Wicked Problems
An Interdisciplinary Project
Fall 2024
Produced by Students in the Interdisciplinary Studies, Individualized Degree Program (IDP) at Cal Poly Humboldt
Embedded Files
Fall 2024
"Interdisciplinarity is a path to take when we are confronted with phenomena that cannot be understood from one discipline alone, and only yield their secrets and fascinations when approached with new tools and from new perspectives that derive their methods from more than one discipline."
(Rényi 2000: 41)
Welcome to the Wicked Problems Project!
Wicked problems are complex issues that resist straightforward solutions due to their interconnected nature, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Whether it's climate change, homelessness, mental health, or bias in artificial intelligence (AI), these problems defy simple solutions because they are shaped by countless variables and often lack clear boundaries.
No single discipline holds the key to addressing wicked problems. Instead, it requires a collaborative effort that draws on insights from various fields—science, humanities, social sciences, and more. By integrating diverse perspectives, knowledge, and methodologies, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of wicked problems and develop holistic solutions that consider their interconnected nature.
Through this project, students in the Interdisciplinary Studies - Individualized Degree Program (IDP) at Cal Poly Humboldt explore a range of wicked problems, examining them from multiple disciplinary angles. The aim of the project is to expand understanding and showcase the power of interdisciplinary approaches in addressing the challenges of our time.
Click on the titles below to explore
Joe Davis
Joe Davis
Sea level rise due to climate change is having profound effects upon the Native People of Alaska who have lived there for centuries. Due to the melting of sea ice, permafrost, erosion and flooding, Alaskan Native People have had to leave their homes and can no longer access food sources, which have been vital to their existence for over 10,000 years. Alaskan Natives have also suffered negative impacts to their physical, mental, and emotional health. This phenomenon is having ripple effects throughout the entire state of Alaska.
The major disciplinary perspectives that will be integrated to explore this wicked problem include: Political Science, Anthropology, Ecology, Environmental Science, and Economics.
Today, we call on upon all the People of Alaska, all of our elected leaders, and the United Nations to form a working taskforce made up of State and Federal Agency Leadership, Alaskan Native Leadership, United Nations Leadership, Elected Leaders, Business Leaders, Philanthropists, and Scientists. Together we can get Alaskan Native lands and resources back into Alaskan Native hands, develop economic, ecologic, and environmental solutions, and help rebuild Alaskan Native health, identity, and life.
Jessica De Laguna
Jessica De Laguna
The Fawning Awareness explores the often-overlooked trauma response known as Fawning, which involves people-pleasing and suppressing personal needs to avoid conflict. Unlike the more familiar Fight, Flight, and Freeze responses, Fawning can go unnoticed, making it a "wicked problem" deeply embedded in personal behaviors and societal norms. This response, often rooted in childhood trauma, can lead to poor boundaries, codependency, and relational struggles in adulthood. Expert insights from Erica Ashby, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, shed light on the physiological and emotional aspects of Fawning, while personal stories from individuals like Marti and Riley illustrate how Fawning manifests in family dynamics and intimate relationships. The episode emphasizes the importance of awareness and trauma-informed education in addressing this response, advocating for an interdisciplinary approach that combines biomedical research, health education, personal narratives, and therapeutic support. By fostering self-compassion and offering tools like boundary-setting and mindfulness, the episode highlights pathways for healing and breaking the cycle of trauma.
Julie Gilbride
Julie Gilbride
"Homelessness in Higher Education: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Student Housing Insecurity," explores student housing insecurity from multiple disciplinary perspectives to better understand its complexities and develop potential solutions. Housing insecurity impacts students' education, mental health, and retention, while also affecting colleges and society. The project highlights systemic issues, such as rising tuition, inadequate financial aid, and housing shortages, which complicate policy solutions. It examines how disciplines like political science, communications, and journalism contribute unique insights into the issue. Political science reveals the role of systemic inequities and the importance of policy interventions, while communications emphasizes the power of framing and advocacy in addressing stigma and raising awareness. Journalism uncovers personal stories and systemic failures through investigative reporting. An interdisciplinary approach weaves these perspectives together, offering a more comprehensive path to solutions. Short-term and long-term strategies are proposed, including emergency housing, financial aid reform, and affordable housing initiatives. Collaborative efforts among government, higher education, and media are crucial to creating lasting change and supporting students facing housing insecurity.
