Interdisciplinary Kent: Three Films

As long time readers of this blog will know, I've been working with Jasper Bouverie of Funder Films to produce three short films celebrating the University's roots in - and on-going support for - interdisciplinarity. The films were finished in time to be premiered at Kent's 50th Anniversary shindig on 5 September, and are now available on its YouTube channel, below:

• Past: youtu.be/S4t0QSG4o84
• Present: youtu.be/CTvVnktO5yA
• Future: youtu.be/k3AUi3cqOG4

In presenting the films, Jasper gave a thoughtful and passionate introduction to the project, to why it was important to him, and why interdisciplinarity is important for us all. Here is a transcript of his words:

Interdisciplinary Kent: Premiere, 5 Sept 2015

An Eastern ARC interdisciplinary sandpit in May

The University of Kent was founded on strong interdisciplinary principles. It harnessed the mood of the time by questioning the siloed nature of learning, and the college structure was an attempt to encourage both staff and students in diverse disciplines to meet and interact. Whilst the departmentalisation of the seventies and eighties led to the loss of some of this serendipitous freedom, the ethos remained. The size of the University, the range of subjects and the concentrated campus encourages academics to meet others outside of their specialism.

Fundermental Top 10 of 2014

Last year I compiled a list of the top ten posts on Fundermentals, based on page views. As we inch towards Christmas, and before the deluge of the REF, I reckon it's time to do the same for 2014.

Beyond the Safety of the Silo

Earlier this year Nesta and the Technology Strategy Board, now known as Innovate UK, launched the £10-million Longitude Prize. The competition to choose the subject for the prize offered the public a feast of intractable problems, from which it had to select a winner. It was a fairly ghoulish spectacle, akin to an X Factor-style contest to choose the most dangerous Horseman of the Apocalypse. “But how important is dementia, really?” we were asked. “Is it worse than hunger? Or thirst? What about paralysis? Or Pestilence?”

“Pestilence” roared the audience, and the returning officer duly offered up antimicrobial resistance as the Horseman Most in Need of a Good Kicking, or a Christmas Number One, which might be the same thing.

Getting Interdisciplinary Work Published

Inter-Multi-Supra-Cross: grappling with definitions

I’ve talked about the difficulty of interdiscipinarity before (for instance here, here and here; no yawning at the back), but on Tuesday I was at a British Academy funded workshop for early career researchers (ECRs) which wrestled again with the subject. And you know what? There were signs of hope.

I want to focus in particular on the potential for interdisciplinary publishing, and especially the work of Sarah Campbell and Rowman and Littlefield International. Sarah is Editorial Director of this new, small scale academic publisher. She’s done her time in academic publishing, and worked at Continuum for a decade before starting RLI. Whilst it’s linked to a big sister in America, it is editorially independent, and being so has allowed her the freedom to start from scratch and think about how interdisciplinary research can best be served.