Guts, brains, complexity and creativity: immersive living and learning through the critical lens of first-person inquiry

I am a transdisciplinary practitioner who is deeply engaged in multiple professional fronts, driving the production of scientific and practice-based knowledge in the emerging field of the microbiome-gut-brain axis, also referred to as “microbiome, mental and gut health” whilst being embedded in projects spanning the subject disciplines of clinical, applied, affective, and cognitive neurosciences, applied microbiology, health informatics, food science and technology, and human nutrition.

When I started my professional doctorate I was deep-rooted in a positivist worldview that was preventing me from flourishing as the professional I am today. I found myself in a state of oscillating liminality, torn between the perceived need for disembodied objectivity – demanded from me by academic and work peers – and an intense craving for exploring my innate creativity as an individual, acknowledging that reality isn’t single, tangible and fragmentable, but multiple, constructed, and holistic, and that we co-create it as we live / experience it.

This thesis aims to illustrate my process of becoming a transdisciplinary practitioner with heightened awareness of the complex processes of interpretation, reflection, and action I engage in as part of my professional practice. In order to achieve that objective, I take a researcher-as-bricoleur stance, assembling a methodological framework that draws from constructivism, phenomenology, learning and social feminist theory, action research, systems thinking, complexity science, and even Japanese folklore. I use examples based on professional roles, work activities, and research projects as vehicles of inquiry that I look at them through the critical lens of first-person action research. I embrace radical creativity and “heartful autoethnography” and storytelling as devices to help reveal diffractive patterns in my behaviour with the purpose of facilitating both personal and professional transformation, featuring unique angles such a neurodiverse perspective as a factor contributing to quality in taking an attitude of inquiry.

The methodological lens and the narrative inquiry about my becoming a transdisciplinary practitioner who embodies the coexistence of the dissimilar represent my contribution to knowledge and to practice. Key outcomes of my research include a significant advance in my aptitude to theorise the processes that underlie my professional practice, coupled with my development of superior skills to verbalise them eloquently, even in novel situations where the vocabulary available to describe them is still nascent. Ultimately, the most significant result of my thesis action research project is a substantial improvement in my ability to transform my practice, brought about by my immersion in a body of literature that provided room for creative and innovative ideas grow, and for new values to emerge. A clear example with high impact potential is my development a refined creative edge in presentational knowledge that has already enabled me to translate complex scientific concepts into practical applications with use in real-world settings, thereby democratising access to it by a larger, more diverse audience.