Louise Whiteley Application Deadline: September 20, 2024, 23.59pm CET
Medical Museion and CBMR are looking for a curious, creative Postdoc to join us to investigate the role of communicating disciplinary values and goals in interdisciplinary science. The project is part of a wider research theme investigating contemporary discourse about ‘research culture’, initiatives being undertaken to improve it, historical origins, and how creative and communication activities can help support better collaboration.
Full details of the job and application process can be found here. Please note, the position is part of CBMR’s International Postdoc Program, so candidates should have had at least 12 months research experience outside Denmark since starting their PhD. Contact PI Louise Whiteley with questions – lowh@sund.ku.dk.
Project description
The project ‘Becoming an interdisciplinary scientist: Communicating values and valuing difference’ will ask:
(a) what role does communication of disciplinary values and goals play in interdisciplinary collaboration?
(b) what kinds of training can support early career researchers (ECRs) and interdisciplinary research groups in talking about disciplinary values and goals, and how can this fruitfully intersect with training for public communication?
The proposition underlying the project is that discussions about interdisciplinary communication have been overly focused on technical accuracy and conceptual translation – on the cognitive level. There has been less focus on the communication of disciplinary values and goals – on the affective and motivational levels. We suggest the latter is a key element of interdisciplinary collaboration and requires an ability to tolerate difference: collaborators’ disciplinary values and goals may never be perfectly aligned, but by being made explicit they can be combined in pragmatic and even creative ways (Monteiro & Keating, 2009). The project won’t aim to argue against the search for ‘common language’, but to suggest critical reflection on what needs to be ‘in common’. Developing common concepts can be crucial but aiming to understand each other perfectly can be a barrier to collaboration, and finding a common language for talking about differing values is just as important (Bracken & Oughton, 2006). Neither do we argue for saying everything – sometimes values need to be left (at least temporarily) unspoken (Fitzgerald et al., 2014; Mellor & Webster, 2020). Analysis of what needs to be shared or ‘in common’ will be informed by literature such as Star & Griesemer’s (1989) classic concept of ‘boundary objects’ – shared concepts ambiguous enough that different disciplines can maintain different definitions while still feeling – facilitating “cooperation without consensus” (Star, 2005).
Cardiometabolic science is an ideal case for this project, as it is interdisciplinary with high translational potential, and often motivated by complex disciplinary values concerning the clinical and societal treatment of disease, in dialogue with fundamental scientific curiosity.
The project outlines five work packages, but the details will be developed in dialogue with your interests and expertise. You will lead a novel cross-disciplinary literature review (WP1) and an interview study of mid-career scientists’ perspectives on the project theme (WP2), with WP1&2 together answering research question (a). Your research will then inform the development of an ECR training course and half-day workshop format for research groups led by the PI Louise Whiteley and co-PI Marianne Achiam, translating the outputs of WP1&2 into practical activities to improve scientists’ ability to communicate disciplinary values and goals within interdisciplinary and public settings (WP3). We will work together to convene an international conference and special issue proposal (WP4), submitted by the end of the project along with a commission for an accessible publication for young interdisciplinary scientists (WP5). WP3-5 thus combine to answer research question (b) in pedagogical, academic, and literary settings respectively, drawing on our expertise in using creative and object-based communication methods – where we hope you will bring new ideas to the team.
References:
Monteiro, M., & Keating, E. (2009). Science Communication, 31(1), 6-28.
Bracken, L.J., & Oughton, E. A. (2006). Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 31(3), 371–382.
Fitzgerald, D., et al. (2014). Social Studies of Science, 44(5), 701-21.
Mellor, F., & Webster, S. (2017). Silences of Science.
Star, S., & Griesemer, J. (1989). Social Studies of Science, 19(3), 387–420.
Star, S.L. (2005). In Derry et al. (Eds.). Interdisciplinary Collaboration.
