Multidisciplinary Methodologies for Global Challenges: Pacific Research Narratives
Ph.D. -course
- ECTS credits
- 10
- Teaching semesters
- Spring
- Course code
- N-POC903
- Number of semesters
- 1
- Resources
- Schedule
Course description
Course content
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.
Learning outcomes
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.
Study period
Credits (ECTS)
Course location
Language of instruction
Course registration and deadlines
Application deadline is 5 January 2024.
Participants apply for admission here
Compulsory Requirements
Form of assessment
Who may participate
Programme
Academic responsible
Dr. Geir Henning Presterudstuen, Department of Social Anthropology
geir.presterudstuen@uib.no
Lecturers
Professor Edvard Hviding (UiB)
Associate Professor Geir Henning Presterudstuen (UiB)
Mr. Håkon Larsen (UiB)
Professor Amund Måge (UiB)
Professor Digby Race (USP)
Dr Mele Katea Paea (USP)
Dr Domenica Calabro (USP)
Representatives of Pacific regional organisations (CROP System)
Reading list
NOTE: The list below consists of the CORE READINGS for the Course (about 120 pages). In addition, all participants will be required to read and summarize a collectively assigned book of 200 pages (to generate interdisciplinary dialogue on method), and each individual participant will compile a reading list of either an additional book or a collection of articles, pertinent to own research. The sum total of required readings will amount to at least 500 pages.
Core readings:
El Shafie, S.J. 2018. Making science meaningful for broad audiences through stories. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 58 (6): 1213-1223. doi.org/10.1093/icb/icy103
Hviding, E. 2003. Between Knowledges: Pacific Studies and Academic Disciplines. The Contemporary Pacific, 15: 43-73. Project MUSE - Between Knowledges: Pacific Studies and Academic Disciplines (jhu.edu)
Jones, M.D. 2018. Advancing the Narrative Policy Framework? The Musings of a Potentially Unreliable Narrator. Policy Studies Journal, Volume 46, Issue 4, pp. 724-746. doi.org/10.1111/psj.12296
Joubert, M., Davis, L. and Metcalfe, J. (2019). Storytelling: the soul of science communication, Journal of Science Communication, 18(5): 1-4. doi.org/10.22323/2.18050501
Mjaaland, T. 2020. Moments of communication: Learning science diplomacy. Documentary Film. Moments of communication: Learning science diplomacy | Bergen Summer Research School | UiB
Morgan, M.S. and Wise, M.N. 2017. Narrative science and narrative knowing: Introduction to special issue on narrative science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 62: 1-5. doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2017.03.005
Mulalap, C.Y., T. Frere, E. Huffer. E. Hviding, K. Paul, A. Smith, and M. Vierros 2020. Traditional knowledge and the BBNJ instrument. Marine Policy, 122: 104103 (10pp). doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104103
Nabobo-Baba, U. 2008. Decolonising Framings in Pacific Research: Indigenous Fijian Vanua Research Framework as an Organic Response. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 4(2): 141-154. doi.org/10.1177/117718010800400210
3 Minute Thesis: A PhD Elevator Pitch - Lifeology
Naepi, S. 2020. Pacific Research Methodologies. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods in Education, G.W. Noblit (ed.) Online Version (14pp.). doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.566
Padian, K. 2018. Narrative and `Anti-narrative' in Science: How Scientists Tell Stories, and Don't. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 58(6): 1224-1234. doi.org/10.1093/icb/icy038
Ponton, V. 2018. Utilizing Pacific Methodologies as Inclusive Practice. SAGE Open, 8(3) (8pp). doi.org/10.1177/2158244018792962