London School of Economics and Political Science 

10 April 2025 

This year’s conference will focus on examining the methods that engage and inspire students to think across disciplinary boundaries and challenge traditional subject-focused thinking and practice.

Many educational institutions trumpet their interdisciplinary approaches and opportunities, but there is still a disconnect between what is offered and how students perceive and understand what it means to think in an interdisciplinary way. Experience suggests that engagement is the most powerful tool for deeper cognitive understanding, but how is this achieved for students who may not be ready to travel the interdisciplinary road? How do universities find ways to make interdisciplinary thinking relevant, important and worthwhile in an increasingly marketised educational context?

If interdisciplinary opportunities are to retain their importance, they need to meet – and exceed – student expectations. Interdisciplinary experiences need to be meaningful to students and offer value, even if this is not recognised immediately – the lasting impacts of these experiences are often the most powerful for students’ future study and career pathways. 

This conference will welcome practical ways which bring interdisciplinary activities alive to students, ways for foregrounding the relevance of such opportunities, and experiences of how to engage students in interdisciplinary activities – whether they be optional or compulsory. 

Conference themes

All submissions should address one or more of the following conference themes. You will be asked to identify the relevant theme(s) when submitting your application:

Creating opportunities for Interdisciplinary activities

What needs to be in place to make interdisciplinary activities successful? What has worked – or not worked  – in engaging and leading students on the interdisciplinary journey? Do these need to be compulsory or optional? How do you attract students to ‘interdisciplinary’ thinking? What educational literature or teaching theory helps to support and develop interdisciplinary thinking and action?

Places for Interdisciplinary learning and teaching 

Is there an ideal ‘place’ for interdisciplinary experiences? What environmental or structural elements need to be arranged to support interdisciplinary opportunities? Does interdisciplinarity happen when you arrange for interdisciplinary groups – or do you need more? Where do ‘co-curricular’ or ‘extra-curricular’ activities fit? How do we best avail of ‘one-off’ opportunities versus more embedded programmes or curricula?

Outcomes from Interdisciplinary opportunities and engagement  

What do students ‘get’ from interdisciplinary study? Do they understand the impact of their experiences? What value – if any – do they attach to the experiences? Are students telling us things in their actions or feedback that can help to ensure future cohorts are better able to take on the challenges of interdisciplinary thinking? What ways can we capture this and share it? What kinds of assessments are most valuable and appropriate in identifying and articulating the value of interdisciplinary experiences?

Submission formats

The organisers invite submissions for short papers and lightning talks. We will do our best to accommodate your preferred format, but this will depend on space available within the schedule, and we may contact you to discuss an alternative format.

Short papers are likely to follow traditional conference presentation format, though we also welcome submissions offering opportunities for interaction. These should be limited to 15 minutes. Dedicated paper sessions, organised by theme, will be followed with time for questions and discussion.

Lightning talks should be limited to 5 minutes, and no more than 5 slides (or equivalent). Lightning talks offer a fantastic opportunity to share new ideas, capture insights gained, generate hallway conversation, and receive helpful feedback. They might:

• focus on a particular element of successful practice 
• recount lessons learned
• capture an account of impact
• describe a challenge that would benefit from community feedback
• propose a collaborative project

We would particularly welcome lightning talk submissions from students, educators who are new to interdisciplinary teaching, and non-academic staff working to support interdisciplinary education (e.g., learning technologists).

Conference format

In addition to hosting conference papers and lighting talks, the conference will include problem-focused workshops that bring delegates together to explore some of the challenges that interdisciplinary education poses. These workshops will be designed by the conference organisers, but we will invite delegates to submit their ‘interdisciplinary challenges’ to shape their focus. We will ask for these when you register to attend the conference.

Our goal of encouraging active participation and dynamic exchanges means that the conference will only run as an in-person event.

Closing date for Submissions: 14 January 2025  

The submission form can be found here (you may need to paste into your browser): 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsLxzzmYUqENpmO-NzUfqrXDXXk6GZjrCVRJ-tAQaHKW-Hrw/viewform?usp=sf_link

The submission form asks for the following details, which you may wish to have ready: 

• Name and contact details of the presenter(s) 
• The Type of Submission (Short Paper/Lightning Talk) and the sub-theme of the submission (/Other) 
• Short Paper: A Title of the Submission and an Abstract of no more than 250 words 
• Lightning Talk: A Title of the Submission and an Abstract of no more than 150 words 
• A short biography of the presenter(s) of no more than 150 words (each) 

This is the ninth conference of this kind. Information regarding previous conferences can be found at this website: https://interdisciplinaryuk.net/. 

For further information please contact the conference organisers: 

Jillian Terry, Chair, Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference 2025, j.a.terry@lse.ac.uk

Ida Kemp, Chair, Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conferences (UK), interdisciplinary.ac.uk@gmail.com