Undergraduate Research Conference: An Interdisciplinary Experience
Introduction
Why an International Undergraduate Research Conference?
ICUR grew out of IATL’s multidisciplinary international undergraduate research journal “Reinvention.” Both Reinvention and ICUR aim to provide undergraduates with a space for research dissemination. Emma notes that there are “various aspects to why we do the conference in the first place,” but that one of the key outcomes is that students receive “exposure to the other disciplines’ understanding.” By participating in ICUR, students are able to “critically evaluate what they’ve done in a different way,” says Emma, since they have to think about how to present to a “non-specialist” audience. Fiona elaborates that it is an “all encompassing experience” where “reciprocity of that engagement is something that is quite core to the ethos of the event.”
Dr Fiona Farnsworth
Emma Barker
Principles of Practice
Organising and Facilitating an Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference
By presenting on a panel of students from other disciplines, Emma relates that students can make connections “that they hadn't previously even been aware of could be made.” Each conference panel has a theme, such as sustainability or connecting cultures, where students need to think about how their work in their own disciplines might connect more broadly. More than just creating a multidisciplinary experience, Emma says students are pushed to move “into a space where they connect with the other panellists and do find some connections with each other's work,” which “helps them to see the value of interdisciplinarity.” In the submission process, abstracts are “assessed on the basis of communication of a project or an idea to an interdisciplinary audience,” says Fiona. Students are also prepared for the conference by practicing their presentation with their panel beforehand. Fiona and Emma both expand on how this intentional training and preparation for the conference is essential in helping to frame the experience as one of engagement and generosity with the sharing of research.
Signposting
Emma elaborates that making students aware of the conference and the benefits of the “interdisciplinary nature” of the conference is an important element. The website specifically addresses the “interdisciplinary aspect” of the conference and includes videos with students giving their perspectives on the value of the event.
Students as Directors
Fiona and Emma also work with a team of student directors as co-creators of the conference. As Fiona describes, the student directors support “not just in terms of facilitating the event during the days of the conference, but also in shaping what the event looks like and in interacting with presenters from all over the world.” Fiona notes that these students gain valuable skills in “managing relationships” and “working with people from not just lots of different disciplinary backgrounds, but just from different places and different knowledge bases.”
Moving Forward
Encouraging and Preparing Students for Interdisciplinarity
A Conference Roadmap
In addition to providing support and feedback on the abstract submission process and their panel presentations, Emma highlights how they have created an interdisciplinary “roadmap” to help students navigate the conference. Emma comments that “the more we can do beforehand to prepare them for that and to help guide them through it, I think will be really useful for their experience.”
To increase access to interdisciplinary opportunities, students need to have encouragement from their mentors and professors. Emma says, “I think lots of people just need a bit of encouragement to give it a go and to be to be told that it's OK if things don't go absolutely perfectly and that that kind of experimentation is part [of the experience]. ”
