Overcoming barriers to interdisciplinary work

The Leeds Humanities Research Institute is hosting a lecture on interdisciplinary work on 13 October, followed by a series of "speculative lunches" to discuss possible interdisciplinary topics.

Professor Myra Strober of Stanford University will visit the Institute to give a lecture entitled "Overcoming barriers to interdisciplinary work".  Professor Strober is the author of Interdisciplinary Conversations: Challenging Habits of Thought (Stanford, 2011), which addresses some of the more knotty aspects of interdisciplinarity - the gulfs in discourse, style and habits of work which can get in the way of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Prof. Strober, a labour economist, has carried out in-depth case studies of interdisciplinary collaborations, and come up with several important insights about what makes them work. Her case studies include interdisciplinary ethics, humanities and science, and history and social science.

Professor Strober's lecture will be given:

On:  Thursday 13 October

At:   5pm

In:   LHRI seminar room 3, 29-31 Clarendon Place

For more information about the lecture, email Matthew Treherne.

Later in the month, the Institute will begin hosting a series of lunches with the aim of starting an informal and enjoyable conversation on interdisciplinary topics, bringing in a range of perspectives and approaches from across the Univesity.  Academic staff, postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate research students from all faculties are all welcome.

These speculative lunches are intended to enable Leeds colleagues to discuss interdisciplinary research ideas at an early stage, with a view to potentially establishing research collaborations around particular themes. The LHRI will host up to seven of these events in the academic year 2011-12.

For more information about the lunches, including a list of dates, see the Faculty of Arts website.  For a list of proposed research topics for discussion, email Matthew Treherne.

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