Dr. Stephanie E. Vasko has been appointed Managing Director of the MSU Center for Interdisciplinarity (C4I). The three-year appointment is effective October 23, 2017, through October 22, 2020.

Vasko is currently a Research Associate and the Program Manager for the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative (TDI), a research effort housed in the Department of Philosophy at Michigan State University. She also is among the first cohort of Fellows for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Community Engagement Fellows Program. During her fellowship year, which began in January, she has worked on strengthening communication and collaboration within the TDI community, as well as developed new approaches for TDI workshop offerings. Within TDI, Vasko helps teams and groups develop their collaborative capacity and internal communication.

Housed in the College of Arts & Letters, the MSU Center for Interdisciplinarity will advance interdisciplinary research and pedagogy at Michigan State University while preparing the next generation of citizen leaders to address the most challenging questions of our time.

Interdisciplinarity is the theory and practice of combining two or more academic disciplines to address complex questions in a broader and more nuanced way than is possible from a single disciplinary perspective.

As Managing Director of C4I, Vasko’s primary responsibilities during her first year include assisting Interim Director Michael O’Rourke in conducting a strategic planning process for C4I, developing C4I’s community engagement/management strategy, and serving as the C4I community manager. She also will help develop C4I’s infrastructure and will assist with planning and organizing C4I events, including an international conference and interdisciplinary colloquium.

“I am extremely excited and honored by the opportunity to join the Center for Interdisciplinarity in this capacity,” Vasko said. “I’m looking forward to working with scholars and students at MSU on developing new and exciting approaches to interdisciplinarity, as well as to working with our local arts and maker communities to build community-engaged interdisciplinary opportunities.”

I am extremely excited and honored by the opportunity to join the Center for Interdisciplinarity in this capacity.

Vasko brings with her nearly a decade of experience in interdisciplinary research and collaboration. Her current research focuses on archival explorations of the interactions between chemistry and design and has been featured in Chemical and Engineering News.

She has a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Nanotechnology from the University of Washington.

“Dr. Vasko’s wide-ranging interdisciplinary expertise in the humanities, arts, and sciences make her the perfect choice for this leadership position in C4I,” O’Rourke said. “I’m very excited to work with her in making C4I a hub for interdisciplinary activity at MSU and beyond.”