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It doesn't feel like Julie is gone. I hear her voice in my head when I think research thoughts. I hear her laugh in work meetings. And of course, I read her thoughts all over the literature.

I met Julie as a first year PhD student at a SciTS conference. My mentor introduced us. She immediately exclaimed, "We must have lunch together. Tell me all about your background." This was certainly not the warm welcome I expected from a towering intellect!

As I shared my wending journey through 7 disciplines to the study of interdisciplinarity, she affirmed, "Well! Your diverse experience will certainly be an asset to our field." This was such a healing statement, as I had recently completed a traumatic master's degree with an advisor who did not believe in me. And here was Julie Thompson Klein telling me not only that I made sense, but that I was valuable! I felt seen.

That lunch time conversation gave me internal permission to lean into research on interdisciplinarity. Internal permission--an idea she developed recently with Kennan Salinero and colleagues--one of the most powerful and essential features of one's work in the world. Julie embodied internal permission and constantly catalyzed it for others, too. Julie gave me, and so many of us, confidence to ask our iconoclastic questions, propose heretical ideas, and blend sacred boundaries.

Thank you, Julie, for seeing each of us, and empowering us to go out into the world.

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So sorry to hear this. Julie was such a giant and such a champion for so many. for so many. My own trajectory was shaped in no small way be her. While I didn't have her as a prof in IDS at WSU, she was always supportive of me as a masters student there, and I happened to grab a copy of her IDS text book when she was clearing out offices or something. I took that book with me when I came to Columbia, and happened to see a thing in the back of it at AIS and started attending their conferences from the start of my doctoral program onward on account of that - which would bring me back into her orbit. Julie's championing of my work I'm sure contributed to my getting in to a HASTAC conference, where I made an early presentation on my comics dissertation, and met Cathy Davidson, who live-tweeted my talk. This was a near overnight change in interest in what I was doing - and it in no small way was due to Julie. I know that she offered this sort of support for so so many people.  Such a lovely Human. A true dynamo of compassion who touched so many people - and we were all better for it. She will be dearly missed. Among many other things, next conference I go to - I absolutely will take the conference bag & other swag - I know she’d appreciate. :) - Nick Sousanis

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So sorry to hear this. Julie was such a giant and such a champion for so many. for so many. My own trajectory was shaped in no small way be her. While I didn't have her as a prof in IDS at WSU, she was always supportive of me as a masters student there, and I happened to grab a copy of her IDS text book when she was clearing out offices or something. I took that book with me when I came to Columbia, and happened to see a thing in the back of it at AIS and started attending their conferences from the start of my doctoral program onward on account of that - which would bring me back into her orbit. Julie's championing of my work I'm sure contributed to my getting in to a HASTAC conference, where I made an early presentation on my comics dissertation, and met Cathy Davidson, who live-tweeted my talk. This was a near overnight change in interest in what I was doing - and it in no small way was due to Julie. I know that she offered this sort of support for so so many people.  Such a lovely Human. A true dynamo of compassion who touched so many people - and we were all better for it. She will be dearly missed. Among many other things, next conference I go to - I absolutely will take the conference bag & other swag - I know she’d appreciate. :) - Nick Sousanis

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Like others who have put it into such eloquent words, I just can’t believe that Julie is gone. And I can’t seem to adequately capture all the ways she was shiny and special without creating a big superlative soup. But as one lens to reflect on the ripple effect of her wonderful influence, I can point to some ways I am different for having known JTK. Like she did for so many, she showed me my own power in some ways. Because of her model and steadfast insistence:

1.     I can insist that kindness is always possible.

2.     I get to decide what my identity is about. Her avatar being an anime superhero was a perfect marker of this idea – in a world that loves to tell women who and what they are, she modeled that we can own our identities, and we get to choose what we’re about.

3.     I am confident that it’s okay to be a whole human self even as a professional, and it’s good to invest in making sure others can be their whole selves too. The resulting culture, trust, ideas, and creative impacts will be better for it.

4.     I can get better and better with age and there’s no reason to be anything but proud about growing wiser.

5.     The more inclusively and warmly we welcome people into our communities, the more magic we can make together.

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Some words I heard during the Intereach session 2023-Jan-24

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Some words I heard during the Intereach session 2023-Jan-24

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Dominant, fiery, friendly, and supportive.

