Interdisciplinarity, Team Science, and the Next Generation of Researchers: The Children’s Drawings of Gods Project Experience

Abstract

Based on an analysis of the research project Drawings of Gods: A multicultural and interdisciplinary approach to children’s representations of supernatural agents also known as (Children’s Drawings of Gods), this work aims to study the epistemological and methodological issues that arise when several disciplinary approaches are convened for the processing, analysis, and interpretation of a corpus of digitized children’s drawings. This work shows how the interdisciplinary process is set up, with its points of convergence, its potentialities, but also its difficulties with regard to the various epistemic and cultural horizons involved. The success of such an interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international project relies on mutual consideration and respect for the diversity of objects, disciplines, and approaches in a spirit of team collaboration. This negotiated sharing of values, practices, and epistemological horizons calls for capacities for openness and creative dialogue between researchers. Further, it requires the researchers to go beyond their disciplinary centres to engage in hybrid configurations or even transgressive knowledge.