Mae Ngai on the interdisciplinary nature of ethnic studies

The field of ethnic studies has become increasingly interdisciplinary so there are a lot of specialists or experts who don't fit a traditional mold of a sociologist or a historian. They work across fields and so it's even more important I think that we have a department that can hire people who work across disciplines, who have really interesting conceptualizations that are really opening new frontiers of knowledge. So that's one of the most exciting things I think in in ethnic studies field right now is this interdisciplinarity so that also makes it even harder for excellence to be recognized in the traditional departments because they have a disciplinary view.