Getting involved with YCCSA
Interdisciplinary work needs people from different disciplines to come together, think together, and work together. YCCSA has some tried-and-tested mechanisms for bringing this about at York.
Coming together
- Come along to the Friday afternoon meetings. These roughly alternate between YCCSA cake seminars given by external speakers, and YCCSA discussion sessions led by a facilitator. The sessions are two hours (1:30-3:30), allowing in-depth discussions. Turn up and join in: listen, discuss, suggest speakers and sessions
- Come to the monthly Wednesday YCCSA/CMODS Complexity Reading Group meeting, and spend an hour discussing the paper of the month [link]
- Come informally – contact one or more people and drop in for a chat
Thinking together
- Are you about to prepare a proposal that includes interdisciplinary work? Do you have a draft a proposal that includes interdisciplinary work? Do you want some input from the “other” disciplines? YCCSA can provide input, comments, suggestions, partners
- Start small: preparing a UoY pump-priming proposal, to explore an interdisciplinary concept, is an ideal way to focus on an idea
- Start big: a large consortium proposal, tackling a grand challenge, provides an opportunity to bring a wider group together and “think outside the box”
Working together
- Co-supervising a studenton a project of mutual interest is an excellent way to start working together
- YCCSA runs the Summer School programme, with 8-10 excellent undergraduates resident over the summer vacation, each working on a mini project. Each project is supervised by at least two researchers from different departments. Projects are proposed early in the Spring term
- The Individual Project for a taught Masters student is another route to working across Departments. If you have a project idea that would benefit from a co-supervisor from a different Department, or would like to be co-supervisor on a project in another Department, contact a relevant YCCSA person
- For more substantial working together, co-supervising a PhD student can lead to a really in-depth collaboration. It can be hard to find the right student and project, and even harder to find funding; one route is through the CIDCATS DTC where YCCSA is a partner.
- If your research project is already running, and you discover you are looking at an interdisciplinary problem, YCCSA can help in various ways
- An initial small discussion, maybe based around a Friday seminar or discussion group
- If there is a specific piece of work needed, add an YCCSA member in to the project as a consultant or partner, for example to provide expertise to help supervise an RA
- Affiliate your project with an YCCSA one, for example, through a case study: one side gains a valuable case study to apply their techniques; the other side gains extra and different analysis of their problem
- If your research projectis near its end, and you need help analysing masses of data that you have collected…
- … unfortunately, it’s then probably too late to help. Ask, but often, when this happens, we find that all we can say is, “well, I wouldn’t start from here”. Speak up sooner, and avoid this issue!
How can I join YCCSA?
- If you want to be a member of YCCSA, just ask! There are two mailing lists: a “friends” list for those who want to know about the main events, and a “members” list, for those who want to know all that’s going on. You can ask to be added to either list. To be a member of YCCSA, all that’s needed is participation in YCCSA activities.
Contact points
- Look at the list of YCCSA staff and contact someone with relevant interests. If they can’t help, they can point you at someone who can
- Alternatively, contact Sarah Christmas, the YCCSA manager, who can give you information about events, add you to mailing lists, and help point you at relevant researchers
- Explore the YCCSA wiki to see how YCCSA puts interdisciplinary ideas into practice. Follow the link to ask for a login
- For our address, maps and travel information see our Contact page.
Example collaborations
Have a look at some of the interdisciplinary work going on with YCCSA members