Jillian Tietje
Jillian Tietje
AI systems are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in contemporary society, contributing to decisions in employee hiring, financial lending, criminal justice, and beyond. Laced with the biases of our world, AI is influenced by data that can amplify inequalities and inflict harm at every level of society. By outsourcing to AI for countless tasks, the demand for larger more energy intensive systems will expose the environment to greater threats of climate change. Intercepting the global challenges arising with widespread AI deployment will require multidisciplinary and multinational collaboration.
This inquiry focuses on the contributions of psychology, business, and philosophy. Psychology can explore how human cognitive biases may transfer to training models and offer useful tools for auditing AI. Business principles highlight how AI will be implemented in our everyday lives through industries like healthcare and banking, prompting discussions of corporate responsibility. In the scope of AI, philosophy will apply critical thinking to conversations of fairness, ethics, and justice. Short-term interventions should include extensive auditing algorithms, diversifying training data, and incorporating marginalized voices into the AI design process. Long-term strategies should include multinational collaboration for the development of global policies for ethical AI. Collectively, we must advocate for transparency in algorithmic decision-making so we can better identify biases. Furthermore, ethics and digital literacy should be taught in schools to prepare future users and developers. These steps can help promote equity and accountability across disciplines and industries so we can develop AI tools for a better future.
Jennifer Hamilton
Jennifer Hamilton
Welcome to "More Than A Game: The Athlete’s Mental Journey”, a podcast where we dive deep into the hidden world of mental health in sports. While athletes are often celebrated for their physical prowess, the mental and emotional challenges they face can be just as intense. In this podcast, we will explore the pressures, struggles, and triumphs of athletes from all levels, shedding light on the importance of mental wellness in the pursuit of success. From dealing with performance anxiety to overcoming setbacks, we'll hear from youth, coaches, and athletes themselves about the critical role mental health plays both on and off the field. Please join us as we break the silence, shatter the stigma, and provide valuable insights to help athletes at every stage of their journey.
Hannah Doran
Hannah Doran
The wicked problem I am addressing is the misconception that our society is not responsible for climate change and its enduring ramifications. This is an issue that needs to be addressed because the climate change that we are experiencing now is caused by human actions. If people do not believe that our society and consumerism is responsible for climate change, they will do nothing to change their own habits, politicians, or cause the social change necessary to disable our largest greenhouse gas polluters: money-grubbing corporations. Today, I will interview a friend of mine with a specialization outside of the field of natural sciences to get a better understanding of the public's understanding of climate change.
Jill Pelto Art - Climate Change Data
Jill Pelto Art - Tree Line Migration
Jason Robbins
Jason Robbins
Habitat loss is the single greatest contributor to species extinction and the loss of ecosystem services. Although it does depend, to some degree on, what research you are looking at, how that research was done, and what parameters they used. Both causation of species extinctions, and ecosystem service losses are inherently difficult concepts to research and quantify. They are also interdisciplinary, as a variety of scientific fields are involved in problems such as habitat loss. Still, it has been thoroughly demonstrated that there is a clear correlation between the loss of habitat, and the loss of species. (Horvath, 2019) In fact, according to some alarming estimates, “wildlife populations have decreased by an average of 70% in less than 50 years”. (Nelson)
Brian Kang
Brian Kang
Alesia Gonzalez-Glover
Alesia Gonzalez-Glover
Gaines Richmond
Gaines Richmond
This podcast Colonial Shadows: The Creation of the ‘Other’ explores the lasting impacts of colonialism by exploring the concept of “Othering”. This is a phenomenon, rooted in colonial legacies has resulted in exploitation of cultures, erasure of traditions, genocide and disruption of the balance between people and the earth. Throughout the podcast I bring together concepts from psychology, cultural studies and plants & people relationships. I work to advocate for seismic and systemic transformation, integration of indigenous knowledge and call on others to reject the notion of decolonization as a metaphor.
