The world faces intensifying geopolitical tensions, climate change, widening social and economic divides, and the erosion of international cooperation. It is commonly agreed that these global challenges are the result of a combination of factors and therefore cannot be understood in isolation. Many also concur that these challenges, prevalent in many parts of the world, require international cooperation to be solved. Where international cooperation on a political level is currently failing, education is called to carry on the huge responsibility of cultivating global citizenship, promoting intercultural understanding, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration in pursuit of shared solutions inside and outside educational institutions.

While the ‘international’ and ‘intercultural’ parts may be easier to address, ‘interdisciplinary’ collaboration remains particularly challenging. Educational institutions and mechanisms value the depth of knowledge and expertise that comes with disciplinarity. They train academics in frameworks particular to their discipline, often casting judgment upon other disciplines’ capability to generate empirical knowledge. There is not enough incentive for interdisciplinary collaboration, despite growing recognition that today’s most urgent problems are inherently interdisciplinary in nature. Indeed, being recognised for engaging in interdisciplinary research is quite difficult, and funding is often limited.

This Forum discussion seeks to address how to foster cooperation in difficult times, and how to best tackle the challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration. What structural and systemic changes are needed to promote interdisciplinary collaboration? How can we ensure equitable interdisciplinary collaboration, including tacit and indigenous knowledge? What common ground can we find despite the differences in vocabulary, methodologies, and knowledge generation between disciplines? With delegates representing various disciplines within education, the arts, and the humanities at this conference, the discussion aims to model constructive interdisciplinary dialogue by example.

Biographies

Grant Black

Professor Grant Black is a professor in the Faculty of Commerce at Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan, where he has taught Global Skills and Global Issues since 2013. He is engaged in diverse roles as a global manager, systems builder, executive leader, and university professor. His research and teaching areas include global management skills, intercultural intelligence (CQ) and organisational management. He also has taught Japanese Management Theory at J. F. Oberlin University, Japan, and a continuing education course in the Foundations of Japanese Zen Buddhism at Temple University Japan. Previously, he was Chair of the English Section at the Center for Education of Global Communication at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, where he served in a six-year post in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He holds a BA Highest Honors in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, United States; an MA in Japanese Buddhist Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, United States; and a Doctor of Social Science (DSocSci) from the Department of Management in the School of Business at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. Professor Black is a Chartered Manager (CMgr), the highest status that can be achieved in the management profession in the United Kingdom. In 2018, he was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He is President of Black Inc. Consulting (Japan), a Tokyo-based firm specialising in international and intercultural project management, communication projects, and executive leadership and training. He is the director of the Nippon Academic Management Institute (NAMI) and the author of Education Reform Policy at a Japanese Super Global University: Policy Translation, Migration and Mutation (Routledge, 2022).

Professor Black serves as a Vice-President for the International Academic Forum (IAFOR).

Melina Neophytou

Dr Melina Neophytou is the Academic Operations Manager at IAFOR, where she works closely with academics, keynote speakers, and IAFOR partners to shape academic discussions within The Forum, bring conference programmes together, refine scholarship programmes, and build an interdisciplinary and international community. She is leading various projects within IAFOR, notably The Forum discussions and the authoring of Conference Reports and Intelligence Briefings, and she oversees the Global Fellows Programme.

Born in Germany and raised in Cyprus, Dr Neophytou received her PhD in International Development from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2023, specialising in political sociology, the welfare state, and contentious politics. She received an MA in International Development from Nagoya University, with a focus on Governance & Law, and a BA in European Studies from the University of Cyprus, Cyprus.

Her research interests currently focus on the Japanese welfare state, family values within Japanese society, and their relationship to family policies. She is particularly interested in state-society relations by uncovering how informal social ideas influence formal social policy.

About the Presenter(s)
-Professor Grant Black is a professor in the Faculty of Commerce at Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan, where he has taught Global Skills and Global Issues since 2013.
-Dr Melina Neophytou is the Academic Operations Manager at IAFOR, where she works closely with academics, keynote speakers, and IAFOR partners to shape academic discussions within The Forum, bring conference programmes together, refine scholarship programmes, and build an interdisciplinary and international community.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

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