The goal of the Knowledge Networks of Transdisciplinary Studies (KNOTS) project is to establish innovative teaching methodologies and establish a transdisciplinary knowledge network in Southeast Asia.
About
The KNOTS project will focus on contemporary development challenges in Southeast Asia, where transdisciplinary research methods could offer novel insights and innovative solutions. We will focus in particular on:
Environmental degradation
Migration
Social inequality
The project will prepare curriculum and teaching/ learning materials on transdisciplinary methods to be integrated into each universities’ teaching programs. Three summer schools and field trips will be organized in Vietnam and Thailand over the duration of the project to pilot in order to refine these materials. There will also be a Stakeholders Workshop in June 2017 and a final conference in 2019, to be hosted at Chulalongkorn University. In May 2018, a special train-the-trainer (TTT) event was held at Chulalongkorn University from participants around Europe and Southeast Asia. Read more about the workshop in our event blog.
Duong Lam UNESCO World Heritage Village (Credit: R. IRven)
To learn more about the experiences and field visits during the 2017 Summer School in Vietnam, please visit the following blogs:
KNOTS Summer School: The Benefits of Using Transdisciplinary Research for Impacting Policy Change (Robert Irven)
Where Ideas Innovate and Live (Huong Ngoc Nguyen)
The Experiences Gained From Traveling and Studying Under "KNOTS Summer School and Field Trip 2017 (Pairin Makcharoen)
Transdisciplinary Research at KNOTS Summer School, Tam Dao, Vietnam (Mukda Pratheepwatanawong)
Partners
The three-year project was initiated in October 2016, and is a collaboration between seven universities in Europe, Thailand and Vietnam: the University of Vienna, Austria, which is also the project coordinator; Charles University, Czechia; University of Bonn, Germany; Chulalongkorn University and Chiang Mai University, Thailand; and Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Southern Institute of Social Sciences, and Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Vietnam.
The project is funded by the European Commission’s ERASMUS+ programme. At Chulalongkorn University, the MA in International Development Studies program is the project partner, with which CSDS is collaborating alongside a network of academics and practitioners interested in teaching and practicing transdisciplinary research approaches.
Teaching Manual
The teaching manual is the main outcome of the KNOTS project. It is a resource as well as a toolbox for university teachers, researchers, students and interested audiences With the manual, we want not only to motivate colleagues all over the world to take up transdisciplinarity in teaching but also to give some ideas and guidelines on how to do it in practice based on our shared experiences and endeavors.
For more background information about the teaching manual, please visit the link here.