Colonial Shadows also reflects on my personal journey, a settler born with privilege and struggling with my intergenerational colonial legacies, and a desire to dismantle settler narratives. By holding space for reflection and action, this project aims to set the groundwork to engage critically with colonial histories and work towards an inclusive future. In the end, I invite the audience to confront the colonial shadows in their own lives and ask: “Whose ancestral land were your grandmothers born on?”
Matthew Smith
Matthew Smith
This essay explores how and why major engineering projects consistently run over budget and over time. Over 92% of major civil works projects in modern history have gone over budget and over time (Flyvbjerg and Gardner 2023). Even with the help of qualified and experienced professionals, most engineering project managers consistently struggle to keep a project on schedule and within the allocated budget. This wicked problem negatively affects all engineering and construction-related disciplines, wastes resources and materials, increases carbon emissions, contributes to environmental damage, and decreases the annual number of civil engineering projects while increasing their expenses. Stakeholders impacted by these overruns include taxpayers, businesses that support these projects, city planners, environmental groups, and local communites that live with extended noise and air pollution that these projects create.
Kaley Doroh
Kaley Doroh
My wicked problem project focuses on how poor mental health is passed on through generations, through epigenetics. The way our mind handles stress and anxiety is passed down through those before us. Our behavioral decisions and issues could be something that we have inherited down the line and there could be something in our genetic makeup that makes our brain react to certain situations or instances differently from other people and mental health and behavioral issues had to have a start somewhere. Although there is nothing directly in our genetics that says we are going to react to stress and anxiety a certain way, our genes can be altered to work differently because of environmental factors. I will be explaining how my knowledge in cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, and psychology can help me explain this issue. I use the example of my family to further explain how epigenetics works and that it is possible to break the cycle and to plant yourself a new, healthier family tree.
Elissa Kennedy
Elissa Kennedy
The mental health crisis for women and girls is a complex and interconnected wicked problem with profound implications for individuals, families, and societies at large. This podcast explores the multifaceted nature of this crisis, drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from psychology, social connection, creativity, coaching, and wellness. It delves into the statistics and prevalence of mental health issues, highlighting the gendered disparities in mental health, and discusses the historical context and barriers to care that have shaped how women’s mental health is addressed. The podcast also examines the broader social, economic, and cultural forces contributing to the crisis, including trauma, gender inequality, and the pressures of caregiving. By incorporating insights from diverse disciplines, the podcast offers a holistic view of the problem and explores potential solutions through community-building, creative practices, and wellness strategies. Listeners will gain a deeper understanding of how mental health in women and girls is a global issue with wide-reaching consequences, and how interdisciplinary approaches can create lasting, systemic change.
Isaac Levinson
Isaac Levinson
Social media has revolutionized how people connect, communicate, and experience the world. It has had many positive impacts on people, but underneath its glossy surface lie many complex psychological challenges for social media users. Right in the center of social media is a culture of constant comparison, where people's many unrealistic feeds and lives are shown, such as their success, happiness, and beauty. Specifically, platforms like Instagram and TikTok encourage users to post their best selves, making specific moments look like their everyday lives. The platform's primary goals are to offer entertainment and inspiration to users. Still, they also cause feelings of insecurity and self-doubt because the users compare their lives to the idealized images of others. Many studies have shown that excessive use of social media is linked to increased anxiety, depression, and poor self-esteem, mainly in young adults. This essay will examine how social media comparisons affect mental health and self-perception among many. By understanding the negative impacts that social media has on many people, users will be able to understand better how to avoid falling into the traps of negative self-perception and feel more confident.
Erin Delsigne
Erin Delsigne
The conflict between state cannabis legalization and federal prohibition exemplifies a wicked problem—an intricate issue with widespread societal impacts and no easy solutions. This disparity influences key societal institutions, including economics, criminal justice, healthcare, and cultural norms, creating challenges that ripple across human relationships and systems.
