A new wave of interdisciplinarity

The ocean is a complex, living, interconnected system so increased interdisciplinary work is required to break down the systemic challenges it faces. In this context, different perspectives and viewpoints need to be compared to combine approaches and transcend academic boundaries, as the Ocean and Seas Research Network (GDR OMER) is indeed now doing. But how can disciplines as diverse as marine biology, philosophy of science, literature and palaeoclimatology establish the right dialogues? Three young researchers are banking on interdisciplinarity. Three career paths and approaches responding to one challenge - to understand the ocean by decompartmentalising knowledge.

An often intuitive career path 

Why opt for an interdisciplinary thesis rather than follow a 'traditional' approach in what is a particularly compartmentalised scientific world? For Pauline André-Dominguez, a PhD student1  in comparative literature, the answer is crystal clear. "Interdisciplinarity is not so much a choice as just self-evident. I took a hybrid university course that mixed research and creation and wanted to preserve that richness for my PhD". Her work on the zoopoetics of the deep in the framework of the 'Ocean and Climate' National Research Programme combines ecology, ethology and zoosemiotics, the aim being to give our underwater worlds a voice. More specifically, her work identifies fundamental knowledge about animal life in the deep sea and defines the best ways to disseminate this to as many people as possible through storytelling laboratories and conference-performances. 

Evan Josselin2  is working on a PhD in philosophy of science and marine biology and could not have envisaged a PhD if there was no associated field of study. "It's still a rare approach in philosophy but I had to create a tangible relationship with my object of study so I could see or handle it... Philosophising in a library really wasn't for me," he explains. His research explores the role played in marine biology by citizen participation, particularly through the participatory oceanology programme Plankton Planet3 . The PhD student at the GDR OMER is studying the interactions between participants and the scientific instruments they use in this context, thus rethinking philosophical concepts like the scientific image.

Following a Master's 2 in palaeoclimatology (the study of past climates), Aitu Raufauore4  chose to take his subject further with an added biological dimension for his PhD. His project combines knowledge from different disciplines to find out more about the responses to climate change of corals off the coast of a Polynesian island. "The way coral assimilates marine compounds varies from species to species which impacts our knowledge of certain lagoons' capacity to capture carbon, for example. Working with an interdisciplinary approach means I can explore links that haven't been studied much between coral biology, carbonate geochemistry and climate change," explains the PhD student from the CNRS 80PRIME 2023 programme.

Forging ties between disciplines is both enriching and a challenge

Interdisciplinarity on a day-to-day basis can be like learning several languages at the same time. "Finding a common language between disciplines is demanding but also really stimulating. I like the idea of building bridges between different worlds - in this case the arts and sciences which haven't always been separated," explains Pauline. "It's notalways easy to explain to biologists why the concept of the scientific image is crucial in the philosophy of science, especially when they're mostly interested in the information involved. But new ideas actually are found in dialogues like these."

Aitu finds the complexity of interdisciplinarity also derives by the workload involved. "I had to deepen my knowledge of biology to catch up as we went on. That demands greater personal investment during the PhD but it also means I can ask innovative questions and develop new skills later."

All three PhD students agree on the need for greater personal investment. Previously Evan Josselin's studies were only in the humanities and social sciences and he explains that "in a marine biology article, your might not give details of certain methodologies because they're obvious to the community concerned. But for me they aren't so I had to do a summer course at the Oceanological Observatory of Banyuls-sur-Mer to get up to speed." Pauline, on the other hand, questions the time allotted for a thesis. "In three years it's a real challenge to delve deeply into my complementary disciplines and acquire robust knowledge in ecology, ethology and zoosemiotics".

A new way of doing research

Another question PhD students come up against is why disciplines studying the same subject do not learn naturally from each other. "For example, I realised the theoretical frameworks and methodologies in ecology and ethology are divergent so it's harder for the disciplines to dialogue," says Pauline André-Dominguez. This has meant she has to invent her own methodologies to produce more integrated knowledge as she goes along. 

Methodology is also an issue for Evan. "Other philosophy PhD students working on field projects and myself have set up a self-help group. Together we think about how to adapt empirical tools to our projects, explore methods from other disciplines and appropriate them differently." Sharing and self-help groups for PhD students are quite commonplace but the interdisciplinary nature of their theses has led the young researchers to take part in a number of groups with varied themes and disciplines involved. Evan and Pauline work together in the 'Navigation group' set up and coordinated by the ocean philosopher Roberto Casati5 .

Interdisciplinarity also throws up challenges in areas outside the PhD students' day-to-day research, particularly the need for interdisciplinary juries to assess new work and less specialised journals to disseminate results. A PhD thesis initially seems a good first step towards interdisciplinary research but a great deal of work remains to be done.

Ever-evolving science

Despite these issues interdisciplinarity is gaining ground. Pauline explains that "calls for projects are promoting it more and more and institutions recognise how useful and necessary this approach is." Aitu Raufauore adds that "it's all the more useful in climate and life sciences because studies carried out in each of these disciplines are currently distinct from each other even if the knowledge involved is interconnected and complementary." 

Our three PhD students agree that one of the main challenges is to make interdisciplinarity a long-term fixture. "Doing a thesis means one person mixing two disciplines. I think we need to go beyond fixed-term contracts. We've got to escape the constraints of hyper-specialised laboratories and mix disciplines even on the structural level because working closer promotes exchanges and collaboration," advocates Evan Josselin.

A generation committed to a sustainable ocean

Finally, these PhD students share the desire to carry out useful science. "The other PhD students in the Ocean and Climate PPR and me are drafting a manifesto for the 3rd United Nations Conference on the Oceans to raise awareness of the fact that research has too little impact on public decision-making," explains Pauline André-Dominguez. Evan Josselin also posits the importance of dialogue with decision-makers. "Understanding how politicians perceive research and the sort of language that makes them react positively are crucial if we want to change the situation in terms of regulations".

And Aitu Raufauore would like to pass on his knowledge in Polynesia on a long-term basis. "I'd really like to go back there to help educate, raise awareness, involve young people in local climate issues and help people to understand coral bleaching to make them aware of how important it is to protect marine ecosystems." These young researchers' interdisciplinary PhDs in ocean sciences are certainly contributing to the emergence of a more open and committed science in a research sphere that is capable of effectively taking science out of the laboratory and into the field.  

• 1Centre de recherches sur les arts et le langage (CNRS/EHESS)
• 2Institut Jean-Nicod (CNRS/EHESS/ENS-PSL).
• 3The aim of the Plankton Planet programme is to establish a link between a network of sailors from civil society who collect plankton samples around the world and international oceanography experts responsible for analysing these samples. The data collected will be used to measure plankton biodiversity more accurately, monitor its spatio-temporal evolution and anticipate its future in today's changing oceans.
• 4Oceanic and Continental Environments and Palaeoenvironments Laboratory (Bordeaux INP/CNRS/University of Bordeaux)
• 5Institut Jean-Nicod