Nurturing Research Imagination: Critical Zones and a Transdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Fellowship

Transdisciplinary approaches offer methodologically rich pathways for connecting teaching and learning with research and knowledge production for social impact in higher education, resonating with Humboldtian educational ideals. Yet, the practical implementation of a transdisciplinary education for undergraduates can be challenging, potentially due to uncertainty of its outcomes, time-intensive supervision requirements, difficulty assessing integrated learning outcomes, inadequate institutional support, and the need for transdisciplinary facilitation skills.

Our case study focuses on a 2-week intensive co-curricular transdisciplinary research fellowship conducted in Summer 2024 by the Common Core at the University of Hong Kong. The experimental pilot programme, involving 20 undergraduates across mixed disciplinary majors, aimed at nurturing research skills and imagination through classroom learning, experiential activities and fieldtrips, and individual and collaborative peer-to-peer working time. Students were expected to pick a research question and produce an original research paper focused on the theme of water, sustainability, and Hong Kong. The paper outlines our mini-curriculum and pedagogical approaches, anchored in Bruno Latour’s (2014) notion of the Critical Zones. We discuss how different aspects of this intensive programme developed students’ knowledge in transdisciplinary research theories and methodologies, challenged assumptions around practices, interventions, and human/non-human relationships, and cultivated creative and critical ways of reading, viewing, and sharing for transgressive research dispositions.

Our analysis focuses on students’ outputs, including their personal pre- and post-reflections, draft and final manuscripts, proposals, and interviews regarding the programme. Findings reveal three key outcomes: students demonstrated enhanced methodological pluralism to apply diverse research approaches despite initial resistance to methodological ambiguity inherent in transdisciplinary approaches; developed nuanced critical relational perspectives of human and non-human entanglements that challenge anthropocentric assumptions; and fostered collaborative and theoretically-informed dispositions towards knowledge production. Furthermore, the fellowship inspired some of the students to present their findings at academic conferences and successfully organise a transdisciplinary conference for emerging scholars. Our findings contribute to scholarship on transformative pedagogical approaches, while offering practical insights for operationalising transdisciplinary learning in vitalising undergraduate research culture at research-intensive universities.

References
Latour, B. (2014). Some Advantages of the Notion of “Critical Zone” for Geopolitics. Procedia Earth and Planetary Science, 10, 3–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeps.2014.08.002