State-level legalization has unlocked economic opportunities, spurring job growth and tax revenues. However, federal prohibition stifles the cannabis industry’s potential by limiting access to banking, loans, and tax deductions, forcing businesses to operate in cash-heavy environments with significant financial burdens. Healthcare is similarly constrained, as federal Schedule I classification hinders research, perpetuates stigma, and limits the integration of cannabis into mainstream medicine.
Criminal justice and social equity are deeply impacted. While legalization reduces penalties in some states, federal prohibition maintains harsh consequences, disproportionately targeting marginalized communities. Thousands remain incarcerated for cannabis offenses, even as legal markets thrive. Additionally, small cannabis farmers and local businesses face inequitable competition against well-funded corporations due to regulatory imbalances.
Environmental and agricultural concerns emerge from this divide, including the rise of illegal grow operations that devastate ecosystems. The cultural and societal perceptions of cannabis also face tension, as state legalization normalizes use while federal prohibition sustains stigma.
Resolving this legal and cultural conflict requires federal legalization, enabling a unified framework to advance research, equity, and sustainability in the rapidly growing cannabis industry.
My Brain is Not an Insult
My Brain is Not an Insult
Riley Hulme
Riley Hulme
In this episode of the Wicked Problems Podcast, we will explore the effects of ableist slurs on both those with mental and intellectual disabilities as well as the wider public. We will examine how pervasive the use of slurs are in school, social media, work and politics, as well as brainstorm potential solutions to stop this epidemic. This episode will examine the issue through scientific journals, news reports, and studies to explore the birth of the problem, then use the lenses of education, journalism and communications, and psychology to develop an action plan. With interdisciplinarity, we can create a brighter and more accepting future for those with intellectual and mental disabilities, as well as the greater public.
Elaina Wilke
Elaina Wilke
In this time of technological advances, the world should be more connected than ever before. We can connect with people from all around the world, however individuals in the United States are struggling more than ever before with self-isolation. This isolation takes a toll on a person’s physical health and can lead to lasting deterioration of a person’s psyche.
Therapeutic Arts creates the opportunity to bring people together into a shared community of artists, giving them the tools to express themselves, show vulnerability and create community through the connectivity of therapeutic group art. Creating more opportunities for connection in our modern world may be the answer to the mental health crisis in our country.
People are more isolated than ever before because of advanced technology, such as social media, where comparing one's life to another can create a feeling of missing out or being alone (Alyssa Goldman). Economic struggles are also a factor, if someone is working three jobs in order to pay rent, finding time to spend with friends and family can be a real struggle. Worsening mental health can also cause isolation, often when people are dealing with complex emotional issues withdrawing is a form of self preservation.
This isolation, lack of community and increasing mental health issues are something to be taken very seriously. The CDC (center of disease control and prevention) states suicide as one of the leading causes of death in the United states. Statistics show over 49,000 people died from suicide in 2022, that’s 1 person every 11 minutes. (CDC).
Art By Leah Guzman
Christina Listoe
Christina Listoe
In this podcast, Christina Listoe explores the "wicked problem" of the decline of local artisanship and its far-reaching impacts on economies, communities, cultural heritage, and the environment. Through an interdisciplinary lens—including economics, sociology, cultural anthropology, and environmental studies—Christina examines how mass production has replaced skilled craftsmanship, leading to a disconnect between consumers and makers. Featuring insights from research and an interview with local ceramic artist Naja Teppe, the podcast highlights the importance of supporting artisans to preserve traditions, foster sustainability, and strengthen community ties. Christina concludes with actionable steps listeners can take to support local artists and small businesses.
Britni Williams
Britni Williams
Olivia Aldinger
Olivia Aldinger
One wicked problem that faces challenges to us all is the unsustainability of food systems. Food systems have a crucial role in global challenges related to the environment, society, and economy, and cause problems like resource depletion, ecosystem damage, and climate change (Bilali et al., 2018). The impacts of food production globally are devastating to not only the surrounding environment, but also impacts the future generations food security. Unsustainable agricultural practices contribute to soil erosion, deforestation, water contamination, loss of biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions. The degradation of our natural world is tied to the degradation of the food systems that we rely on. The scope of this wicked problem is global, and is relevant to everyone.
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