Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities

Abstract In recent decades, interdisciplinarity has become a central concept in the organization of knowledge, the solution of complex problems, and the reconsideration of disciplinary boundaries. However, much of the existing literature has focused mainly on knowledge integration and has paid less attention to how interdisciplinary collaborations move beyond temporary interactions and become stable and legitimate discourses within the scientific field. This article addresses this missing link by introducing the concept of interdisciplinary rituals. Its central argument is that interdisciplinary rituals consist of recurring linguistic, interactive, cognitive, institutional, identity-forming, and legitimizing patterns that enable the transition from epistemic difference to knowledge integration and interdisciplinary discourse formation.
Adopting a theoretical-conceptual approach, the article revisits the relationship between knowledge, scientific practice, and discursive stabilization through the lenses of interdisciplinarity studies, discourse theory, and ritual theory. In this framework, the perspectives of Klein and Repko on interdisciplinary integration are examined alongside the works of Foucault, Laclau, Durkheim, Turner, Goffman, and Catherine Bell on rituals as mechanisms for producing order, meaning, identity, and legitimacy. The article argues that interdisciplinarity is not simply the result of combining disciplines and methods, but depends on a process of ritualization through which repetition, recognition, norm formation, and trust shape a shared epistemic community.
Accordingly, the article proposes a conceptual model that begins with epistemic difference and culminates in interdisciplinary discourse formation. Its main contribution lies in shifting the analytical focus from integration to stabilization, and from collaboration to discourse-making.

Abstract ABSTRACT
Global discourse increasingly positions Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) as an inevitable horizon for the smart conservation of cultural heritage. Yet this technology-centered discourse presupposes the existence of governed data infrastructures and faces substantial challenges when translated into contexts such as Iran. Drawing on an interdisciplinary and critical framework that brings together critical geography and spatial studies, public administration and public policy, and critical Science and Technology Studies (STS), this article argues that the central challenge in the management of cultural heritage in Iran lies not in the absence of sophisticated technologies, but in the lack of governed data infrastructures as the fundamental precondition for digital transformation. This study adopts a qualitative approach and employs methodological triangulation through critical discourse analysis of policy documents, particularly the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy; analysis of institutional performance data; and field observations conducted within the governmental body responsible for cultural heritage management. The findings show that the structural absence of integrated and standardized databases has reduced the discourse of heritage smartification to a “Smartification Illusion,” producing a condition conceptualized here as the “Pre-Data Stage”. In response to this structural misalignment, the article proposes a phased framework of heritage data governance in which the establishment of governance arrangements, standards, and institutional capacities is treated as a prerequisite for investment in advanced analytical tools. It concludes by emphasizing the need to redirect attention and resources away from performative technological initiatives and toward the foundational task of building robust data governance structures.