Anthropology and computer science faculty publish on interdisciplinary collaboration

Anthropology faculty Kendall House and John Ziker, alongside computer science faculty member Jerry Fails published an article in the journal Engineering Studies. The article, "Sharing Histories at the Intersection of Computer Science and Anthropology," was published online on Oct. 29, 2025.

The major premise of the article is that sharing disciplinary lore at the outset of a project can improve interdisciplinary collaboration. While there might be a number of ways to accomplish this, the authors share four brief, historical narratives describing significant past and current collaborations between anthropology and computer science. The final narrative is about the group's own recently concluded NSF project, Evolutionary Insights into Digital Ecologies of Fear. Interdisciplinary collaboration improves problem solving by bringing diverse perspectives to a given problem. Sharing narratives of past and present collaborations can help build interdisciplinary lore to ground future collaborations. Other Boise State coauthors include Jessi Boyer (Anthropology MA, 2024) and Michael Wendell (Computer Science MS, 2024).

The paper is a partial product of the National Science Foundation award 2210082.

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