Doctoral Program
Our doctoral program is a joint project of European Ethnology as well as Cultural and Social Anthropology institutes and departments at the universities of Basel, Edinburgh (Heriot-Watt University), Graz, Munich (LMU), Murcia, Tel Aviv, and Zagreb.
Aims and Objectives
Our doctoral program evolved out of a course established in 2007 by the Institute of European Ethnology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Departments of Social and Cultural Anthropology in Graz and Basel.
Our positive experiences with this course led to the establishment of a comprehensive international doctoral program for cultural and social anthropology. Our aim was to establish professional channels of communication between senior academics and doctoral students, both at home and abroad. The resulting doctoral program, “Transformations in European Societies”, was launched in October 2012. It is a joint project of the universities of Basel, Edinburgh (Heriot-Watt University), Graz, Munich (Ludwig Maximilian University), Murcia, Tel Aviv, and Zagreb.
Research Areas
Societies and social spaces change constantly, and certainly not just since people have started talking about globalization. This means that profound cultural transformations are a constant throughout history. Historical and contemporary processes and phenomena linked to these transformations lie at the heart of the research agenda of our doctoral program, which deals with European societies even though the transformations occur in global contexts.
Prospective doctoral students are encouraged to develop research questions related to the research agendas of the participating institutions and scholars. Our doctoral program focuses on three closely linked research areas: migration, mobility, multilocality; urban anthropology; and ethnography of work. These areas are especially fruitful for the study of social change and are incorporating the varied methods of the social sciences. Prospective students, however, may also propose research projects on other forms and aspects of social transformation.
Mobility, Migration, Multilocality
Against the backdrop of globalization and migration in the second half of the twentieth century, topics such as ‘mobility,’ ‘migration,’ and ‘multilocality’ became key paradigms of social research. The same can be said about transcultural anthropology, a perspective associated with these topics. Looking at how different actors cross borders, and what their cultures of knowledge are, both makes it possible to grasp the nature of transnational spaces, borders, and regional and socio-cultural formations.
Doctoral projects in this area should look at ‘liquefying’ and (in some cases) ‘re-solidifying’ traditional spaces. In line with contemporary social theory, these spaces should be seen as physical as well as temporal, social, cultural, economic, and political spaces. Accordingly, the projects should address the social conditions of mobility and migration, as well as their specific localities. Moreover, they should discuss which processes of re-positioning can be observed; which regional and social, political and imaginary links are emerging in the course of movements of people; and how these links can be analyzed.
Urban Anthropology
There has been a global re-ordering and re-positioning of cities in the last decades driven by globalization and the extension of networks involving people and spaces. These processes involve economic, political, social, and cultural activities.
In some instances, the dynamic changes in question lead to homogenization, but they are also always over-determined by developments specific to concrete places which means they play out differently in different cities. Cities do not just develop within the confines of their political boundaries but are interlinked with both their immediate surroundings and distant regions of the world. At the same time, there is a ‘renaissance of the city’: all over the world, city life is becoming ever more attractive. This gives rise to questions concerning the sustainability of city life, the conceptions of public space informing it, and the revitalization of urban communities. What is the ‘good life city’ of the future?
Ethnography of Work
In the last twenty years, research in European ethnology has increasingly applied ethnographic approaches and concepts to “work” and to the radical process of economization affecting the life-world in post-Fordist times. Scholars in the field are discussing the usefulness of an extended concept of work, which takes into account people’s lives – and thus also refers to subjectification and the blurring of boundaries between work and life.
Building on this research and the corresponding concepts, doctoral students working in this field are asked to produce case studies on the transformations occurring in the contemporary world of work. Such case studies—by way of their proximity to everyday life and experiences as well as their focus on actors—promise to go beyond the existing analyses of the subjectification of work in industrial sociology. In other words, they underscore the importance of the ethnography of work for Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Curriculum
The schedule of the program is binding: students have three years to complete. The program consists of a number of separate modules designed to be taken in order. The participating scholars—both the doctoral students and their teachers—constitute a network meant to provide everyone involved with contacts and to facilitate long-term cooperation.
The curriculum is divided into two parts, the first of which provides a foundation upon which the advanced program builds by creating networks that facilitate research training and career development.
The foundational program requires students to regularly attend colloquia and participate in peer-to-peer mentoring. Both take place mainly at the university where the student is enrolled. Another key component of the foundational program is a Spring/Autumn School, held every six months, required of all doctoral students and academics. The participating institutions take turns hosting these series of lectures and workshops, which means that students eventually get to know a variety of universities involved in the program.
The advanced program is about deepening the students’ understanding of the subject matter. The annual Spring/Autumn Schools, which also involve the partner institutions from abroad, consists of intensive training in topics linked to the research areas. For doctoral students, participation is compulsory. In addition, students and their supervisors from all the institutions involved have the opportunity to launch ‘research labs’ and online platforms, thus creating networks in their respective research field. Students also have the chance to present papers at public events organized by one or several of the universities involved. Moreover, they can teach, give public lectures, or organize workshops at the participating institutions.
