This episode is the first of a six-episode miniseries we are hosting from the new Navigating Interdisciplinarity Podcast, produced by the Early Career Network of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC-ECN).

Series hosts: Hita Unnikrishnan and Maria Gerullis

Facilitators: Dane Whittaker and Nusrat Molla

In the Navigating Interdisciplinarity Series the hosts will discuss challenges faced and opportunities provided by engaging in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work, particularly from the perspective of early career researchers.

In this episode, Hita and Maria together with Dane Whittaker, PhD Student in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, were joined by Svenja Hippel, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Wuerzburg and Juan Nicolas Hernandez, an Earth Institute Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University. We talked about Svenja and Nico’s journey towards interdisciplinary research, and then discussed building your research profile for the job market and how to answer the question “where do I fit?” We ended by hearing about some epic fails.

Svenja’s website: https://sites.google.com/view/svenjahippel

Nico’s website: https://www.jnicoha.com/

Dane’s website: https://sustainability.asu.edu/person/dane-whittaker/

Papers

Hernandez-Aguilera, J.N., Anderson, W., Bridges, A.L. et al. Supporting interdisciplinary careers for sustainability. Nat Sustain 4, 374–375 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00679-y

Nicolas Hernandez-Aguilera. Coffee, hummus, and sustainability: What is the future of our careers? Supporting interdisciplinary career paths to solve sustainability crises. https://sustainabilitycommunity.springernature.com/posts/coffee-hummus-and-sustainability-what-is-the-future-of-our-careers-supporting-interdisciplinary-career-paths-to-solve-sustainability-crises?channel_id=behind-the-paper