The world faces a plethora of pressing issues today, including intensifying geopolitical tensions, climate change, the rapid advancement of AI, widening social and economic divides, and the erosion of international cooperation. It is commonly agreed that these global challenges are the result of a combination of factors and can therefore not be understood in isolation. Many also concur that these challenges, prevalent in many parts of the world, require international cooperation to be solved. Where international cooperation on a political level is currently failing, education is being called upon to carry on the huge responsibility of cultivating global citizenship, promoting intercultural understanding, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration in pursuit of shared solutions. However, these challenges and transformations increasingly blur reality and challenge traditional ways of thinking, learning, and living, urging us to reconsider traditional educational frameworks in which we expect interdisciplinarity to work.

The first part of this Forum series on the topic of interdisciplinarity was held during our June conference in Paris, where delegates explored the barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration and asked the crucial question of whether interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue between disciplines and methodologies are at all possible. The first round of discussion concluded that a lot of interdisciplinary collaboration is taking place, but it tends to be informal. While there is demand and interest in interdisciplinary research, there are limited structures in place to support it, and an exclusionary mindset still persists. The majority of participants agreed, however, that dialogue between disciplines and methodologies is possible.

In Part II of this special Forum series, held both onsite and online in London, we focus on solutions. If interdisciplinarity were to be assessed, what would be the criteria for a successful and high-quality interdisciplinary collaboration project? What academic values does interdisciplinarity address, and how can we reimagine educational values to support interdisciplinary collaboration? What would an interdisciplinary curriculum or research culture look like in practice? How do organisations promote both interdisciplinary interactions within their own institutions and across national and international boundaries? How would interdisciplinary output interact with sectors outside of academia?

Biographies

Anne Boddington (Online Respondent)

Professor Anne Boddington is Executive Vice-President and Provost of IAFOR, and oversees the academic programs, research and policies of the forum.

Anne Boddington is Professor Emerita of Design Innovation and has held executive and senior leadership roles in Higher Education including as Dean of Arts & Humanities at the University of Brighton, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, Business & Innovation at Kingston and Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange at Middlesex University.

In 2022 she concluded chairing the Sub Panel (32) for Art & Design: History, Practice & Theory as part of the Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) and has extensive experience in the governance and conduct of peer review, research evaluation and assessment in REF2014 (Sub Panel Deputy Chair and Equality Diversity Advisory Panel [EDAP]) and RAE2008. A former member of AHRC’s Advisory Board, she is the current Chair of the Advisory Board for the UKRI’s National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research (NICER) programme (£30M), Deputy Chair and a Trustee of the Design Council, the government’s strategic advisor for design, and a member of both the InnoHK Scientific Committee (Hong Kong) and the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ).

Since the 1990’s Anne has worked across the UK and internationally with a wide range of quality assurance, professional, statutory, and regulatory bodies in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Hong Kong, and India.

As an independent consultant she now works as a strategic advisor and mentor and is committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in practice, developing effective governance, supporting career development, reducing bureaucracy, and improving organisational design, integrity, and productivity in the changing workplace.

Apipol Sae-Tung (Online Moderator)

Apipol Sae-Tung is an Academic Coordinator at IAFOR, where he contributes to the development and execution of academic-related content and activities. He works closely with the Forum’s partner institutions and coordinates IAFOR’s Global Fellowship Programme. His recent activities include mediating conference reports for the Forum’s international conference programme and facilitating the IAFOR Undergraduate Research Symposium (IURS).

Mr Sae-Tung began his career as a Program Coordinator for the Faculty of Political Science at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He was awarded the Japanese Government’s MEXT Research Scholarship and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Japan. His research focuses on government and policy analysis, particularly on authoritarian regimes.

Mr Sae-Tung holds an MA in International Relations and Diplomacy from Thammasat University, Thailand, where he studied foreign policy analysis and Thailand-China relations. He also holds a BA in History from the same institution.

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Anne Boddington is Executive Vice-President and Provost of IAFOR, and oversees the academic programs, research and policies of the forum.
Apipol Sae-Tung is an Academic Coordinator at IAFOR, where he contributes to the development and execution of academic-related content and activities.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule

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