- Deadline for applications extended to May 20 -
Call for Papers: Interdisciplinary Symposium for Postgraduate Students from all Colleges, University of Aberdeen on June 10, 2016.
Interdisciplinary research is often stated to be “more important than ever.” It can be difficult however to put this ideal into practice, particularly given the significant commitment needed to achieve competence and, excellence within one’s chosen discipline.
The Centre for Modern Thought (CMT) is a small research community with an openness to interdisciplinarity and communication between the University’s schools. Our working hypothesis is that we stand to gain, both as individuals and members of the University, when the disciplines share their knowledge and actively seek to learn from each other.
For this reason, the CMT will hold a one-day symposium on June 10, to give postgraduate research students (PhD and Master) from all disciplines the opportunity to learn about interdisciplinarity, to present their work to a broader audience, and to interact with students from other disciplines regarding the state of their fields and their research.
After a workshop session on examples of interdisciplinary research practices in Aberdeen run by faculty teaching staff, the symposium will provide a venue for the presentation and discussion of student contributions. This will provide the opportunity for students to showcase their work (research projects, dissertations, or special topics extracted therefrom) to an audience outside of their specific field, and to get valuable feedback from students with different academic and methodological backgrounds.
In addition to fostering better cross-disciplinary communication and awareness, this is a chance for students to build experience in public speaking and performance, as well as an opportunity to strengthen the community ties across departmental lines.
SUBMISSION DETAILS and DEADLINE
Postgraduate students from all schools are invited to submit proposals for their contributions. The only requirement for participation is that contributions are prepared for the attention of a non-specialist audience. We aim to accept a diversity of well-prepared presentations: conference papers, poster presentations, experiments or demonstrations, art or music performance etc., and we encourage anyone interested to get in touch. Your own research does not have to be interdisciplinary, but this would be considered an advantage.
If you would like to present at the symposium, please apply with an abstract of max. 400 words. The abstract should give us an idea of:
- your main topic, idea, argument or aim;
- an indication of the field(s) within which you are working; and
- which form you would like to present your research in, including any A/V requirements.
We welcome creative and innovative suggestions, but kindly ask that any creative proposals come with a word of explanation or contextualisation.
The deadline for applications is May 20, 2016.
To submit an abstract or if you have any questions, please email us at abdn.cmt@gmail.com.
You can download a PDF of the Call for Papers here.
It will also be possible to attend the symposium without giving a presentation. We kindly ask that anyone interested in attending RSVP to our email address abdn.cmt@gmail.com for planning purposes.