Towering intellect.  Kind and humane person.

Powerful, ascendant.

A constant in our lives

A champion for others' work

Kind and humane person

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https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sawsan-khuri-178721b_legacy-kindness-interdisciplinary-activity-7021093218494631936-GHy7?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

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Sawsan Khuri on LinkedIn: #legacy #kindness #interdisciplinary | 33 comments

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What legacy do we remember most? This week we lost a brilliant woman. Julie Thompson Klein was a pioneer in interdisciplinary educational theory and practice… | 33 comments on LinkedIn

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I met Julie at the 2018 SciTS meeting, and wow what a force she was. I knew of her and her work, but never met her personally until then. She was so gracious and welcoming, almost like we were old friends. Every time we saw each other after that time and at any meeting we were in she was curious about what I was working on and so supportive. She will be dearly missed. To know that she made an impact on me, someone who didn't know her that well, symbolizes the force that she was. What an energy she had. What a loss. May she rest in the grand power that she exuded always.

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Although petite in stature, Julie was a towering figure in research and education in interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. Julie also nurtured colleagues at all levels of seniority around the world. Where possible, she supported our endeavours, contributing written pieces and talks, and tirelessly making connections. Julie eschewed tributes, but I am pleased that she allowed a special issue of Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies titled: The Work of Julie Thompson Klein: Engaging, Extending, and Reflecting, as this provided an opportunity for partial acknowledgement of her contributions.
Gabriele Bammer, Australian National University

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Haiku (from humanities) in honor of Julie’s humanity

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Haiku (from humanities) in honor of Julie’s humanity

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Amazing scholar

Fierce advocate for us all

Whom we miss deeply

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I have been reading all the eloquent, loving tributes to Julie through tears, and my tears continue to flow.  I am comforted and, of course, not surprised that I am not alone in feeling the pain and grief after hearing about Julie's death on Sunday.  It is still jarring, such a shock--for so many reasons. Her loss to the world of interdisciplinary studies (IDS) is immeasurable, but her loss to George, dear friends, and other family, even more so.

Julie and I met in the mid-70s at Wayne State University (WSU) and, with a number of other faculty across the disciplines, built the interdisciplinary studies (IDS) program for adult learners from the ground up. It was a highly successful program, eventually department, for 34 years, graduating thousands of grateful students with a Bachelor's and/or a Master's degree in IDS. In September 2007, solely for political reasons (the disciplinary departments were worried that their future potential students would flock to our department instead of to theirs), the administration and the Board eliminated our department. I was Chair at the time and had to preside, with a heavy heart, over dissemination of our faculty to their Ph.D. field departments. Julie went to English, and I went to the German area of a newly merged foreign languages department (Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures).

Julie had introduced me to the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) in 1984, I joined, and the rest is history.  Our regular communication, our annual participation in AIS Conferences, and our collaboration on projects continued through the decades.

It is hard for me to put into words my gratitude for my longtime friendship with Julie and appreciation of her generous mentorship of younger and more seasoned colleagues and students, at WSU and around the world. Her stellar contributions to IDS teaching, scholarship, and service are on all our minds and in our hearts. Julie was passionate about all of her professional work--to the end; she was an exemplary teacher, scholar, leader, and human being. The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies (ISP) and the English Department and other areas of WSU in which she was active were so fortunate to have her as a faculty member for decades, not to mention all the national and international organizations she helped create and nurture.

Julie’s ISP, English, and AIS families are devastated. No words suffice for the ache and profound loss we feel. Julie was and will forever be in a circle of love and admiration for all she was to her colleagues, friends, family, and students--and the global scholarly community.

And Julie: you never wanted to be the center of attention (I remember her saying that frequently and, most recently, as she zoomed into the AIS Conference at  Sonoma State University in November 2022 to respond to a panel that was discussing her latest book). But now, my beloved friend, you are exactly that.  And it is something that you would understand because those who loved and respected you and will forever love, respect, and miss you need this communication journey, this exchange of mind and heart, about you.

May Julie's memory always be a blessing to those who knew and loved her.

Roz (Schindler)

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Julie was one of the people who reached out to me during a tough time. I think she knew a "brave face" when she saw one. She made sure I knew there was a place for me in our interdisciplinarity community at a time when I felt adrift.