Enhancing the Intercultural Dimension of Teaching and Research Through an Interdisciplinary Approach

Abstract

As world becomes more intercultural and emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches increases, the university teachers and
researchers need to reflect such changes in their daily work. This paper identifies a need for inclusion of interdisciplinary teaching and
research in the Albanian higher education curricula and research. In order to demonstrate not only the importance of such enterprise, but
also the advantages that such an approach offers, we focus on two disciplines: anthropology and fiction. Observation, description and
creative writing are elements that we encounter in both disciplines. In this paper, we examine how each of these components presents
itself in each of the targeted disciplines from the ancient world until today, identifying the stylized writing as an important intersection of
anthropology and fiction. It is precisely this intersection placed in specific social, cultural and historic contexts, we argue, that helps
students better understand and enjoy either literary or anthropological work. Thus, we identify and scrutinize passages from the
Maghrebian and Albanian works that could be used in the classroom to demonstrate how cultural anthropological aspects are
intertwined.