Activity

The ITD Early Career Researcher (ECR) Group is launching a new discussion series beginning May 2026 aimed at creating an informal, open, and intellectually engaging space for critical reflection, exchange, and collective learning on the evolving realities of academic and inter- and transdisciplinary practice.
Through interactive discussions, the initiative seeks to encourage constructive exchange around values, collaboration, power dynamics, trust, academic cultures, and the broader societal conditions shaping research and knowledge production today. Alongside peer learning and open dialogue, the discussions aim to encourage collective reflection, shared ownership, and the co-development of ideas that can contribute to ongoing debates on the future of academic and inter- and transdisciplinary practice.

If you identify with the topics (see schedule below), we warmly invite you to join the discussions and contribute to shaping this evolving initiative.

If you are interested in attending one of our sessions to gain insight into our group, do not hesitate to contact BinBin J. Pearce.

Upcoming Virtual Coffees / Discussion Series

• 26th of May 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Theme: Dialogue and Interaction in Academic and Peer Contexts). Join on Microsoft Teams, Passcode: X3QL3KC9
  How do academic norms, institutional cultures, and interaction patterns shape collaboration, dialogue, and inclusion in research environments? And how can researchers contribute to building more open, trust-based, and constructive academic spaces? This session invites participants to collectively reflect on themes such as trust, accountability, gatekeeping, inclusion, and constructive dialogue across peer, supervisory, and stakeholder relationships in academia. Researchers from different disciplines, backgrounds, and career stages are warmly invited to join the discussion and contribute to shaping future academic and inter- and transdisciplinary environments.
• 30 June 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Tentative theme: Survey and Planned Outputs). Description and meeting link will be added when available.
• 25 August 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Tentative theme: Power, Legitimacy, and Voice in ITD). Description and meeting link will be added when available.
• 29 September 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Tentative theme: Trust and Emotional Labour in Collaboration). Description and meeting link will be added when available.
• 13 October 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Tentative theme: ITD in Times of Crisis). Description and meeting link will be added when available.
• 17 November 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Tentative theme: Careers, Identity, and Belonging in Academia). Description and meeting link will be added when available.
• 15 December 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Tentative theme: Reimagining Supportive Academic Cultures). Description and meeting link will be added when available.

Past Events

• 28th of April 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Theme: Grant opportunities for ITD research).
• 31st of March 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Theme: Values and value-based research in TD). This week, Dr. Anna Hadju will discuss “Values across disciplines and actors: challenges for transdisciplinary sustainability research”. Values play a central role in transdisciplinary sustainability research, yet they are understood and operationalized in diverse and sometimes conflicting ways across disciplines. These differences extend beyond academia, as actors involved in sustainability research and practice often rely on distinct value orientations when interpreting problems, responsibilities, and legitimate courses of action. This presentation discusses key conceptual challenges related to working with values in transdisciplinary contexts and reflects on why such processes often encounter limits, conflicts, and uneven outcomes across settings, informed by empirical insights from agri-food systems, land governance, and corporate sustainability practices. Building on the presenter’s doctoral research and related work in agriculture, the talk outlines an emerging line of inquiry aimed at developing an institutional understanding of values and situating existing value-based approaches within broader conditions of interpretation and legitimacy. The presentation is intended as a basis for exchange with researchers working on values from different theoretical and empirical perspectives. This topic is the basis for a joint publication under development between some members of our working group. Anna Hajdu is an agricultural and ecological economist and a social and environmental scientist with training across the social and natural sciences. Her research engages with sustainability transitions and broader socio-ecological transformation processes in the agri-food sector, with particular emphasis on land governance and multi-actor perceptions in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, informed by research experience in other geographical contexts, including Latin America and Eurasia. Her work is theoretically grounded in institutional theory and adopts an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of institutional conditions shaping socio-ecological change.
• 24th of February 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Theme: Open discussion).
• 27th of January 2026, 14:30-15:30 CET (Theme: A critical reflection of TD education).
• 10th of December 2025, 14:30-15:30 CET (Theme: Power). The theme of our next meeting  will be – power.  Specifically, Dr. Guadalupe Peres-Cajías will provide an input based on her expertise developing and using self reflective analysis to interrogate the role of power in ITD research. We welcome this as an opportunity for all of you to bring in questions and share approaches you may also use to study power relations in your own research.