Program Overview
- 1st semester: peer-to-peer mentoring, colloquium, autumn school
- 2nd semester: peer-to-peer mentoring, colloquium, spring school
- 3rd semester: research lab, advanced classes, online platform, autumn school
- 4th semester: research lab, workshop, online platform, spring school
- 5th semester: research lab, teaching, online platform, autumn school
- 6th semester: research lab, presentation, online platform, spring school
A) Foundation program
Colloquia
Within each department, the colloquia held by the participating academics are the core of the program. They provide a forum for debate on individual doctoral projects and allow supervisors to follow the progress of each student.
Once a year, a joint colloquium with all the partner institutions brings the supervisors and doctoral students involved in the program together for four days (from Thursday to Sunday). These colloquia build on workshops and meetings for doctoral students that have already taken place. They are not linked to any specific research fields and are primarily about presenting and discussing doctoral projects. Moreover, they are also about discussing the needs of individual students and adjusting their research training accordingly.
Peer-to-Peer Mentoring
Doctoral students are encouraged to work together on their research and to support one another if there are other issues. In the humanities, cooperation is still a novel idea as scholars tend to work on their own. We offer workshops with external coaches providing comprehensive guidance on how to work efficiently in a group. Constructive feedback has a positive effect on the quality of the work carried out by doctoral students. At the Institute of European Ethnology of the LMU, similar structures are already in place for Master students working on their theses.
E-Learning Platform
In line with the international character of the program, we are in the process of developing an e-learning platform tailored to the needs of all the doctoral students involved in the program. It will facilitate the dissemination of information and serve as a centralized hub of research and learning designed to sustain and advance networks and cooperation during the phases between colloquia.
B) Advanced Program Spring and Autumn Schools
The spring and autumn schools are a key component of the doctoral program. They build on the foundational program by focusing on topics reflecting both the research areas covered by participating institutions and the topics dealt with by doctoral students.
The schools are meant to deepen the students’ knowledge of the relevant theories and methods. Usually, they last one week. Participating senior academics provide some of this instruction, but external lecturers cover additional specialist topics, for example the epistemology of social and cultural transformation. The spring and autumn schools focus on the research areas of our network, supplemented by other topics:
- Urban anthropology (first year)
- Mobility, migration, multilocality; cultural transfer (second year)
- Culture, economy, environment; ethnographies of work (third year)
Research Labs
We encourage the doctoral students to set up research labs. These labs enable doctoral students pursuing similar projects to deepen discussions and collaborate closely on research questions. They are supported by senior academics with fitting profiles.
Research labs are supposed to facilitate the organization of workshops and projects as well as the production of publications. They deepen the participants’ knowledge of specific topics, theoretical approaches, and methods. The labs promote collaboration among the students involved and draw attention to their research results. The students can use the website of the program to present their labs.
Public Lectures and Networking
The key findings of the research carried out by PhD students will be the subject of discussion meetings with experts, international scholars, and representatives of the participating institutions. Students are also encouraged to present papers at graduate conferences, hold public lectures, and get involved in lecture series.
For this purpose, the program involves institutions and enterprises from beyond academia (archives, museums, media, firms, NGOs) that are based in the cities where the participating institutions are located. Our aim is to broaden public interest in these events and to open up the program to broader audiences. Apart from that, PhD students get the chance to meet representatives of different institutions and industries and learn about career opportunities outside the university.
General Qualifications
The GraduateCenterLMU supports our program and offers a range of seminars to enhance the general qualifications of doctoral students:
- Study skills (e.g., academic writing)
- Personal development (e.g., work-life balance)
- IT skills (e.g., reference management software)
- Career entry and development
Students can attend these seminars in addition to the modules forming part of the program. Moreover, they can also participate in the activities offered by the LMU Center for Leadership and People Management, which offers workshops for doctoral students that prepare them for leadership tasks and future jobs. Finally, students can also take part in the training offered by PROFiL, an LMU program for academic teaching.
Additional Information
This program does not include grants or scholarships and is not directly linked to university positions. Costs for the program's colloquia two times a year (travel, accommodation, etc.) will be covered.
Scholars conducting research in the participating disciplines have to show a high degree of personal responsibility and discipline. The program is designed to both support doctoral students and promote independent learning. This not only benefits their doctoral projects, but also develops skills essential for their later careers.
At the moment, the LMU does not offer full PhD scholarships for members of the program. However, the program will do its best to pay for travel expenses and accommodation during all of its events (schools, workshops, etc.). So far, this has been possible.
The GraduateCenterLMU provides students with comprehensive information on where to apply for scholarships. More information can be found here: http://www.graduatecenter.uni-muenchen.de/foerderung/index.html.