Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects on the complexities and challenged linked to the practice of bidisciplinarity in an academic career.

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at the travails and (minor) triumphs associated with working in two disciplines, (linguistics and anthropology) which the author embraces freely and finds enriching. Reflecting on her academic practice spanning the last 25 years, the author reflects on how her engagement with linguistics has been shaped and challenged by anthropology and vice-versa. As a Passe-Muraille, someone who straddles the disciplinary boundaries, she analyzes the costs, risks and advantages of working from two disciplinary perspectives at a time when university administrators in North America are discovering and promoting bi-disciplinarity and multidisciplinarity as an academic must.