Curriculum

In order to promote the independent character of the doctoral phase, the curriculum is geared primarily to the students’ independent work on their dissertations, to need-oriented, elective courses designed to support the work on the dissertation and to targeted training of the requisite skills in methods and research design. Thus, apart from the doctoral colloquium which runs through all stages of programme, students are required to take set courses only during their first year in the Graduate Programme. Among the latter are the introduction to the thematic complex of the Cluster and courses on research design and questions of method geared to the needs and disciplinary orientations of the doctoral candidates. In the second and third years, apart from the mandatory doctoral colloquium, all course offerings are elective and are determined by the candidates themselves in accordance with their needs.

The Graduate Programme is based on a benchmarking system. At the end of the first semester a consolidated exposé and a progress schedule for the dissertation must be submitted. At the end of the first year the first chapter is due (introduction / theory chapter or literature survey). The next benchmark is scheduled for the end of the second year: either another chapter, a field report (synopsis of the data evaluation) or a manuscript for a journal or conference. The dissertation is due to be submitted at the end of the third year.

Chronological Sequence

First semester

• Theories and problems relating to the formation of normative orders.
• Research designs (area specific)
• Doctoral colloquium

Second semester

• Methodological approaches (geared to student needs)
• Doctoral colloquium
• At the end of the first year a closed meeting involving all doctoral students takes place in which the consolidated exposés are discussed with the PIs or supervisors.

Third semester

• Key skills: language courses, writing workshops, workshops on presentation techniques, methods, or theory.
• Doctoral colloquium

Fourth semester

• Same as the third semester
• The second year ends with a self-organized conference of the doctoral students.

Fifth semester

• Doctoral colloquium

Sixth semester

• Doctoral colloquium
  The third year ends with a graduation party.