Multidisciplinary Methodologies for Global Challenges: Pacific Research Narratives

This course focuses on research narratives both as an epistemological necessity and as a methodological technique for a diversity of scientific practitioners, all of whom are PhD-level researchers in the bi-institutional N-POC Programme, a partnership between the University of the South Pacific (USP) and the University of Bergen (UiB). Paying attention to how stories are created and utilized across disciplinary divides, research settings and fields of study, the course proposes that in multidisciplinary fields of collaboration, a particular focus on the narrative aspect of the building of research discourses and communication of results is particularly prescient.

The stories of each scientific domain have different criteria for judging them valid or useful, and learning how to analyze them in disciplinary, cultural, and political contexts, and as representations of philosophical paradigms, is crucial in understanding their meaning and efficacy. Similarly, learning how to use narrative techniques to help you communicate your research to the broader scientific community in an effective, compelling, and memorable way, and to develop different scientific texts and presentations for various audiences, constitute key skills for making high-impact research.

Focusing at once on the theoretical underpinnings of narrative as a form of communication, on various scientific genres and their conventions, as well as on the practical mastery of these, the course is well suited for scholars working across various research disciplines as well as for professional workers in politics, policy making, government, development, and diplomacy.

From pitching a research idea, attracting funding from external providers to justifying the importance of your project and communicating the results to a broader public or translating research to public policy, the knowledge from this course will facilitate research-based communication for a variety of purposes both within and outside the academy.

Upon successful completion of this course the participants should be able to:

• Formulate and express some of the epistemological underpinnings and methodological paradigms of their own research discipline and specific research project.
• Articulate an understanding of the role of narrative structure and genre in scientific communication.
• Identify and explain some of the key areas of applicability of their own research and develop strategies for translating research results in non-scientific forums.
• Discuss the methodological challenges and benefits of being engaged in a multidisciplinary research programme.
• Present and discuss aspects of their research to a variety of audiences in both oral and written forms.
• Prepare and present their own research in a variety of oral and written forms of expression, including Pacific talanoa, rapid research pitch, a 4-page policy brief, and a critical, reflective essay.