Mikkel Heide Schierup is a professor of bioinformatics at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. Among other things, he works with analysing genomes to understand evolutionary processes and map human evolution. By analysing genetic material, he can uncover how genes have been exchanged over the last 100,000 years and thereby gain insight into human history:

“We can use genetic material to infer population histories because there are many indications of how people have exchanged genes over time. This allows us to track the development backwards.  As geneticists, we can interpret these DNA data, but we have no archaeological expertise,” says Mikkel Heide Schierup.

Genetics and archaeology unite in the quest to uncover human evolutionary history

For this reason, the interdisciplinary collaboration with Felix Riede presents a unique opportunity to explore human evolution from a wider perspective.  Felix Riede is a professor of archaeology whose work focuses on understanding cultural developmental dynamics and population patterns through archaeological finds.

In the interdisciplinary research project COEVOLVE, the two professors aim to combine their disciplines to develop methods that allow for parallel analyses of genetic and cultural data. The aim is to investigate whether major climatic changes drove changes in the genetic and cultural composition of the early Stone Age hunter-gatherer societies.

“There is, of course, no one-on-one relationship between genes and culture. I am originally from Germany but hold Danish citizenship and speak Danish. My genes have not changed because of that. The same applies at the population level, where cultural and genetic dynamics can evolve independently, but also merge depending on how a society is organised and how people move around,2” explains Felix Riede.

He points out that his field has evolved over the past 20 years alongside the emergence of research areas such as palaeogenomics, which use analytical methods that are more specific to the natural sciences. Methods that allow researchers to shed light on human migrations and genetic development, providing insights into the cultural evolution:

“We have become much better – but not yet good enough – at developing formal analytical methods to bring these different datasets together. That is what we aim to do in the COEVOLVE research project,” he concludes.

Mutual respect and a shared language

When research fields join forces, it not only creates new opportunities to combine methods and data but also fosters a greater understanding of how different disciplines work. Genetics and archaeology are two disciplines that have traditionally worked separately, approaching answers about human evolution from different angles. But according to Mikkel Heide Schierup, new trends are emerging:

“Over the past 10 years, genetics has increasingly moved into the field of archaeology, trying to answer some of the same questions that archaeologists have been working on for centuries,” he notes.

Felix Riede explains that when two disciplines meet, it is a big task to create a shared language and learn to navigate academic and professional environments shaped by many different perspectives. You become aware of differences in terminology and learn to listen for what is important and what is actually being said:

“The great thing about interdisciplinary collaboration, when it works well, is that you learn to respect each other’s expertise on a deeper level. You build a shared language that makes it easier to understand and work across disciplines,” he says, highlighting computational thinking methods as a kind of common language that is fundamentally independent of the domain in which you apply it.

“We educate a lot of students in bioinformatics, and they go on to work in a variety of contexts where they have to analyse data. Often in areas that are not necessarily directly related to what they have worked with at the university. I certainly believe they would benefit from getting a broader perspective. In the companies they end up in, they often need to be able to communicate broadly and collaborate across disciplines. That ability is strengthened in exactly this type of project,” explains Mikkel Heide Schierup.

However, while a shared language is an important foundation for collaboration, there are still differences in how the disciplines understand and use data. Felix Riede points out that although he and Mikkel Heide Schierup, for example, read many of the same articles, their disciplines still have distinct competencies that need to be brought into play:

“I cannot carry out the methods that Mikkel Heide Schierup and researchers in his field use. However, I read a lot of the same articles. If you look at the disciplines as a kind of Venn diagram, there is, after all, a relatively large overlap, which in fact can also be proven bibliometrically. That is our shared foundation. But at the same time, we each have our own distinct competencies that also come into play.”

Are the degree programmes ready for interdisciplinarity?

Although interdisciplinary research projects like COEVOLVE open new doors, it is far from a simple process to unite areas of expertise across disciplines in degree programmes.

Felix Riede explains that tuition fees vary between faculties, which makes it less attractive for natural sciences to collaborate with the humanities. Therefore, actual interdisciplinarity usually only emerges at the postgraduate level when researchers themselves actively seek out new methods and perspectives.

“Without a doubt, much will need to be rethought in the next ten years. And that may mean we will need to do things differently. So far, organising the undergraduate programmes in separate departments has worked well, while other interdisciplinary initiatives may follow later. Whether the future will make it more opportune or necessary to change is hard to predict,” concludes Mikkel Heide Schierup.

In the very near future, however, the focus is on the lecture series Offentlige foredrag i Naturvidenskab (Public natural sciences lectures), where the two professors have agreed to present their knowledge from COEVOLVE in autumn 2025.

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