Welcome to the inaugural issue of Exchanges:
the Warwick Research Journal. We are delighted to constitute
the first Editorial Board of this new
peer-reviewed online
journal, dedicated to the publication of high-quality work by
researchers in
all disciplines, including early career researchers and those combining
research with academic teaching or other professional employment. We
are keen
to welcome articles from all academic disciplines and subjects,
including
interdisciplinary research and co-authored papers, in order to
encourage
intellectual exchange and debate across research communities. The
journal is open
to all and in this first issue, we feature articles by Warwick-based researchers, but also by those in other
institutions in the UK and internationally.
Although ‘interdisciplinarity’ is a word
frequently
associated with contemporary research, it is not new as it was explored
and
promoted by behavioural and
social scientists before the mid-20th Century.
Here at Warwick, researchers are encouraged
to forge links with others to build a community of interdisciplinary
research
in their field and help to strengthen theirs and other fields by
bringing new
perspectives to them. We are already seeing the possibilities for
collaborative
work created through the Global Research Priority networks and other
research for
a, such as the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, the Centre
for the
History of Medicine, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies,
and the Physical
and Life Sciences interface, MOAC. The Institute of Advanced Study,
collaborating with the Library, has been a driving force for the
journal and
all members of the initial Editorial Board are past or present IAS
Fellows
undertaking interdisciplinary research. In a research community that
increasingly promotes impact and public engagement, open access
journals are
especially important to us in achieving the wider dissemination of
thorough and
robust interdisciplinary work both across research communities and to
policy
makers and the public.
What do we mean by interdisciplinarity? We see it as
being two things: methodological and conceptual. Interdisciplinarity is
the
coming together of two or more disciplines to formulate a research
question and
an innovative method of finding an answer to that question. The
research
question might arise from the relationship between these disciplines or
from
the problematic boundary where the research from two or more
disciplines
intersects, providing a new direction to explore. The combination of
divergent
considerations from these disciplines often creates a new way of
thinking about
a problem. Methodological considerations of interdisciplinarity
naturally arise
when a combination of methods is used to approach a problem or when the
method
from one discipline is used to assist in finding a solution to a
problem from
another.
What represents notable achievements in the realm of
interdisciplinarity? This
coalescence of approaches to form a
unified perspective is evident in Kelly Freebody's 'Talking drama into
being:
types of talk in drama classrooms', which brings together important
themes in
education, philosophy and theatre studies. Through two distinct modes
of
language analysis, Freebody explores how the particular combination of
the
classroom and the process of drama facilitates a meaningful shared
moral
reasoning between the teacher and students that extends beyond the
institutional setting. Orlando Prestidge also offers an excellent
example of
the potential for interdisciplinary research with his insightful
article 'Foret
de Guerre: Natural Remembrances of the Great War', exploring memory,
environment, war and culture in France. Prestidge uses these different
approaches to form a singular new perspective in addressing how the
physical
legacy of the Great War on the landscape of France acts to represent
conflict
and serves as a social zygamorph for remembrance.
Forging interdisciplinary networks is the key to
producing interdisciplinary work and constitutes a central purpose for
this
journal. Another aim is to highlight opportunities and to inspire and
encourage
researchers to realize their full potential by deploying
interdisciplinary
links to enhance the way they approach their own research or how they
could
support other research groups working on other problems. In our
‘Critical
Reflections’ section, we offer Adam
Gallimore's thoughts on the ‘Watching
Politics’ Symposium,
organised in conjunction with Film and Television Studies, where
discussion
topics moved from politicians such as Tony Blair or Gordon Brown to
films
like Olympus Has Fallen (2013) and White House Down
(2013);
and from the impact of visual cultures in politics to media and film
spectacle.
The Environmental Studies Research Network’s reflection on its
Sustainability
conference also reveals the inter-connections between Arts and
Sciences,
discussing international philosophical approaches to living,
eco-poetry, and
even racing cars.
Interdisciplinarity lends itself well to an
international research agenda. Accordingly, the journal aims to connect
a wide
audience of researchers and practitioners working in three areas: those
within
the world community of universities; other interdisciplinary research
centres
and networks often associated with the Third Sector; and diverse
research
communities focused on policy and practice.‘Exploring
the Potential for
Student Leadership to Contribute to School Transformation’, by
Malcolm Groves,
steps out of the classroom and away from other current concerns about
examinations and curriculum syllabi. Groves explores another important
feature
of education: how student leadership, and in particular ‘student
voice’,
manifests within three secondary schools in the UK.
Charles
Tante is a former PhD candidate from Warwick who is now lecturing and
training
teachers in Cameroon. His short reflection, ‘Teachers’
Approaches to Language
Classroom Assessment in Cameroon Primary Schools’ presents a
summary of a
small-scale survey on modes of assessment used by local primary
teachers in the
region, in the context of his own concerns as a teacher-educator.
Oluwatosin Alo
shares the findings from his doctoral research in the neighbouring
country of
Nigeria, exploring through focus groups and interviews why Yoruba women
in
long-term heterosexual relationships are constrained in negotiating
safe-sex
and how the current interventions are limited.
Commencing a new online journal comes with many new
prospects and challenges. Amongst these was the decision to trial new
software
for dealing with submissions and feedback. Over the course of the next
few
issues we will be exploring new ways of integrating innovative pathways
for
sharing research. This includes links to podcasts and embedding
animations of
data that can effectively show the progression of analysis and
developing ideas
to specialists and a wider audience. Warwick is frequently at the
forefront of
pioneering new approaches, including the implementation of regular
‘Sandpit’
events with the Wolfson Research Exchange, where researchers from
across the
University apply to take part in a 2-day ‘Dragon’s
Den’-type experience and
generate interdisciplinary research proposals in order to bid for
external funding.
We see the preliminary results of one of these projects in the
co-authored
article ‘Modelling
social mobilisation – an interdisciplinary
exploration of twitter as a mediating tool for social acts and
information
networks’.
A pressing concern for all universities is the
effective support for the researchers of the future. The phrase
‘publish or
perish’ is synonymous with modern academia and may strike fear
into the hearts
of those at the dawn of an academic career. We feel that publishing
should be positively
encouraged as the dissemination of ideas and knowledge and it should be
something we can enjoy as researchers, both in writing and reading.
With the
changes in Open Access policy, the presence of this journal –
free of fees for
both readers and authors – is a welcome addition to the
University’s publishing
portfolio.
A strong feature of our research community is our
close association with leading academics, made possible by IAS Visiting
Fellowships and the Distinguished Lecture Series. In this first issue,
we are
delighted to share articles on two such high profile thinkers in our
opening
section: ‘Exchanges’ – Conversations with…
Earlier this year, Oliver Sacks and
Luce Irigaray were welcomed to the University, delivering high-profile
lectures,
and engaging with research staff and students in vibrant and diverse
dialogues.
We are very grateful for their generosity in speaking with our two
authors,
Julie Walsh and Katharina Karcher, and for supporting the exciting new
venture
represented by ‘Exchanges’.
The Editors – October 2013
Anne-Marie Broomhall - IAS / Physics
Jonathan Foss - IAS
/ Computer Science
Michelle Kempson - IAS
/ Sociology
Santiago Oyarzabal - IAS / Hispanic Studies
Malik Refaat - IAS
/ Psychology
Karen Simecek - IAS
/ Philosophy
Senior Editor: Hannah Grainger Clemson