Sustaining Interdisciplinary Collaboration: A Guide for the Academy

At once a slogan and a vision for future scholarship, interdisciplinarity promises to break through barriers to address today's complex challenges. Yet even high-stakes projects often falter, undone by poor communication, strong feelings, bureaucratic frameworks, and contradictory incentives. This new book shows newcomers and veteran researchers how to craft associations that will lead to rich mutual learning under inevitably tricky conditions. Strikingly candid and always grounded, the authors draw a wealth of profound, practical lessons from an in-depth case study of a multiyear funded project on cultural property. Examining the social dynamics of collaboration, they show readers how to anticipate sources of conflict, nurture trust, and jump-start thinking across disciplines. Researchers and institutions alike will learn to plan for each phase of a project life cycle, capturing insights and shepherding involvement along the way.

Regina F. Bendix is a professor of cultural anthropology and European ethnology at the University of Göttingen. She is coeditor of the journal Narrative Culture. Kilian Bizer is a professor of economic policy and director of the Center for European Governance and Economic Development Research as well as the Institute for Small Business Economics at the University of Göttingen. Dorothy Noyes is a professor in the departments of English and comparative studies at the Ohio State University. She is the author of Humble Theory: Folklore's Grasp on Social Life.