Book cover for Transdisciplinary Experiments

Publication date: 5 May 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781806550616

Number of illustrations: 9

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Transdisciplinary Experiments

Research, teaching and institutionalisation

Gray Kochhar-Lindgren (Editor), Wendy Sims-Schouten (Editor), Jack Tsao (Editor)

Transdisciplinary Experiments: Research, teaching and institutionalisation explores how experimental approaches can reshape research, education, and institutions in higher education to better respond to today’s complex and interconnected challenges. The book is grounded in the idea of ‘the experiment’ as a way to open up new possibilities, whether in knowledge-creation, teaching and learning, or institutional structures and initiatives. It examines how these experiments can inspire meaningful change across disciplines, sectors and cultures.

International contributors – scholars, artists, scientists, teachers, curators, community and academic leaders – offer diverse perspectives blending practical strategies with theoretical insights. These contributions advance the framing of transdisciplinarity and its implications for practice. The book engages with project-based teaching, flexible course and programme designs, and new forms of organisation. In doing so, it converges on a common goal of rethinking how we create and share knowledge in ways that are more collaborative and adaptive, and aligned with the needs of a rapidly changing world. A section titled ‘Provocations’ offers further reflections from four contributors on leadership challenges, failures and possibilities for creative interventions.

By connecting curiosity with action and experimentation with institutionalisation, Transdisciplinary Experiments offers a vision of what higher education research, teaching, learning and leadership can look like when driven by creativity, openness and a commitment to building more resilient futures.

List of figures
List of contributors
List of abbreviations
Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: transdisciplinary experiments for a more flourishing future
Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Wendy Sims-Schouten and Jack Tsao

2 Provocation 1. Tolerating discomfort: the creative unease of transdisciplinary experiments
Ken Arnold

Part I: Transdisciplinary research

3 Transdisciplinary research: doctoral, postdoctoral and professional voices
Wendy Sims-Schouten, Bart de Nil, Helen Omand and Sarah Ferner

4 Transdisciplinary architectures: children, space and climate change
Francesca Salvi, Guido Robazza and Nicola Crowson

5 Exploring art and the Earth: ReLOAD communities, transdisciplinarity and empowering youth
Rick Dolphijn and Irena Chawrilska

6 Visioning transdisciplinarity in public health
Ranjita Dhital

7 Provocation 2. To see what everyone sees but think what no one has thought
Rana Basem Dajani

Part II: Transdisciplinary teaching and learning

8 Artificial intelligence and transdisciplinary playgrounds
Jack Tsao

9 Becoming a nomadic artisan: cosmos, streets and transdisciplinarity
Mark Ingham

10 Facilitating a transdisciplinary spirit in higher education: a matter of knowns and yet-to-be knowns
Kate Maguire and Agi Ryder

11 Provocation 3. Travelling with theory: experiments in gender and childhood sexualities in the Global South
Deevia Bhana

Part III: Institutionalising transdisciplinarity

12 Institutionalising a transdisciplinary science curriculum
David J. Helfand

13 Transdisciplinary emergence: public universities seeking to provide common good
Paul Gibbs

14 Supporting transdisciplinary humanities and arts research at the Trinity Long Room Hub
Doireann Wallace, Caitriona Curtis, Maureen Burgess and Giovanna Lima

15 Two concepts of transdisciplinarity: glimpsing a trans-experientiality in higher education
Ronald Barnett and Karen Gravett

16 Provocation 4. Place, pace and scale: experimenting with transdisciplinarity within a university
Louise McWhinnie

17 Coda: transdisciplinary experiments in motion
Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Wendy Sims-Schouten and Jack Tsao

Index

DOI: 10.14324/111.9781806550616

Number of illustrations: 9

Publication date: 05 May 2026

PDF ISBN: 9781806550616

EPUB ISBN: 9781806550623

Hardback ISBN: 9781806550593

Paperback ISBN: 9781806550609

Gray Kochhar-Lindgren (Editor)

Gray Kochhar-Lindgren is the 2025–26 Eminent Scholar in the Humanities Chair at the University of Alabama, Huntsville and Honorary Professor of the Humanities at the University of Hong, where from 2014 to 2022 he served as Professor and Director of the Common Core. He is the author, most recently, of Urban Arabesques and Pintxos: Small Delicacies and Chance Encounters and co-directs Wild Studios Consulting and Creative Productions LLC.

Wendy Sims-Schouten (Editor)

Wendy Sims-Schouten is Head of UCL Arts and Sciences, Professor of Interdisciplinary Psychology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on historic and contemporary practices and narratives around wellbeing and resilience of marginalised groups, including child migrants, young care leavers and families from ethnic minority communities. Her work centralises voices and coproduction. Wendy is Chair of the Editorial Board for the international and interdisciplinary journal Children and Society.

Jack Tsao (Editor)

Jack Tsao is Associate Director and Senior Lecturer of the Common Core at the University of Hong Kong. As a Senior Fellow of Advance HE, he is interested in the creative leadership and administration of higher education, and the continuing professional development of teaching staff. His research on Education Futures in the university and pre-tertiary context focuses on transdisciplinary learning, innovative curriculum and pedagogies, international and comparative education, youth aspirations, and digital technologies and artificial intelligence.

