing to be at Yale in so many ways," Dr. Brooks said. “At some point, if you’re not intimidated by other faculty, students, and staff, you’re probably not paying attention. The interdisciplinary perspective is what’s interesting.”

But, she added, “I’m not impressed until there’s impact in the world,” reflecting one of YSPH’s strategic initiatives to enhance the school’s community-first focus.

Often, the past informs the future, Dean Ranney noted, pointing out that Dr. Blackhawk and other historians have created a new field of study in American history.

“Among the truisms among academic historians is that the future is certain, it’s the past that’s unpredictable,” Dr. Blackhawk said. “American history provides a useful lens for understanding cultural analysis more broadly and shifting uncertainty.”

He continued, “here is a fact you will never find in a U.S. history textbook: The oldest permanently inhabited places on the North American landscape are Native American villages in New Mexico and Arizona. How we create knowledge to understand ourselves has to be grounded on certain essential truths.”

“The world is changing,” Dean Ranney said, asking the faculty for their visions of the future and how Yale shapes that future. At YSPH, she said, the school community is participating in workshops about compassionate dialogue and civic discourse. The workshops are designed to help YSPH faculty, students, and staff engage in dialogue with diverse populations to promote knowledge.

Dr. De La Cruz mentioned the need for a better understanding of the complexity of science. “What I would like to see in the future of the academy is for all of us to be reminded that mistakes are how we learn,” he said. “I think too often, particularly in science, people want immediate results and answers. But the truth is we learn from our mistakes, and we shouldn’t be penalized or criticized for that.”

Professor Esty envisioned building a bridge over the country’s partisan divide and is launching an environmental protection training program for congressional staffers that requires Democrats and Republicans to attend together. “I think we have to find ways to hear each other,” he said.

Dr. Brooks agreed that conversations can make a difference, including in the workplace. “The most profound leadership move you can make is to have a meaningful conversation, to ask someone a question about their experience on your team at work,” she said. “Most adults have their most profound interactions at work – this is a work interaction that you are watching here.”

Dr. Blackhawk emphasized addressing the negative impact of technology on young people. “Reading novels, writing papers, attending conferences, going to the art gallery, attending exhibitions, coming to an inaugural ceremony – these are things that engage and inform citizens.”