In academic environments, knowledge is usually created within disciplines. This fosters the status quo rather than supports processes of positive societal change. How must universities change to create space for more inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches? This blog is a reflection on the workshop “The Transdisciplinary University” which was hosted by Dr. Julia Wittmayer, Femke Coops and Rachel Williams during DIT Day 2023.
Close your eyes and imagine it’s the year 2043. Universities and the broader academic system now accommodate transformative, engaged, action-oriented, inter-, or transdisciplinary research approaches. Twenty years ago, they realized that academia must change in the light of ever growing social and ecological crises. More and more researchers began to work on societal questions, in engaged, action-oriented, inter, -or transdisciplinary ways. But they faced many challenges on the way, for example, lack of funding and recognition. Universities realized that the old disciplinary structures were no longer functional. They needed to change their institutional design to accommodate this kind of work. And they did.
Making our vision more concrete
But what does a university that accommodates transdisciplinary work really look like? And how do we get there? During the workshop “The Transdisciplinary University”, we invited participants to answer this question. Together, we explored institutional design by focusing on six elements developed through research: 1) Role of universities and related values, 2) Organizational structure, 3) Reward structures, 4) Funding structures, 5) Training and skills development and 6) Curriculum organization. Participants focused on one of the six elements and used storytelling and/or visualization processes to discuss what the future of a transdisciplinary university might be or look like. Prompts included:
The organizational structure in transdisciplinary universities in 2043 would be / would look like...
The reward structures in transdisciplinary universities in 2043 would be / would look like...
Participants had time to reflect individually on their own ideas and then come together to form one story or visualization to reflect the groups' ideas. Each group represented their work by telling their story or describing their visuals.
What we learned
Workshop participants shared valuable insights as to what a university that accommodates transdisciplinarity should look like. For example:
We need to address publication pressure. Besides publications, let’s "celebrate personal development" and "personal lifelong learning" as a form of achievement.
Allow for "more flexibility in terms of dissemination strategies." For example, we could "think about creative methods like videos, blogs, music, all depending on your purpose and also your audience."
Most importantly, we need to work on this together. Throughout the workshop, participants expressed their excitement about being able to work with others from different schools within EUR, different universities, and different fields. To discuss and question the system they work in was seen as a valuable experience.
Next steps
At the Design Impact Transition (DIT) platform, we’re researching the institutional design of universities.
Through our research project, "TRANSacademia: Transforming academia", we explore how engaged and action-oriented research can be institutionalized in academia to potentially address the crises of our time. The discussions and outputs from the workshop participants will lay the foundation for DIT's TRANSacademic project.
If you are interested in learning more or sharing ideas about transdisciplinary research and institutional design, please keep up to date on our TRANSacademic research project. The research is ongoing within and outside EUR. If you would like to get involved, please send an email to dit@eur.nl.
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About Rachel Williams
Rachel Williams is a MSc student at Wageningen University studying Climate Studies in environmental economics who is passionate about just transitions. She has been working at DIT Platform as a Research Assistant for transdisciplinary research and contributes to the study group on action-oriented research.
About the Design Impact Transition (DIT) platform
The Design Impact Transition (DIT) platform creates infrastructures for transformative academic work at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). Read more about our work here.
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The DIT Platform would like to thank Dr. Julia Wittmayer, Femke Coops and Rachel Williams for all their vision and hard work to create and deliver this session. Most importantly, thank you to the participants in the workshop. To read more about DIT Day 2023, and the other visions for the future of our university, click here.