Interdisciplinary Studies

Although for convenience College groups around Economics, Politics, and Sociology, that set of administrative identities should not lead you to lose sight of our very real interest and involvement in interdisciplinary research. We are, after all, a social science college, not a three-subject college, and fruitful theoretical approaches to complex theoretical and substantive problems are rarely attentive to nominal disciplinary boundaries. There are continuing, fluctuating as the issues change, cross-disciplinary alliances between permanent fellows, tackling particular research problems. Several fellows have published research outwith their disciplinary 'label'. And College seeks to encourage innovative cross-disciplinary interaction - it is partly by such cross-fertilisation of ideas and strategies that knowledge advances. We would aim to provide appropriate (perhaps joint) college supervision to enable students to take full advantage of our resources for interdisciplinary work. 

So we welcome applications from students whose work lies at the interface between 'disciplines'. We have in place a careful formal Interdisciplinary selection panel to ensure that the work of such applicants is fairly assessed. And beneath that an elaborated set of inter-group consultation and review procedures to ensure that the work is seen from all relevant perspectives.

The main description of College research activities in this document is by 'groups'. That is the simplest of organising principles, and a useful way of alerting you to the currently represented academic interests within College. And we are, manifestly, interested in 'mainstream' research. But, if your interests and competencies are interdisciplinary, we welcome such applications also.