Pablo Valdivia: The Polymathic Visionary Redefining Academia

It’s a crisp autumn afternoon in Groningen, Netherlands. The golden leaves fall gently outside the window of Professor Pablo Valdivia’s office, where shelves are lined with books spanning philosophy, physics, literature, and artificial intelligence. The room feels like a microcosm of his mind – vast, interconnected, and endlessly curious. As I sit across from him, I’m struck by his warmth and the brilliance in his gaze. This is a man who has dedicated his life to breaking down barriers – between disciplines, cultures, and ways of thinking.

Me: Professor Valdivia, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I have read about your incredible journey – from your multidisciplinary research to your work at Harvard and your role in shaping European cultural narratives. But I want to start with something more personal. What were you like as a child?

Prof. Valdivia: (smiling) I have always had a very curious mind. Since I was a child, I have invested myself in understanding how everything works, going beyond what people knew, looking for patterns, seeing things differently, and overcoming pre-settled ways of thinking. My favorite start for any sentence was and still is: “What if…” Now it has become what I call the “what if… principle.” I was always asking questions, always exploring. My parents supported me by not creating restrictions and feeding my endless curiosity, imagination, and need to go beyond.

Me: You mentioned your parents. How did they shape the person you have become?

Prof. Valdivia: They, from an early age, understood I was different and they did their best to meet my unique needs and also make sure I was functional and social. They allowed me to be both a child – playing football, basketball, and running around – and a thinker, reading philosophy at six years old. (chuckles)? I have taken many professional examinations, and most people with my intellectual capacities are usually socially challenging. What makes me remarkable is that my parents did a great job of ensuring that I was balanced and mature from a very young age. At 6 years old, I had already read most of the great philosophical works.

Me: That’s incredible. It sounds like you were a prodigy, a multiply gifted child. That could have been challenging for you and your parents! And it seems that philosophy has always been a part of your life. How did that early exposure shape your thinking?

Prof. Valdivia: Philosophy taught me to question everything – to look beyond the obvious and challenge pre-settled ways of thinking. It’s about finding connections between seemingly unrelated ideas. That’s why I have always been drawn to multidisciplinary work. The world doesn’t operate in silos, so why should our thinking?

Me: Speaking of multidisciplinary work, your career spans so many fields – literature, physics, artificial intelligence, social sciences. Your research deals primarily with the "Humanities", "Social Sciences", "Communication", "Computational Literary Studies", "Cultural Analytics" and "Technology", and the notions of "Culture, Literature and Crisis" from a multidisciplinary transnational perspective. You are an expert in "Cultural Narratives" and "Conceptual Metaphors," which seem more relevant than ever in today’s world, where narratives shape so much of our reality and everyone seems obsessed with crafting or controlling them… You carry out multidisciplinary research with particular emphasis on Digital Humanities, Artificial Intelligence, University Innovation, Data Science, Applied Physics, Social Sciences and Cognitive Sciences. What a polymathic beauty! What would you call yourself??

Prof. Valdivia: (pauses thoughtfully) I think the term multidisciplinary humanities is the closest to a possible specialization that I could have. Even this one could be misleading because I adore physics, chemistry, geometry, and mathematics. For me, the world and life have challenges and problems, not subjects or fields of knowledge. Sometimes, the solution to something is in an equation, and sometimes, it is in the performance of a theatrical play.

I am blessed to work with some of the most talented and intelligent people in the world. For me, the most significant moment in recent years happened when I started collaborating as an Associate in Eric Mazur’s group on education at Harvard.

My life completely changed because I suddenly found out that Eric and I were talking the same language from very different places. I could connect with him and people from STEM better and more meaningfully than with people from the Humanities. They needed somebody to help with a new digital platform for fostering collaborative reading created at Harvard, and I was asked to be part of the team. This was a true gift that changed my life.

It was the final piece of evidence that reassured me of the idea that disciplinary divides are all fake and politically driven for power reasons to establish artificial boundaries.

At the same time, I came across the work of Tita Chico and her fantastic book titled The Experimental Imagination, which was the final confirmation that our knowledge domain separations are ludicrous.

Me: That’s so inspiring! You have mentioned Eric Mazur as a key influence. Who else has shaped your thinking?

