Sam Krakower, Interdisciplinary Studies
Sam Krakower, a Coast Guard member based in Anchorage and originally from New Jersey, is pursuing a unique interdisciplinary graduate degree focused on Arctic Security. His studies integrate policy, environment, military strategy, geography, and politics to provide a holistic understanding of the Arctic, recognizing the Coast Guard's growing need for expertise in this domain. He emphasizes the value of interdisciplinary approaches for those seeking to explore unconventional academic paths. Sam took the time to answer some questions about himself, his educational journey, and the value of an interdisciplinary degree.
What鈥檚 your educational background?
My undergrad was at the United States Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, and I earned a Bachelor of Science in Government. I also have a joint professional military education certification from the US Naval War College, and that was in Rhode Island.
Why are you pursuing an interdisciplinary degree?
Arctic security, at large, is still relatively new and not necessarily well established as its own discipline yet, which makes an interdisciplinary approach perfect because it's grabbing from all sorts of different regions from policy to environment, to military science, to geography, to politics, etc. It makes sense for it to be interdisciplinary because it's requiring a number of disciplines to have a true holistic view of what 鈥榓rctic security鈥� is really means.
Can you tell me more about your role as a Coast Guard officer?
I鈥檓 from New Jersey originally, but I鈥檓 currently stationed here in Anchorage. The Coast Guard provided the opportunity for us to pursue this degree, while also working with the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies. The degree program is more on the academic side of the holistic Arctic worldview, and then they're giving us some conference experiences. For instance, went up to Utqia摹vik in January to see the Arctic, in real time, in the winter.
How do you believe the interdisciplinary degree might be different from a single discipline degree?
To be able to look at different disciplines and how they apply to the Arctic region is important. To just focus on economics or just the policy pieces is missing key components of what the arctic really is and what its future looks like. You can't talk security without the environment or the military aspect or the policy piece, so you have to combine all these things together, which is what interdisciplinary does, and that's what makes it perfect right now for what we're trying to do.
What advice would you offer a student thinking about pursuing an interdisciplinary degree?
It's definitely worth it. There鈥檚 perhaps a negative connotation with interdisciplinary studies that it's not as useful or important, but truly any degree is what you make of it. To find something you're passionate about or want to look into, even if it's not necessarily a true academic discipline, it doesn't mean it's not worth pursuing. Interdisciplinary sets you up for future opportunities to look into different things that other people really haven't, because it doesn鈥檛 exist as a discipline yet. You鈥檙e really carving out a path for yourself and for future people to look at. We鈥檙e in the second year of this Arctic Security degree, and already there's a host of folks I know that are interested in in pursuing this either with the Coast Guard or outside of it, and civilian folks as well. It means that something's there, and the more people that look into it and get opportunities like this, it just kind of proves how successful you can be with interdisciplinary studies.
Do you feel there鈥檚 been a shift towards interdisciplinary learning and thinking in general, especially towards the future?
Things are moving at such a rapid pace in today's world, in terms of technology and other advancements. Disciplines as a structure are not necessarily bad on their own, but there's a recognition, now more than ever, that you need multiple disciplines to understand things from a wider approach. It鈥檚 not to say that if you do public policy, you're not going to get more than just the public policy piece. I think in the future, interdisciplinary is going to become way more common and I don't think that's a bad thing. It's really how you want to structure your education and just with the understanding that with interdisciplinary, you're going to have a wide scope.
Are you finding anything challenging about the specific type of degree? How are you overcoming or tolerating that?
Through the interdisciplinary program, you're getting a lot of different classes that don't necessarily look like they mesh at first glance. For instance, I just came from Arctic Environmental Security, and one of my other classes is Issues in Arctic Policy. What can be difficult initially is trying to merge them together and getting to the crux of 鈥榟ow does this work with this other class to make sense of what you're trying to learn鈥�? But through time, it's easier to find those points. Because it's such a wide breadth of things, there will be some difficulty in trying to connect certain pieces of some classes with others, but eventually it all starts to flow together, especially with more time.
Thank you for sharing, Sam! Learn more about our Interdisciplinary Program or Arctic Security Program.