Thinking across disciplines for creativity, non-conformism and action in a complex world
 

A public talk by Prof. Frédéric Darbellay, University of Geneva, part of the Creativity and Innovation Lecture Series organized by the Webster Center for Creativity and Innovation (WCCI).

Date: 18 September 2018

Time: 17:15 – 18:00 (followed by a small reception)

Place: LLC Commons Room

This event is free and open to the public, but we please ask that you register here.

Collaboration, Creativity, Communication, Critical Thinking, Complexity, Problem Solving are key competences in the XXI Century, as proclaimed by more and more academic, social, political, economic and managerial institutions. Beyond the apparent consensus around these needs and values ​​in a global digital and technological context, this new path carries promises but also faces personal, behavioral or institutional barriers that limit its accomplishment. The present talk situates these issues under the umbrella concept of Interdisciplinarity that both frames and motivates them, while allowing their understanding and implementation in a concerted and integrative manner. Interdisciplinary approaches make it possible to think and act between and beyond disciplinary boundaries, beyond the academic and practical cultures too often organized in independent silos. To achieve this epistemic and operational goal, interdisciplinarity needs you: new profiles of researchers, teachers, politicians, managers, social and cultural actors open to meet each other, non-conformists able to mobilize their specializations and challenge them in the service of innovation and for the transformation of the complex world we live in.

Frédéric Darbellay is Associate Professor at the University of Geneva (Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Éducation) and Head of the Inter- and Transdisciplinarity Unit in the Centre for Children’s Rights Studies. His research focuses on the complexity of the theoretical and practical issues faced by researchers who work from, between and across disciplinary boundaries in an innovation and creativity perspective. His areas of research lie in the field of human and social sciences, education sciences, natural and life sciences, techniques, as well as at the dialogical cross between these different scientific cultures. For several years, he has been developing both teaching programs (Master, doctoral and continuing education) and research projects on interdisciplinarity in its epistemological, methodological and institutional dimensions. Frédéric Darbellay is the author and co-author of numerous publications on the inter- and transdisciplinary approach and he is involved in several academic projects and scientific networks that implement, develop and promote dialogue and integration between disciplines.