Prof. Valdivia: (smiling) I have been and am inspired by many people. It would be, I think, impossible to come up with a list, but I have to name a few. I would say that some of my current most significant influences and sources of inspiration at this moment are Eric Mazur (Dean of Applied Physics at Harvard), Anthony Elliot (Professor of Social Theory), Phil Jackson (former NBA coach), Mariana Mazzucato (Professor of Economy), Carlo Rovelli (Professor of Physics), Nora van Elken (Music artist and producer), and Irene Sola (Writer and Visual Artist).

Me: I wonder how you see academia, is it friendly to polymaths?

Prof. Valdivia: Academia is not precisely the best place to find people who see things alike. In my first year of university, I realized that academia is primarily a tactical political place, and merit and science usually lie very much at the bottom of priorities.

Nevertheless, I also understood quickly that academia could give me the freedom I needed to do what I loved and allow me to be in contact with and collaborate with the most intelligent people in the world. For me, it was eye-opening when something clicked inside me, and I understood that I had to seek my equals wherever they were and establish a healthy and strategic distance from academic mediocrities.

Me: Professor Valdivia, you have often emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration in your work. Could you share an example of a project or moment in your career where breaking down disciplinary barriers led to a meaningful outcome? How do you see the integration of knowledge from fields like physics, mathematics, and the humanities as essential to solving real-world problems?

Prof. Valdivia: (smiling warmly) As an expert in the Humanities, you need to know about physics, mathematics, geometry, architecture, neurology, anatomy, chemistry, and so on.

My ideal academic embedding would be one in which we would be working together in teams around a specific problem or challenge regardless of labels or pre-settled disciplinary limitations, like what happened to me when I contributed together with lawyers, civil rights experts, and policy officers, amongst many others, to the regularization of 2 million Venezuelan refugees in Colombia through the creation of a new norm to protect their lives.

Or additionally, for instance, when I was part of the committee that evaluated the new generation of green hydrogen and perovskite technological projects in Europe to foster energy sustainability. For me, this is what really matters. This is the way.

Me: Thank you, Professor Valdivia. This has been an incredible conversation!

Pablo Valdivia is Chair-Full Professor of European Culture and Literature (University of Groningen), Associate in Applied Physics at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Harvard University), Academic Director of the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies (OSL), Scientific Advisor of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities and the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (NIAS-KNAW), Director Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG) and Co-Editor Routledge Companions to Hispanic and Latin American Studies.

His research deals primarily with the "Humanities", "Social Sciences", "Communication", "Computational Literary Studies", "Cultural Analytics" and "Technology", and the notions of "Culture, Literature and Crisis" from a multidisciplinary transnational perspective. He is an expert on "Cultural Narratives" and "Conceptual Metaphors". He carries out multidisciplinary research with particular emphasis on Digital Humanities, Artificial Intelligence, University Innovation, Data Science, Applied Physics, Social Sciences and Cognitive Sciences.

Professor Valdivia is a reviewer and editor of more than a dozen international top scientific journals and book series; the leading researcher of ConnectU in the Erasmus+ INNOVALAB project (European Commission) and an expert reviewer and independent rapporteur of European Commission research projects, among many other international scientific activities and recognitions.

Besides, he regularly advises governments worldwide on Research, Educational Innovation, Higher Education, Science, Technology and Social Affairs. From 2014 to 2018, Valdivia was President of the Steering Committee of the H2020 European Commission Excellent Science Marie Curie RISE project "Cultural Narratives of Crisis and Renewal (CRIC)"; from 2016 to 2018 he was Director of the "Research Centre Arts in Society" (University of Groningen), and he founded the "Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics" (DemCP University of Groningen).

From 2017 to 2018, Valdivia was Finance Officer CLLiP Programmes (Cultures, Literatures, Linguistics, Politics). In 2018, Prof. Dr Pablo Valdivia was awarded "Lecturer of the Year" Faculty of Arts (University of Groningen). From 2020 to 2022, Professor Valdivia was a Fellow in University Innovation at LASPAU (affiliated with Harvard University). Currently, Valdivia supervises 9 PhD and 2 Postdoc research projects.