Master thesis on the role of emotions and affection in inter- and transdisciplinary research
Valeria Merlo, a student in Environmental Sciences, is writing her Master's thesis in the INTERSECTIONS project on 'The role of emotions and affection in inter- and transdisciplinary research'. She tell's us more in this short blog.
Inter- and transdisciplinary research require a high degree of collaboration and integration between different fields of knowledge, which often asks researchers to step out of their comfort zone and be open to theories and concepts from other disciplines. The main aim of this thesis is to investigate what people do in these situations to regulate their own emotional experience (emotional labour) and the emotional experience of others (affective labour). For my thesis, I’m conducting ethnographic fieldwork in the interdisciplinary research centre LIVES, one of the three case studies of the INTERSECTIONS project. In addition to participant observation and interviews, I am exploring the method of diary writing to try to track automatisms and cognitive processes by asking researchers to write regular diary entries and reflect on their collaborations.
By Valeria Merlo