Making Connections: Transdisciplinarity in Practice

Making Connections: A Conference by Transdisciplinary HDRs, for Transdisciplinary HDRs

What is transdisciplinarity, and what does it mean to be a transdisciplinary researcher? For many of us, transdisciplinary (TD) research offers a chance to work collaboratively on issues that matter to people in the hopes of building a more just and equitable world. In practice, it means tackling irreducibly complex and often unsolvable problems, navigating entrenched and competing ideologies, and using poorly understood 'non-traditional' research methods and processes along the way. As if that wasn't enough to think about, we are constantly asking ourselves: Am I being ethical? Who is my research for? Will it have the impact I intend? Put simply, transdisciplinary research can be gruelling and messy. And despite the "trans" in TD, many of us feel we are doing it alone.

Under the theme Making Connections, this conference brings together HDRs to navigate the mystical and magical pluriverse of transdisciplinarity. It asks what 'transdisciplinary' means to each of us, and gives us the tools and knowledge we need to reflect on and shape the kind of transdisciplinary researcher we are becoming. Over two days and four thematic sessions, we will explore these important questions through paper presentations, workshops and networking sessions with peers, alongside keynote addresses from leaders in the field.

As the inaugural HDR-run conference in our ongoing series, this event is designed to not only foster connection and mutual learning but allow attendees to build a strong transdisciplinary research community at UTS and beyond.