Planning ahead for 2018 already? Conference in Auckland

We had an awesome time in Auckland

The 3rd International Conference on Post-disciplinary Approaches is open to all academics, regardless of disciplinary background or affiliation. The first International Conference on Post-disciplinary Approaches was held in Switzerland in 2013 and the second conference was hosted by the Copenhagen Business School in 2015. This third conference will take place in Auckland, New Zealand, between 2 and 5 February 2018.

Post-disciplinarity could be seen as invitation, openness to different interpretations, critical analysis, and creative problem solving and also questioning conventional processes of knowledge creation. The theme will be Knowledge as Disobedience, Expression and Creativity. All types of presentations that address post-disciplinarity are welcome but the organisers ‘particularly encourage non-western perspectives vis-à-vis oral literature, art and performance’ which is especially of interest for those of us working on decolonisation and Africanisation.  Presentations can be done in the form of research papers, movies or audio-visual material, exhibitions, performances, music, literary writings such as poetry or short stories or other creative expressions, or a combination of these.

It is still way too early to have a programme ready, but two keynote speakers are already listed: Prof Linda Tahiwai Smith who is the pro-vice Chancellor of the Maori University of Waikato and Prof Welby Ings from the faculty of design and creative technology at AUT University.

Interested academics are invited to pre-register to ensure that they receive updates and book their place as the maximum participants in this conference is 120 people.

Although Higher Education Institutions are encouraging Multi-discipline research, the question remains if multi- and/or post-disciplinary research would not do more harm than good in the longer run? Normally our research work through to our teaching and to me it is still unclear how multi- and post-disciplinary research could successfully be taught at university level. At the moment the career and study paths of students are focused on specialisation in one specific field and opening this up, could offer difficult challenges, but it should also be clear that universities will have to change and co it fast in order to stay relevant to the technology-driven, network society.