Description:

The age-old mores of the academy can seem to conspire against our collaboration. The image of a single researcher, working individually to produce the next epoch-making idea, persists to a remarkable degree in how students are trained and scholars are promoted. 

Yet recent crises, from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate catastrophes, have made plain that the days of the lone genius are over. The problems are too complex and interconnected for any one person, discipline or locale to address them alone. The new genius is a collaborative genius. 

The Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs has been developing new systems to catalyze collaborative research across borders of all kinds, but collaboration itself demands the university's attention and study during this moment of paradigm shift. We invite Northwestern faculty and graduate students to join us for an internal seminar on collaboration—an opportunity to step back and engage in dialogue across disciplines about the theory, practice, methods and stakes of new collaborative research. The seminar will showcase some remarkable examples from across the Northwestern research community and facilitate collective thinking about future methodological directions and institutional transformations.