Constructions of Progressive Learning

Kieran Mahon,

01 January 2027

Teaching with Art for History and Religious Education

Tom Haward, Alexis Stones,

01 October 2026

How Alex Bloom Built Radical Democratic Secondary Education in Post-war London

Michael Fielding, Mark Erickson,

01 September 2026

Creating a Framework for Developing Sessional Teachers in Higher Education

Neil Sutherland, Alex Standen,

24 August 2026

Bringing Powerful Knowledge into Classrooms

Mark Hardman, Marie Nilsberth, Mikko Puustinen,

22 July 2026

Myanmar’s Spring Revolution

Marie Lall, Ikuko Okamoto,

28 May 2026

Critical Perspectives on Academic Writing

Ayanna Prevatt-Goldstein, David Mallows,

13 May 2026

Transdisciplinary Experiments

Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Wendy Sims-Schouten, Jack Tsao,

05 May 2026

ABC Learning Design

Clive Young, Nataša Perović, Leo Havemann, Karen Shackleford-Cesare,

14 April 2026

UCL at 200

11 February 2026

Student London

Georgina Brewis, Sam Blaxland,

11 February 2026

Teaching Slavery

Katie Donington, Abdul Mohamud, Robin Whitburn, Nicholas Draper,

27 November 2025

Playthings and Playtimes

Hannah Field, Seth Giddings, Ben Highmore,

29 October 2025

Knowledge and Knowing in Media and Film Studies

Steve Connolly,

20 May 2025

Universities and Climate Action

Tristan McCowan,

08 May 2025

Playing the Archive

Andrew Burn, John Potter, Kate Cowan, Julia Bishop,

10 April 2025

Reading Randomised Controlled Trials

Robert Savage, Amy Fox, Anneka Dawson, Helen Gray, Clare Huxley,

03 March 2025

On Learning, Volume 3

David Scott,

04 February 2025

Palaeontology in Public

Chris Manias,

21 January 2025

Inclusion, Diversity and Innovation in Translation Education

Alejandro Bolaños García-Escribano, Mazal Oaknín, Olga Castro,

01 October 2024

×

Transdisciplinary Experiments

Research, teaching and institutionalisation

Publication date: May 5, 2026

Open Access PDF ISBN: 9781806550616

Paperback ISBN: 9781806550609

Hardback ISBN: 9781806550593

Trim size (hardback): 23.4cm x 15.6cm

Trim size (paperback): 23.4cm x 15.6cm

Download free PDF online

https://uclpress.co.uk/book/transdisciplinary-experiments/

Transdisciplinary Experiments: Research, teaching and institutionalisation explores how experimental approaches can reshape research, education, and institutions in higher education to better respond to today’s complex and interconnected challenges. The book is grounded in the idea of ‘the experiment’ as a way to open up new possibilities, whether in knowledge-creation, teaching and learning, or institutional structures and initiatives. It examines how these experiments can inspire meaningful change across disciplines, sectors and cultures.

International contributors – scholars, artists, scientists, teachers, curators, community and academic leaders – offer diverse perspectives blending practical strategies with theoretical insights. These contributions advance the framing of transdisciplinarity and its implications for practice. The book engages with project-based teaching, flexible course and programme designs, and new forms of organisation. In doing so, it converges on a common goal of rethinking how we create and share knowledge in ways that are more collaborative and adaptive, and aligned with the needs of a rapidly changing world. A section titled ‘Provocations’ offers further reflections from four contributors on leadership challenges, failures and possibilities for creative interventions.

By connecting curiosity with action and experimentation with institutionalisation, Transdisciplinary Experiments offers a vision of what higher education research, teaching, learning and leadership can look like when driven by creativity, openness and a commitment to building more resilient futures.

Gray Kochhar-Lindgren (B01)

Gray Kochhar-Lindgren is the 2025–26 Eminent Scholar in the Humanities Chair at the University of Alabama, Huntsville and Honorary Professor of the Humanities at the University of Hong, where from 2014 to 2022 he served as Professor and Director of the Common Core. He is the author, most recently, of Urban Arabesques and Pintxos: Small Delicacies and Chance Encounters and co-directs Wild Studios Consulting and Creative Productions LLC.

Wendy Sims-Schouten (B01)

Wendy Sims-Schouten is Head of UCL Arts and Sciences, Professor of Interdisciplinary Psychology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on historic and contemporary practices and narratives around wellbeing and resilience of marginalised groups, including child migrants, young care leavers and families from ethnic minority communities. Her work centralises voices and coproduction. Wendy is Chair of the Editorial Board for the international and interdisciplinary journal Children and Society.

Jack Tsao (B01)

Jack Tsao is Associate Director and Senior Lecturer of the Common Core at the University of Hong Kong. As a Senior Fellow of Advance HE, he is interested in the creative leadership and administration of higher education, and the continuing professional development of teaching staff. His research on Education Futures in the university and pre-tertiary context focuses on transdisciplinary learning, innovative curriculum and pedagogies, international and comparative education, youth aspirations, and digital technologies and artificial intelligence.