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Join the ANU Institute for Water Futures for a seminar by Nicola Ulibarri.

Associate Professor at the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of California Irvine, Nicola Ulibarri will discuss the topic of her recent book, Creativity in Research (Cambridge University Press, 2019). The book presents key abilities that underlie creative research practice through a combination of scientific literature on creative confidence, experiential exercises, and guided reflection.

About the Topic 

Creativity is at the heart of successful research, yet researchers are rarely taught how to manage their creative process, and modern academic life is not structured to optimize creativity. Creativity in Research (Cambridge University Press, 2019) provides concrete guidance on developing creativity for anyone doing or mentoring research. Based on a curriculum developed at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, this book presents key abilities that underlie creative research practice through a combination of scientific literature on creative confidence, experiential exercises, and guided reflection. By focusing attention on how research happens as well as its outputs, researchers increase their ability to address research challenges and produce the outputs they care about. Simultaneously, they may also transform their emotional relationship with their work, replacing stress and a harsh inner critic with a more open and emotionally empowered attitude.

About the Speaker

Nícola Ulibarrí is an interdisciplinary scholar who uses political, social, and technical perspectives to evaluate the sustainability of environmental planning and decision-making practices. She investigates the interaction between people, infrastructure, and the environment, with a focus on redesigning planning, permitting, and operations to meet more diverse social and environmental needs. A multi-generational nuevo mexicana, Dr. Ulibarrí grew up in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of rural northern New Mexico, where the abundance or scarcity of water is a predominant force shaping the culture, economy, and environment. She earned her PhD through the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment & Resources at Stanford University, and spent a year as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University. Her professional life has spanned the public and non-profit sectors, including work with the US Department of the Interior (Region IX), the World Bank, and Amigos Bravos, a grassroots river-protection nonprofit in New Mexico.