Interdisciplinary Identity: An Exploration Through Poetry

Identity is shaped through the integration of one’s beliefs, experiences, relationships, choices, and other such phenomena, and the resulting identity created by an individual continues to feed back into this process by influencing future identity formation. In consideration of the numerous factors contributing to identity, this Honors Thesis accumulates an interdisciplinary understanding of identity by pulling from 17 research disciplines and uses this knowledge to inform a collection of poems centered on the theme of my own identity exploration. The Repko (2008) model for interdisciplinary research was loosely followed and using this framework highlighted the interconnectivity of literature research and, from a broader perspective, knowledge in general. A second framework was chosen to further encapsulate this knowledge and apply it to my own identity. Marcia’s Identity Status Theory is a fluid model by which I was able to understand the different identity statuses I was illustrating through poetry (Marcia, 1966; Marcia et. al., 1980). The poetry component of this project included completion of a poetry workshop and creation of a twenty-eight-poem chapbook. Together, the interdisciplinary research and identity model offer insight into the identity connections presented in this collection of poems. However, the frameworks used in this project are limited in that they do not completely capture the true essence of identity. While many disciplines’ contributions to identity research were considered in this Honors Thesis, identity is such a large concept that it is difficult to completely capture my own identity, let alone the identities of others. While others may find research articles or poems they relate to and may possibly learn about themselves from what is presented in this document, identity is unique to each individual and a proper compilation of identity research would need to be far more extensive than the reach of this Honors Thesis.