Fusing International Relations and Performance in Undergraduate Teaching:An Interdisciplinary Case Study From Goldsmiths College

Over the past decade IR scholars have shown an increasing interest in theatre and performance practices. Recognising the importance of knowledge derived from creative, embodied practices, IR researchers are consistently turning to the performing arts to enhance understandings of political aesthetics, representations, and interaction. Reflecting such trends, staff at Goldsmiths College, London, developed a new undergraduate degree in Performance, Politics and Society in 2017. The development of this degree provides important insights with regard to the challenges and opportunities involved in combining IR with artistic disciplines. This paper discusses the pedagogic challenges that arose with regard to bridging discipline-specific learning outcomes, competing terminologies, student backgrounds, and appropriate assessment methods. The experience of confronting these potential obstacles reveals the complexities of interdisciplinary teaching in the age of TEF and REF, yet also evidences the productivity of such approaches in terms of expanded career paths, transferable skills and the development of new paradigms of knowledge