Finding joy, creativity and meaning through unusual interdisciplinary collaborations

Summary

Academics are increasingly calling for and asked to, work in interdisciplinary teams to address pressing social-ecological challenges. However, there are significant barriers to pursuing interdisciplinary collaborations within current university structures. Taking the first two years of our Centre for Unusual Collaborations (CUCo) as a case study of setting up a space for exploration and experimentation, we discuss how unusual interdisciplinary collaborations had unexpected effects, beyond the potential for societal impact. Most surprisingly, we found the CUCo model offered a welcome opportunity to break away from the productivism and competition that is common in academia while stimulating exploration of our own disciplines. This often led to an expansion of ideas and deepened understanding in ways that sparked joy, curiosity, creativity and meaning. We discuss how academic culture currently hampers collaboration: key roadblocks are identified, specifically rewards and recognition, the lack of spaces for trust-building, and competence and skills that are not geared towards collaboration. We present lessons learned in overcoming roadblocks to stimulate research across disciplinary lines and explain how unusual interdisciplinary collaborations provide opportunities for opening and deepening research lines, and how they can be fun and meaningful. We argue that, at a moment when academia faces growing rates of burnout and stress, such collaborations are fundamental.