This post was written by Jonathan Downie, a PhD student, conference interpreter, public speaker and translator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He co-edits LifeinLINCS the unofficial blog of the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University. He is married with two children.

His newest blog Rock Your Talk aims to help people keep on improving in their public speaking. In this post Jonathan gives some thought to an important topic – should we work harder to non academic others in our research?

Nowadays, most academic disciplines are pretty closed shops. Sure, they might have the odd study that involves another discipline and there might be the odd paper calling for greater collaboration but the limits of collaboration are firmly set.

We all know the rules. If you need help with research, you are expected to go talk to another researcher. If your research crosses disciplinary boundaries, you…