Interdisciplinarity is in vogue again. UKRI Chief Executive Ian Chapman’s open letter of 1 February announces a change of course for UK research funding, noting that “where multiple councils have a significant interest in a field, like artificial intelligence, we will bring teams together… instead of running multiple programmes from within several councils.” This is not completely new for UKRI, but it is a tacit recognition of the need for even greater exchange between the research councils, and indeed between disciplines, if we are to confront some of society’s thorniest problems.
Interdisciplinarity, along with its sibling forms multidisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, has been a watchword since the 1940s, variously decried and promoted depending on prevailing fashions. In one 1966 definition, it is simply “the combined available knowledge of several fields… coupled together and brought to bear upon the problem and its ultimate solution”[1]. But it is not only a utilitarian application when collaborating on social issues such as AI; in many cases, the decision to unite varied disciplines also benefits curiosity-driven or ‘blue-sky’ research.
For example, interdisciplinarity is the scholarly keystone of advanced study. Inside the institutes that support advanced study, researchers from diverse departments and career stages form a community of practice, often also encompassing artists, journalists, activists and others who similarly benefit from a reflective, supportive, non-hierarchical environment for research. Informal conversations and serendipitous encounters contribute enormously to the inclusive thinking prized at such institutions, the “source from which undreamed-of utility is derived” in the words of Abraham Flexner.[2]
As Deputy Director of an institute for advanced study, I have observed the challenges of sustaining a truly interdisciplinary career within academia for early career researchers and seasoned professors alike. Many PhD graduates believe their own work to fall between two stools (a form of Ralf Dahrendorf’s coinage Zwischenstuhl for those who cross borders both literal and metaphorical), thus complicating their search for a department where they might start a career. At the other end of the academic lifespan, senior researchers can shrink from crossing disciplinary borders for fear of being perceived, like Shakespeare, as a so-called Johannes factotum or Jack-of-all-trades – and master of none.
Nonetheless, curiosity-driven interdisciplinary research remains an essential part of the international research ecosystem, especially at times when the arts and humanities are undervalued. When done well, with integrity and care, boundary-crossing scholarship has the potential to be truly transformative. My own favourite examples from my institute are Natalie Goodison’s work bringing genetics together with mediaeval romance to help support people experiencing pregnancy-related grief and loss, and Alex South’s recent project blending musicology and marine biology to create new music with (and for) whales. In both cases, bold interactions across the academy produced remarkable new knowledge, as well as opening up research to unexpected audiences such as prospective parents, and even pilot whales.
An interdisciplinary outlook is not a bar to building an academic career; instead, it should be seen as a core attribute of the modern researcher: collegial, thriving in networks, intellectually audacious, and passionate about big ideas that might change how we think about the world.
[1] Sea Frontiers: Bulletin of the International Oceanographic Foundation, vol. 12(1). (1966). United States: International Oceanographic Foundation, p.84.
[2] The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge, issue 179 (1939). United States: Harper’s Magazine, p.544.
Dr Ben Fletcher-Watson is Deputy Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh, and a member of the SAHA Steering Group. His publications include Women Who Dared: From the Infamous to the Forgotten (2025) and The Art of Being Dangerous (2021). To find out more about IASH, please visit https://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/.
