Originally published in听Carroll Capital, the print publication of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. .听
If you had just wandered into Professor Michael Smith鈥檚 class, From Knowledge to Wisdom, you鈥檇 find it hard to put a label on what the class covers. One minute, Smith and the students are dissecting the practical benefits of one AI engine over another. Next, they鈥檙e probing how the Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams) lifted the entire craft brewing industry, and then it鈥檚 on to Einstein鈥檚 theory of relativity. During a recent class meeting, the professor marched through these and other fields of inquiry, making several stops for perspectives from the Catholic intellectual tradition.
Much the same was happening that day in Professor Christine Rojcewicz鈥檚 class, Disciplines Collide, Wisdom Thrives. Both classes include, in their full course titles, the explanatory words 鈥淚ntegrating Humanities, Management, and Sciences.鈥� Both point toward a fresh initiative conceived at the Carroll School that seeks to bring interdisciplinary learning to a new level at Boston College.
The idea behind this 鈥渂ridge鈥� initiative, as it鈥檚 called, is that the most pivotal innovations rarely spring from a single discipline. 鈥淭he breakthroughs that actually听change things typically happen when ideas and methods from different fields bump into each other, challenge each other, and somehow coalesce into something new,鈥� says John and Linda Powers Family Dean Andy Boynton, who is shepherding the effort with Thomas F. Rattigan Professor Mary Crane, a Shakespearean scholar. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about connection, collision, and combination.鈥�
There鈥檚 already a bustling bridge at Boston College, which students have been crossing in record numbers. About half of the Carroll School鈥檚 more than 2,400 students are graduating with a major or minor at the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. Meanwhile, more than 2,000 non-Carroll School students are minoring in a management discipline.
In the new undertaking, Boston College looks to help students more actively integrate what they鈥檙e learning when they cross the bridge. That means designing coursework specifically for that purpose, in a way that engages students across the University鈥檚 undergraduate schools.
Think of the AI discussion in Smith鈥檚 class, which segued from the relative advantages of Claude (better for coding and reasoning) and ChatGPT (better for images and multimedia applications) to what Catholic social teaching might say about interacting with bots. Beware of treating robots 鈥渓ike a therapist, guru, or partner,鈥� the professor gleaned from teachings on human dignity. Also illustrative was Rojcewicz鈥檚 class on technological breakthroughs. She used social networking theories to throw light on a novel definition of technology as made up of 鈥渙bjects, people, and ideas.鈥� One student surmised, 鈥淚t鈥檚 when you put the different parts together that you get the innovation.鈥�
The two classes began this past spring as Portico courses for seniors. Boynton sees these as early versions of soon-to-be humanities management, and sciences, or HMS, courses. The bridge program will also involve co-curricular preparation for sophomores (lectures, retreats, etc.), along with coursework for juniors and projects in senior year.
Assistant Professor of the Practice Christine Rojcewicz and Associate Professor of the Practice Michael Smith
Helping to connect the H, M, and S are a stack of case studies prepared by Boynton. For example, there鈥檚 the case of the Manhattan Project. Theoretical physicists, engineers, manufacturers, military brass, and others worked at extreme speed to create the atomic bomb, all under a cloud of moral apprehension over the use of doomsday weapons.
Underpinning the course content is a wide spectrum of foundational ideas. Among many other theoretical frameworks, students explore the colliding forces of Hegel鈥檚 dialectic, the connections revealed in sociologist Mark Granovetter鈥檚 theory of 鈥渢he strength of weak ties,鈥� and Nobel laureate Paul Romer鈥檚 combinations of existing knowledge into new 鈥渞ecipes,鈥� or ideas.
Not coincidentally, the word 鈥渨isdom鈥� appears in the course titles. Boston College is preparing students for the exercise of 鈥減ractical wisdom to contribute to the common good,鈥� Robert L. and Judith T. Winston Provost and Dean of Faculties听 David Quigley told Rojcewicz鈥檚 class in April. Morrissey Dean Gregory A. Kalscheur, SJ, explained during a different class meeting: 鈥淲isdom is being able to see how things fit together in an integrated whole and making good decisions because you can see the relationships in this larger whole.鈥�
“ It's about connection, collision, and combination. ”
On another day, Smith asked students to share their experiences of interdisciplinary learning. They chimed in across the room. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not looking for the right answer,鈥� said a young man sporting a Boston College hoodie. 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking for different answers from different disciplines, connecting the dots and seeing the big picture.鈥�
The bridge initiative will begin during 2026-2027, initiating Boston College's biggest curricular innovation since the renewal of the undergraduate core curriculum more than a decade ago. Says Crane: "Nobody else is doing this in higher education."
