A one-day symposium on the history and future of academic disciplines
20 April 2012
School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester
Part of the ‘Representing Re-Formation’ project, funded under the national Science and Heritage Programme.
Disciplinarity was accompanied by a temporary student exhibition – ‘The Order of Things’, 26 March – 18 June 2012, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester.
Please read here an engaging and reflective overview of the event by Jenny Walklate, a Museum Studies PhD student at the University of Leicester
Guest Participants
Frank James (Professor of the History of Science, The Royal Institution)
Robert Bud (Keeper of Science and Medicine, The Science Museum)
Vincent Gaffney (Chair in Landscape Archaeology and Geomatics, Director of the Visual and Spatial Technology Centre, University of Birmingham)
Lisa Ford (Associate Head of Research, Yale Center for British Art)
Steven Gunn (Lecturer in Modern History, Merton College, University of Oxford)
Mark Rawlinson (Reader in English Literature; and Academic Director, College of Arts Humanities and Law, University of Leicester)
Jennifer Mundy (Head of Collections Research, Tate)
Anthony Beck (DART Project Champion, University of Leeds)
Haida Liang (Reader in Physics, Nottingham Trent University)
Stephen Garrett (Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, University of Leicester)
Programme
9.30am arrival and coffee
10.00am welcome
Phillip Lindley (School of Art and Film, University of Leicester; Principal Investigator ‘Representing Re-Formation’) and Ross Parry (School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester).
10.15-11.00am Introduction
The role of disciplines in ‘Science and Heritage’
11.00-11.15am break
11.15-12.30pm DISCIPLINARITY
Why do we have academic disciplines? From where did they come, and how have they evolved?
12.30-1.15pm buffet lunch provided, and an opportunity for participants to view ‘The Order of Things‘ student exhibition, as well as take part in the evaluation of the Representing Re-Formation website.
1.15-2.30pm INTERDISCIPLINARITY
How do we work best across and between disciplines? What do we gain and lose through interdisciplinarity?
2.30-2.45pm break
2.45-4.00pm POST-DISCIPLINARITY?
Are our academic disciplines still fit for purpose? Do we sometimes resist disciplinarity? How are disciplines viewed outside the academy?
4.00-4.15pm summing up
4.30pm close