Catalysing an interdisciplinary mindset for environmental research through theatre games

Abstract

While interdisciplinarity is recognised as important within environmental research, it remains difficult to put into practice. This article outlines what we—a team of two environmental social scientists and two theatre practitioners—designed as a method for helping to catalyse an interdisciplinary mindset in environmental researchers. Here, we outline and reflect upon our collaboration in designing ten activities based on theatre games to be used in teaching and team building for environmental research initiatives. We share our experience of running a workshop using some of these activities with a group of environmental researchers and discuss reasons why elements from applied theatre have potential to support impactful mindset shifts for participants. We conclude by reflecting on how these activities can act as ‘solutions’ to recognised barriers to interdisciplinarity.