Abstract

Professor Michael O’Rourke is a leading inter- and transdisciplinary researcher who focuses on teamwork, pluralism and integration. This conversation will focus on highlights from his work, including:

• developing high functioning cross-disciplinary teams. For an example see this page, as well as his work with grantees of the US National Science Foundation, see this page.
• the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative, which helps teams understand and deal with differences. For a brief account see this page.
• cross-disciplinary integration, and works with and helps further develop the framework described in this page.

This will aim to be a relaxed conversation, allowing plenty of time for questions.

Speaker bio

Michael O'Rourke is Professor of Philosophy and faculty in AgBioResearch and Environmental Science & Policy at Michigan State University (MSU) in the USA. His research interests include the nature of communication and epistemic integration in collaborative, cross-disciplinary research. He is the Director of the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative, a US National Science Foundation-sponsored research consortium that investigates philosophical approaches to facilitating crossdisciplinary research, Executive Director of the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative Center, a service centre at MSU that is the principal locus of Toolbox work, and former Director of the MSU Center for Interdisciplinarity. He has published extensively on the topics of communication, and interdisciplinary theory and practice.

Sponsors

Michael O’Rourke’s visit to Australia is sponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney. His visit to ANU is co-sponsored by the Integration and Implementation Sciences program at NCEPH and the ANU Agrifood Innovation Institute.