Collaborative Research Methodologies

• Co-Construction of Knowledge
• Power, Knowledge and Politics of Collaboration
• Collaboration as a Communication Technique
• Participatory Action Research

Challenging Dichotomies and Bridging Gaps

• Theory and Practice
• Academic and Everyday Knowledge
• Agents of Knowledge Production
• Inter/ Multi/ Trans/ Counterdisciplinarity

Researcher as Collaborator

• The Collaborating Self
• Self-Reflexivity through Collaboration
• Ethical Implications
• Taking Affect into Consideration

Doing and Being Together

• Dialogue and Solidarity
• Collaborative Decision-Making
• Forming Communities
• Collaborative Action
• Feminist, Critical and Collaborative Pedagogies
• Intersubjectivities

Collaborative Communication Technologies

• Affordances and Limitations
• Distance and Proximity
• Public and Private Intertwined

Critical Perspectives on Collaboration

• Dissemination, Accessibility and Transferability of Knowledge
• Public Value of Research
• Forced Collaboration

The 2021 edition of (IPCC) Interdisciplinary PhD Communication Conference, realised by a group of young scholars within the PhD in Communication Program at Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey, was held online on 7-8 May 2021 under the theme “Collaborations“. Participants provided 15-minute presentations, followed by roundtable discussions, which encouraged further inquiry into the related topics of discussion, with the audience and fellow presenters. In line with the mission of the PhD in Communication Program of Istanbul Bilgi University, IPCC prioritises solidarity. Thus, the conference promotes a platform for the co-creation of knowledge, facilitated by free-form discussion sessions. The aim is encourage young scholars as they create and disseminate knowledge, reiterating the idea behind the special issue of Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, which was compiled from the talks within IPCC’s primordial edition, “Rethinking methodology”, and published in April 2020.

All PhD students or candidates, as well as early career researchers with PhDs earned in the last 5 years, who are interested in examining, expressing and exploring the current and possible implications of collaborations within their field of interest, were welcome to submit their proposal and join the discussion. Contributions included but were not limited to the topics provided.

Please note that while it contains ‘communication’ in its title, this conference is also mindful of defining the word as broadly as possible in an attempt to incorporate all fields within social sciences, natural sciences, and arts and humanities.

How are we attentive to collaborations?

In a time marked by biological, political, social and economic crises, the IPCC shifts its focus towards practices of solidarity, of labouring together and building new communities within the scope of communication and beyond.

Acknowledging that it is a period of “necessary interdependence” (Kenneth Bruffee, 1999) we are living in, IPCC 2021 called for participation to discuss new ways to diversify research methodologies, communication techniques, co-authorship practices, shared dialogical spaces and the public value of research. As the paradigms upon which scientific knowledge and inquiry is built are constantly shifting, the conference also aims to question the implications of collaboration for the transformative process of constructing self as a researcher. Furthermore, the new opportunities that have arisen following the increased use of online communication tools sensitizes us to consider collaboration from new perspectives.

In order to reach out beyond the confines of academia and build on the legacy of the previous two IPCC conferences on rethinking methodologies and intersectionalities within the scholarly endeavour of communication, the necessity of challenging dichotomies among theory and practice, natural and social sciences, intellectuals and the public, and producers and audiences is emphasised. By offering to expand horizons towards including diverse voices and involving non-academic research agents as a means to redefine scholarship, a “community of inquiry” is favoured against a Cartesian model of science. This is a space that promotes and celebrates all forms of collaboration, be it based on distance or proximity.