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Interdisciplinary collaboration in action: tracking the signal, tracing the noise

Author

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  • Felicity Callard

    (The Hub at Wellcome Collection, Wellcome Collection, London, UK
    Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK
    Centre for Medical Humanities, Durham University, Durham, UK)

  • Des Fitzgerald

    (The Hub at Wellcome Collection, Wellcome Collection, London, UK
    Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK)

  • Angela Woods

    (The Hub at Wellcome Collection, Wellcome Collection, London, UK
    School of Medicine, Pharmacy &Health, Durham University, Durham, UK
    Centre for Medical Humanities, Durham University, Durham, UK)

Abstract

Interdisciplinarity is often framed as an unquestioned good within and beyond the academy, one to be encouraged by funders and research institutions alike. And yet there is little research on how interdisciplinary projects actually work—and do not work—in practice, particularly within and across the social sciences and humanities. This article centres on “Hubbub”, the first interdisciplinary 2-year research residency of The Hub at Wellcome Collection, which is investigating rest and its opposites in neuroscience, mental health, the arts and the everyday. The article describes how Hubbub is tracing, capturing and reflecting on practices of interdisciplinarity across its large, dispersed team of collaborators, who work across the social sciences, humanities, arts, mind and brain sciences, and public engagement. We first describe the distinctiveness of Hubbub (a project designed for a particular space, and one in which the arts are not positioned as simply illustrating or disseminating the research of the scientists), and then outline three techniques Hubbub has developed to map interdisciplinary collaboration in the making: (1) ethnographic analysis; (2) “In the Diary Room”, an aesthetics of collaboration designed to harness and capture affective dynamics within a large, complex project; and (3) the Hubbub Collaboration Questionnaire, which yields quantitative and qualitative data, as well as a social network analysis of collaborators. We conclude by considering some themes that other interdisciplinary projects might draw on for their own logics of tracking and tracing. This article forms part of an ongoing thematic collection dedicated to interdisciplinary research.

Suggested Citation

  • Felicity Callard & Des Fitzgerald & Angela Woods, 2015. "Interdisciplinary collaboration in action: tracking the signal, tracing the noise," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(palcomms2), pages 15019-15019, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:2015:y:2015:i:palcomms201519:p:15019-
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    Cited by:

    1. Heidi Rapp Nilsen, 2024. "Code Red for Humanity: The Role of Business Ethics as We Transgress Planetary Thresholds," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 1-7, January.
    2. Ben Purvis & Hannah Keding & Ashley Lewis & Phil Northall, 2023. "Critical reflections of postgraduate researchers on a collaborative interdisciplinary research project," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Ola Michalec & Cian O’Donovan & Mehdi Sobhani, 2021. "What is robotics made of? The interdisciplinary politics of robotics research," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Livia Fritz & Ulli Vilsmaier & Garance Clément & Laurie Daffe & Anna Pagani & Melissa Pang & Daniel Gatica-Perez & Vincent Kaufmann & Marie Santiago Delefosse & Claudia R. Binder, 2022. "Explore, engage, empower: methodological insights into a transformative mixed methods study tackling the COVID-19 lockdown," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.

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