Crossing boundaries in graduate education – experiences from the process of designing and running an interdisciplinary graduate course

Other conference contribution, 2010

Sustainable development requires an interdisciplinary approach. Thus, it is vital to design graduate courses to facilitate interdisciplinary research and training opportunities for doctoral students that transcend traditional disciplinary perspectives and promote collaboration across departments. These are the goals of the graduate student course “Perspectives on Energy Systems” offered collaboratively by the Swedish Energy Agency and a consortium of six Swedish universities, including both social science and engineering departments. This paper discusses experiences from designing, organising and running a nationwide interdisciplinary graduate course that includes perspectives from social and engineering sciences.