The course targets 1st year PhD scholars in Geography and the social sciences. The doctoral seminar aims at giving an overview of the manifold challenges PhD-scholars in the social sciences and geography are facing at the beginning of their research journey. Completing a doctoral project is seen as a recursive process with constant challenges to be overcome as recurring events. The course is designed in a way that some key challenges are addressed with the aim to lead participants to gain clarity regarding their own project, to explore some relevant tools to better manage and keep track with the overall PhD-process and to better cope with the usual pitfalls in implementing individual projects. The course will bridge elements of individual work, the preparation of inputs to be shared online, discursive online (and possibly later on offline) discussion, and lecture elements provided as simple video-podcasts. There will also be space to go into detail with respect to individual challenges.
Semester: ST 2020