Same Space, Different Disciplines: Articulating Interdisciplinarity in Development, Conflict and Humanitarian Research
University of Manchester, 29th April 2014

The Humanitarianism and Development Research Group is organising a workshop at the University of Manchester, on Interdisciplinarity in Development, Conflict and Humanitarian Research.

Interdisciplinary research is increasingly posited as the future of academia across the board, and yet it is not without its own research challenges. This is particularly true in the fields of international development, conflict response and humanitarianism where complex and rapidly changing situations demand a varied theoretical toolkit for even the most basic of questions. Offering two keynotes speakers and a series of panel discussions, this workshop is devoted to examining the different ways in which researchers interrogate key questions or spaces using a combination of different, and sometimes contradictory, disciplines. Significantly, it will offer postgraduates, early career academics and established scholars alike the opportunity to explore and discuss methodological difficulties and research opportunities that come from true interdisciplinary research in the development, conflict and humanitarian field.
We open this workshop out to abstract submissions for the panels. To keep discussion focused, we ask that researchers submitting a paper should be working on at least one of the following areas:

Civil Society
Violent Conflict
Poverty Reduction
Displacement and Forced Migration
Environment and Development
Arab Spring
Political Violence
Development Aid

Topics for each submission can seek to answer (although should not be limited to) one the following questions:

How is your research interdisciplinary (rather than crossdisciplinary or transdisciplinary) and why does it matter?
Have we left the days of single-discipline research?
Does interdisciplinarity result in eroding specialisms in development, conflict and humanitarianism?
How does interdisciplinarity offer the key to engaging with various publics within development, conflict and humanitarian research?
What happens to the study of a particular space through such disciplinary mixing what transformations occur in theorising, writing and presenting ideas?

Abstracts should be 250 words max. and emailed to cathy.wilcock@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk and birte.vogel@manchester.ac.uk by the 22nd of March 2014. Successful submissions will be informed very shortly afterwards.

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