Dr Ilona Kater’s new book Many Ways to Think About Harvest: Communicating Across Disciplines reflects on the single word ‘harvest’ to explore how to collaborate across different disciplines more effectively.
Dr Kater is a Bye Fellow and Director of Studies in Geography.
She said:
“Collaborating with those who see the world differently can make our thinking more holistic, and can spark creative solutions to complex problems. I believe that genuinely understanding why others see things differently, not just acknowledging that they do, is what makes effective collaboration possible.
In an increasingly polarised society where it is easy to fall into an echo-chamber, the ability to really understand one another is a skill that needs to be actively cultivated. This book aims to help us do just that.”
To do this, contributors share their understanding of ‘harvest’ in their respective fields in chapters on organ transplantation, energy politics, data governance, sustainable agriculture, remote sensing, subsistence hunting, biotechnological cultures, and harvest festivals as sites of cultural resilience.
The book includes a chapter by Professor Gareth Rees, Fellow in Natural Sciences which explores the harvest of data from remote sensing technologies such as satellites.
There are interactive elements in the book for the reader to reflect on as they go through. The eight individual authors read each chapter and then met for a workshop to reflect on the experience of communicating across different contexts. The closing chapter, written by all the authors, reflects on the experience of collaborative authorship of this interdisciplinary book.
Dr Kater said:
“There is great value in engaging with perspectives different from our own. They bring colour, richness, and depth to the world, helping us see beyond our immediate view. Writing this book together was a great opportunity to explore that, both in theory and in practice.”
Many Ways to Think About Harvest is available via Open Access.