Interdisciplinary research has gained prominence as a necessity for addressing complex challenges, yet its impact on early academic careers remains unclear. This study examines how interdisciplinarity during doctoral training influences faculty placement at top universities across diverse fields. Analyzing the career trajectories of over 30,000 tenure-track faculty members who earned their Ph.D. degrees after 2005 and their initial faculty placement at 355 U.S. universities, we find that faculty newly hired by top-ranked universities tend to be less interdisciplinary in their Ph.D. research, particularly when they obtained Ph.D. from top universities and remain in their Ph.D. research field. This may reflect community trends towards homogeneity: at top universities, the existing faculty research is less interdisciplinary and more aligned with the candidates that they hire (who also exhibit lower interdisciplinarity). This preference disadvantages the placement of women graduates, who exhibit higher interdisciplinarity on average. Furthermore, we show that newly hired faculty with greater interdisciplinarity, when placed at top universities, tend to achieve higher long-term research productivity. This suggests a potential loss in knowledge production if top universities continue to undervalue interdisciplinary candidates. These findings highlight structural barriers in faculty hiring and raise concerns about the long-term consequences of prioritizing disciplinary specialization over interdisciplinary expertise.

翻译：跨学科研究作为应对复杂挑战的必要手段日益受到重视，但其对早期学术生涯的影响尚不明确。本研究探讨了博士培养期间的跨学科性如何影响不同领域顶尖大学的教职安置。通过分析30,000余名2005年后获得博士学位、并在355所美国大学获得初始教职的终身教职教师的职业轨迹，我们发现顶尖大学新聘教师在其博士研究阶段往往表现出较低的跨学科性，尤其当这些教师毕业于顶尖大学且继续从事博士研究领域时。这可能反映了学术共同体趋向同质化的趋势：在顶尖大学中，现有教师研究的跨学科性较低，且更倾向于聘用与其研究取向一致的候选人（这些候选人的跨学科性也较低）。这种偏好对平均跨学科性更高的女性博士毕业生的教职安置尤为不利。进一步研究表明，当跨学科性更强的新聘教师进入顶尖大学后，往往能取得更高的长期科研产出。这表明若顶尖大学持续低估跨学科候选人的价值，可能导致知识生产的潜在损失。这些发现揭示了教职招聘中的结构性障碍，并对长期优先考虑学科专精而非跨学科专业能力可能产生的后果提出了警示。