academy for irish cultural heritages - Research - University of Ulster

2. Foreword by the Research InstituteDirector 2004-2009Interdisciplinary research is the primary focus of theAcademy for Irish Cultural Heritages (AICH), whichwas established with SPUR funding in December 2000.In setting up the Academy, the University of Ulster wasmaking a key commitment to originality and innovation inscholarship and research in the field of cultural heritages,both Irish and international. But how is interdisciplinaryresearch defined, and why is it so confusing? Manyestablished researchers find it difficult to cope withterms such as ‘inter-’ and ‘multidisciplinarity’, but clearlythey are not the same.A multidisciplinary project draws on several disciplines, but it does not radicallyre-define the theoretical canon of any single discipline. A multidisciplinary researchteam may involve researchers from several different disciplines. However, eachresearcher may continue to operate with rigour within his or her own disciplinaryframework. In such circumstances, it is the combination of single-disciplinaryskills and insights that generates a multidisciplinary outcome, but usually one canrecognize distinctive disciplinary contributions in the end product.In contrast, an interdisciplinary project works across disciplines and breaks downtraditional subject boundaries. An interdisciplinary assignment can, in theory,be completed by a single individual who works across different disciplines andcombines methodologies in a radically new manner. The result, however, may bevery difficult to attribute to any single-disciplinary framework. Interdisciplinaryresearch may eventually generate new fields of research which cannot be easilyclassified within the current disciplinary framework.Generally speaking, clearly defined disciplines have institutional status andprivilege. They are easy for institutions to cope with. Interdisciplinary researchis more difficult to characterize and support institutionally – although ultimatelysuch research may generate entirely new and paradigm-shifting results. The Irishgeographer Anne Buttimer, in her analysis of the life-cycles of various disciplines,once characterized the early stages of an emerging field of research as thePhoenix period ‘when new life emerges from the ashes with prospects for a freshbeginning’. This emancipatory movement can involve a cry for freedom fromoppression or constitute an attempt ‘to soar to new heights of understanding,being and becoming’. It is usually followed by a ‘Faustian’ disciplining of the fieldin the process of gaining legitimacy in academic circles. Energies are directedtowards ‘the building of structures, institutions and legal guarantees for theirautonomous existence and identity.’ (Buttimer 1992: 43)In the current context of research assessment exercises in the UK, it is a verybrave university that maintains a strong commitment to interdisciplinarity. While,in theory, the RAE deems itself to be capable of dealing with interdisciplinaryresearch, the reality is that each individual is assigned in the first instance to asingle panel for assessment, and interdisciplinarity is generally dealt with withina single-subject context – although guidance may be sought from other panels.However, a new approach to assessment of research may well change the singlesubjectcontext and, at this point, it would appear that interdisciplinary researchcould strongly benefit from a revised approach and become far more central tothe system.4