Transdisciplinary Theory, Practice and Education The Art of Collaborative Research and Collective Learning

Dr Dena Fam is a system thinker and transdisciplinary collaborator at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney. Over the last decade Dena has worked with industry, government and community actors to collaboratively manage, design, research and trial alternative water and sanitation systems with the aim of sustainably managing sewage and reducing its environmental impact on the water cycle. Her consulting/research experience over has spanned socio-cultural (learning for sustainability) institutional (policy analysis), technological aspects of environmental management. With experience in transdisciplinary project development, Dena has increasingly been involved in developing processes for teaching and learning in transdisciplinary programs and projects. In particular she has been involved in documenting and synthesizing processes/methods/techniques supporting the development of transdisciplinary educational programs and projects. Dena has led and co-led international transdisciplinary networking events, grants and projects including an Australian-funded teaching and learning grant.

Professor Linda Neuhauser is Clinical Professor of Community Health Sciences at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley (California, USA) and is Visiting Professor at the Department of Social and Populations Sciences at Nanjing You-Dian University (Nanjing, China). She is also Co-Principal Investigator of the Health Research for Action center (HRA) at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Her teaching, research and practice is focused on using participatory methods across disciplines and societal sectors to engage diverse groups to identify and solve problems. She and her center colleagues have used participatory and transdisciplinary methods co-create and test many kinds of health and social interventions in many countries worldwide. She has authored over 100 publications about participatorydesign, transdisciplinary research and action, and health interventions. 

Professor Paul Gibbs is Director of Education Research at the University of Middlesex.    He is a professor of the University, founder of the Centre for Education Research and Scholarship and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Open University in Hong Kong and the University of Cyprus.  He is currently completing three  books: Transdisciplinary happiness and contentment and  compassion all within the higher education context. He is also Series Editor of SpringerBriefs on Key Thinkers in Education and Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives for Springer Academic Press.  He writes the marketing of higher education.