ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the most innovative hybrid scholars came to cross the borders of their original discipline. Among the scholars mentioned in the Encyclopedia, the diversity is so great that any attempt at classification risks being arbitrary. There are three basic types of scholars: the pioneer, the builder, and the hybrid. The pioneer is the scholar who expands the territory of a given discipline, who pushes forward the frontier of his or her discipline. Builders are scholars who specialize in a discipline which has already been defined by the pioneers, and they are important innovators in the maturing discipline. They may discover regularities and causal relations through empirical research, create theories, develop concepts and methods, or establish disciplinary organizations and journals. The hybrid scholar is a border crosser, who penetrates territory held by another discipline or who establishes a province carved out of the territory of two or more disciplines.
