Program for INTED PhD Forum

4 September

10:00 - 11:30

Interdisciplinarity in doctoral education

Article:

Doctoral education and the development of an interdisciplinary identity: Innovations in Education and Teaching International: Vol 52, No 6

The Longitudinal Career Experiences of Interdisciplinary Neuroscience PhD Recipients: The Journal of Higher Education: Vol 89 , No 1 - Get Access

• Interdisciplinary identity
• Career expectations 

9 October 

10:00 - 11:30

Theme: In this talk, Ane Kristine Espeseth, PhD candidate at the Center for Computing in Science Education and INTED (University of Oslo), explores how ideas and methods from cognitive science can be used to ask better questions about AI systems.

How do “artificial brains” like large language models process information—and what can cognitive science tell us about what is really going on inside them?

Ane works with both concept-based approaches (such as contextual embeddings) and mechanistic perspectives (looking at the “neural circuits” inside models) to understand how large language models represent, transform, and reproduce information.

By bringing together cognitive science, computer science, and science education, she investigates whether—and in what sense—these systems have something like “cognitive abilities,” and how this shapes the way we should use and trust them in society.

Event page

Questions for discussion:

• How can cognitive science help us understand what large language models “know” and how they think?
• How do different disciplines (like cognitive science, computer science, and education) need to work together to decide which questions we should ask these AI systems in the first place?

Theme: Meet Eirik Tangeraas Lygre, PhD candidate in philosophy at INTED, whose research studies who gets to set the terms of climate policy.

The climate field is becoming more technical, and increasingly governed by experts. But who actually counts as a “climate expert”, and who should count? Currently, economists dominate expert commissions and largely define how to understand and define climate problems, and thereby also how to solve them. Is that a problem, and if so, why? Almost every discipline now claims to possess some competence in climate matters, so how should experts be selected?

As an interdisciplinary PhD candidate, Eirik works in between philosophy, economics, political science, and climate policy, with the conceptual and methodological differences that entails. In this event, he invites other PhD candidates to reflect on the role of interdisciplinarity in political processes.

Event page 

• When different disciplines meet, is there one discipline that tends to set the terms of the discussion?
• Does your discipline possess knowledge that is relevant to climate policy? How can we judge which disciplines are more relevant than others?

4 December 

10:00 - 11:30

Theme: Meet Emil Poiesz, a PhD Research Fellow at Integreat – Norwegian Centre for Knowledge-Driven Machine Learning.

In this presentation, Emil will share more about his PhD work, which combines theoretical and empirical research approaches. He will also discuss some of the challenges involved in developing, communicating, and publishing this type of research.

• When you have work that contains elements from field A and field B with different research cultures, where do you go to publish?

• Does interdisciplinary work necessarily mean less contribution to field A or field B individually than pure field A or field B work?

Interdisciplinarity in doctoral education

Article:

Rana, K., Aitken, S. J., & Chimoriya, R. (2025). Interdisciplinary Approaches in Doctoral and Higher Research Education: An Integrative Scoping Review. Education Sciences, 15(1), 72. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15010072

• Benefits and challenges experienced by PhD candidates in interdisciplinary settings

Theme: The PhD student in interdisciplinary projects

1) The implied PhD student of interdisciplinary research projects within monodisciplinary structures

2) Ten simple rules for surviving an interdisciplinary PhD | PLOS Computational Biology

• Expectations to and of PhD students
• What is expected from interdisciplinary PhD candidates by supervisors and institutions?
• What expectations do PhD candidates have towards their project and role?

Presentation of project: LLM combining quantitative and qualitative research methods by Amanda Bowerman, PhD candidate at INTED

How can we combine qualitative and quantitative methods that centers the researcher in the decision-making process? What should we, as researchers, be cognizant of when combining these methods when it comes to the limitations and interpretations of the results?

Discussion topic:

• Combining methods – possibilities and challenges
• How can quantitative and qualitative methods be combined in a meaningful way?
• Methodological and practical challenges when using LLMs in research

Presentation of project: 

Nicoline Birkeland, PhD candidate at INTED

The use of learning assistants in mono- and interdisciplinary undergraduate courses

Discussion topic:

• How to navigate new subject fields?
• Entering new disciplinary areas as a PhD student
• Building interdisciplinary competence and networks