Yeshiva University
ER-19: Interdisciplinary Research in Tenure and Promotion

Yeshiva University encourages the most up-to-date intellectual exchanges and encourages faculty and students to explore a variety of interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and research. Such research receives full support and faculty are encouraged to undertake such studies. Further, the emphasis on divisional and school-wide governance means that many of the usual obstacles to such studies do not exist. When it comes to tenure decisions, we have regularly given tenure to those whose research was either somewhat or even primarily of an interdisciplinary character and there has been no disagreement about this overall policy. We intend to continue to encourage junior and senior faculty to engage in interdisciplinary research, and to credit it fully in our tenure decisions. Of course, as in all matters, evaluation of such research and its validity are subject, especially at the tenure stage, to peer review and the usual academic procedures. Finally, one might say that our university is founded on the principle of the interdisciplinary intersection of the Judaic tradition with the Western intellectual and scientific enterprise. Einstein College’s policy on academic promotion rewards academic scholarship as defined by publications in peer reviewed scientific journals. As research has become exceedingly complex, making independent investigation all but impossible, the college rewards research performed collaboratively between disciplines. Scientific papers are now jointly presented with multiple investigators who contribute equally to the research. Promotion takes this into account.