Now closed

A draft programme is now available.

This year’s conference will focus on examining the methods that best support interdisciplinary learning, and consider how we can capture and articulate the impact of interdisciplinary experiences in education.  

A commitment to deliver interdisciplinary learning and teaching is now explicitly referenced in the strategy of many education providers, recognising the need to equip graduates for a world that does not observe neat disciplinary boundaries. As interdisciplinary teaching practice has developed over the last decade, we would like to bring colleagues together to share their experiences of what has worked, but also to reflect on the challenges that remain. 

Ensuring that interdisciplinary learning and teaching stays on the strategic agenda requires that we can evidence and articulate its impact. To this end, we are also keen to hear about work to measure the value of interdisciplinary learning, to share the outputs of interdisciplinary study, or to support students and staff to communicate the impact of interdisciplinary learning on their personal and professional development.

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 experiences that support interdisciplinary learning

What teaching methods best support interdisciplinary learning? How can we make interdisciplinary learning accessible? How can we engage learners with interdisciplinarity? How can we deliver authentic interdisciplinary experiences? Can interdisciplinary education be used to engage our learners more meaningfully?

Assessment for interdisciplinary learning 

How can we design assessments that not only evaluate, but promote and encourage learning? How can we measure students’ interdisciplinary understanding? How can we use assessment to capture the mindset shifts that interdisciplinarity seeks to encourage? 

The impact of interdisciplinary learning and teaching  

What evidence do we have of the value of interdisciplinary learning? How can we obtain evidence of impact? What opportunities are there for the outputs of interdisciplinary study to have legacy and reach (within and beyond our institutions)? How can we support our learners to articulate the value of their interdisciplinary experiences (for example, to employers)?

Wildcard 

What other exciting things are happening? Where should we be looking next (trends and opportunities)? 

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). You can opt to deliver your lightning talk live at the conference, or to record it to be shared via a conference microsite. 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. While there will be no online strand, we will develop a conference microsite to host recorded lightning talks and the outputs captured in conference workshops.

Closing date for Submissions: Now closed with over 70 submissions

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

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 eighth conference of this kind. Information regarding previous conferences can be found at this website: https://interdisciplinaryuk.net/. 

Registration is now OPEN. Please visit the website: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/interdisciplinaryconference24

For further information please contact the conference organisers: 

Alison Fisher and Sian Yeowell, Co-Chairs, University of Manchester, Alison.Fisher@manchester.ac.uk, Sian.Yeowell@manchester.ac.uk 

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