An essential part of our Research Spotlight series is showcasing recent publications by Regent's colleagues that extend conversations about learning, teaching and scholarship beyond the University.
For our latest Spotlight, Dr Mark Hamilton, Director of Foundation & Perspectives, and Céleste Williams, Design Technician, share insights from their chapter, Supradiscipline: Playful Exploration of Interdisciplinarity, published in The Play Advantage: Global and Indigenous Perspectives in Higher Education (Routledge, 2026). The volume is co-edited by Regent's colleague Edward Gonsalves and brings together international perspectives on play, creativity and learning in higher education.
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Background
The chapter began not with a formal research project but with a conversation. After returning from Aotearoa New Zealand to teach on the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE), Mark was encouraged by colleagues to meet Céleste Williams, whose creative approach to teaching and learning was already well known across Regent's.
These conversations quickly turned to interdisciplinarity. Because interdisciplinarity is already embedded within the Regent's learning experience, we became interested in what it feels like to inhabit the space between disciplines and how educators can help students navigate that space with confidence, curiosity and creativity.
The more we talked, the more we realised that interdisciplinarity is often discussed as an outcome rather than an experience. We wondered whether people needed opportunities to play within interdisciplinary spaces before they could feel comfortable working within them. This curiosity became the starting point for a collaborative exploration that eventually developed into a book chapter.
The research project
Rather than trying to define interdisciplinarity more precisely, we decided to approach it more playfully. The result was what we came to call the supradiscipline. The supradiscipline is not a new academic field but a process for exploring what happens when disciplinary boundaries become temporarily unstable.
Participants invent speculative disciplinary identities, construct simple artefacts, perform actions, generate stories and negotiate meanings together. Through acts of making and imagining, they explore their assumptions about knowledge, expertise and collaboration. The emphasis is on discovery through interaction rather than arriving at predetermined conclusions.
The project draws on influences from design practice, performance, playful learning and Māori educational perspectives. As the work evolved, we became increasingly interested in facilitation rather than instruction and in creating conditions where participants could generate ideas for themselves. We therefore developed five guiding principles for what we came to describe as the 'good-enough facilitator'.
These principles encourage facilitators to begin with clarity while also allowing space for uncertainty and experimentation. At the heart of the supradiscipline is the belief that ideas made tangible and real are often more valuable than ideas left perfect in theory.
A Regent's approach
The supradiscipline emerged from conversations about learning and teaching at Regent's. As colleagues working in performance and design, we were interested in how the University's commitment to interdisciplinarity is experienced in practice by both students and staff. Rather than treating disciplines as fixed territories, Regent's encourages learners to move between perspectives, methods and contexts, often working with ideas that resist simple categorisation.
The project was also shaped by Regent's emphasis on active, workshop-based learning. Many of our most valuable educational experiences happen through discussion, collaboration, experimentation and reflection rather than through transmission of knowledge alone. We became interested in how playful, co-creative activities might help people explore interdisciplinary spaces with greater confidence and curiosity.
The supradiscipline reflects these values. It invites participants to think with their hands as well as their minds, to learn through making and doing, and to treat uncertainty as an opportunity rather than a problem. In this sense, the project is both a product of Regent's learning culture and an exploration of some of the questions that sit at its heart.
From workshop to publication
Many of the ideas in the chapter were tested through workshops and conference presentations. One particularly memorable experience involved inviting participants at an interdisciplinary learning and teaching conference to respond rapidly to fictional disciplinary concepts using simple materials and limited time. What followed was a burst of making, discussion, laughter and collaborative interpretation.
Within minutes, tables were covered with improvised constructions, drawings and speculative ideas. Participants reflected on disciplinary identities, shared teaching experiences and debated the value of uncertainty in learning. The richness of these conversations reinforced our belief that play can act as a serious method of inquiry.
These experiences became the foundation for the chapter and ultimately for its inclusion in The Play Advantage. Being invited to contribute to a volume edited by leading scholars in the field provided an opportunity to place our work within a wider international conversation and showcase ideas developed at Regent's.
Why it matters
Our chapter argues that playfulness is not the opposite of serious learning but one of its enablers. Play creates opportunities for experimentation, intellectual risk-taking and creative collaboration. It allows people to test ideas, challenge assumptions and generate new possibilities without immediately seeking definitive answers.
Ultimately, the supradiscipline is an invitation to experiment, collaborate and remain curious about what becomes possible when disciplinary boundaries soften. Most of all, it suggests that some of our most valuable learning emerges when we are willing to explore uncertainty together.
Learn more
Hamilton, M. & Williams, C. Supradiscipline: Playful Exploration of Interdisciplinarity (2026) in Wharton, S., & Gonsalves, E. (Eds.) “The Play Advantage: Global and Indigenous perspectives in higher education”. Routledge, London