The multi-institutional initiative New Directions: Science, Humanities, Policy (http://newdirections.unt.edu) will to conduct a four-day workshop in New Orleans early in 2006 on the theme of "New Orleans, the Mississippi Delta, and Katrina - Lessons from the Past, Lessons for the Future." This workshop builds on previous New Directions efforts to promote the integration of ethics and values concerns with scientific and technical knowledge to address pressing societal issues. This workshop will focus on the environmental and societal challenges surrounding New Orleans/Mississippi Delta in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Responding to the devastation followed by Katrina requires an appreciation of the interrelated perspectives of various fields, such as geology, hydrology, historical geography, ecology, economics, history, ethics, urban planning, policy, cultural analysis, and a host of other disciplines. This workshop will provide a forum to explore how to improve communication and integration across these fields. How do we identify and integrate the pertinent knowledge necessary for addressing this catastrophe, as well as for anticipating and responding to similar possibilities in the future? Each day's session will be structured around two or three themes, where specialists will give presentations on relevant topics, which will then be treated as catalysts for interdisciplinary discussion on the two overarching themes of the workshop. The intellectual merit of this project is that it will deepen our understanding of the interconnections between disciplines in addressing societal challenges. The natural sciences and engineering are good at providing knowledge about the physical world. The social sciences and humanities are good at providing knowledge of the social world. But as Katrina's devastation has demonstrated, we must also understand the intersection between things and people: between the natural environment, science and engineering, and social orders. The broader impact of this proposal lies in its potential for improving the relevance of scientific and engineering knowledge to the social realm. Results from this workshop will include publications and course development using New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta as means for exploring the importance of interdisciplinary research in order to properly respond to crises like Katrina. Less standard deliverables will include the creation of new partnerships between academia, decision makers, and the public at large. Workshop and related materials will also be collected on the web for use by science, engineering, social science, humanities, policy classes, decision-makers, and the public to further interdisciplinary problem solving.
