The paper frames interdisciplinary research as creating complex, distributed cognitive-cultural systems. It introduces and elaborates on the method of cognitive ethnography as a primary means for investigating interdisciplinary cognitive and learning practices in situ . The analysis draws from findings of nearly 20 years of investigating such practices in research laboratories in pioneering bioengineering sciences. It examines goals and challenges of two quite different kinds of integrative problem-solving practices: biomedical engineering (hybridization) and integrative systems biology (collaborative interdependence). Practical lessons for facilitating research and learning in these specific fields are discussed and a preliminary set of interdisciplinary epistemic virtues are proposed as candidates for cultivation in interdisciplinary practices of these kinds more widely.

We introduce “epistemic identities” as a concept helpful for understanding the dynamics of interdisciplinary science practice. After acknowledging the ambiguity of “identity” and examining divergent meanings, we argue that analysis of identity is necessary in order to account for social and personal dimensions of practice non-reductively, and to better understand values and implicit hierarchies in science practice, as these, in turn, influence cognitive practices. With reference to ethnographic data from two integrative systems biology laboratories, we analyze specifically three theories of identity in terms of their affordances for understanding intergroup characterizations in interdisciplinary problem spaces.