Courses

The Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen and the Section for Anthropology and Ethnography at Aarhus University are collaborating in offering a wide range of theoretical, methodological and practical courses relevant to PhD students. 

Every term three mandatory courses are offered. From Plan to Practice, From Fieldwork to Analysis, and From Analysis to Text. Apart from the mandatory courses the PhD-students have an important part to play in suggesting and planning, in cooperation with the PhD programmes in Copenhagen and Aarhus, thematic courses, workshops and conferences.

All courses are announced at PhDcourses.dk.

 

Our mandatory courses are primarily available for PhD students enrolled at either the PhD Programme in Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen or at the PhD Programme in Anthropology at Aarhus University. PhD students from other PhD Programmes may apply, but will only be accepted in case of vacancies.

We expect all courses to be friendly, creative and productive. You may experience that your ideas about your project are challenged and that you lose foothold for a while. But do not worry! A creative process necessarily implies some sort of friction, and remember that it is between you and your supervisor that decisions regarding your PhD thesis are taken.

Plans to Practice (1 day, 2 ECTS)

Week 10 (Spring) and week 37 (Fall)

This course is for PhD students who are in the first semester of their PhD program. You will get the opportunity to present your research project – the ways in which you have imagined the field and developed a research process that can generate data for the project – and, in turn, receive comments from your fellow students and the course facilitators. The course will assist you in giving specific form to your fieldwork plans and making the move from general overall ideas to concrete research design. In preparation for the course you are expected to prepare a document including a short, up-to-date, version of your project description, between 3-5 pages in length.

Fieldwork to Analysis (2 days, 3.5 ECTS)

Week 10 and 13 (Spring), and week 37 and 41 (Fall)

This course is for PhD students who are in the middle of their PhD program and have done some fieldwork, if not all. We will work with the analytical potential in your data and you will have a chance to try out an analysis and get feedback from your fellow students and the course facilitators. As an integral part of this, we will also work towards the development of your overall thesis argument. In preparation for the first course day you are expected to prepare a short description of your project including an overview of your fieldwork and data. In addition, you will be asked to submit a "lump" of data. It can be a description of a particular situation in your fieldwork, a life history, mappings of different kinds, some visual data, or a combination of data that somehow seem to be related. We want you to choose from "gut feeling" and intuition and dare to engage in an exploration of analytical possibilities.  We propose that you meet with your supervisor shortly after the first course day and discuss the feedback you have received. Between the first and second course days you are expected to turn your "lump" into a short analysis.

Analysis to Text (2 days, 3.5 ECTS)

Week 10 and 13 (Spring), and week 37 and 41 (Fall)

This course is for PhD students who are in the process of writing up their dissertations. The aim of the course is to train how to write with clarity, how to engage the reader in the presentation of the material, and how to present the overall argument in writing and in structuring the thesis. You are asked to submit a text ahead of the course. Participants may be at different stages of the process, and some will be ready to present more completed texts than others, but don’t worry if you present a non-finished text. You will learn just as much from that, if not more. The text should be a maximum of 20 pages. It could be a draft for a chapter or an article that forms part of your thesis. In addition you must submit one page presenting the overall argument of your thesis. We propose that you meet with your supervisor shortly after first course day and discuss the feedback you have received. Between the first and second course days you are expected to work on your text. 

Registration

All courses are announced on PhDcourses.dk.

 

Participation of PhD fellows from other Research Schools
The courses are primarily targeted PhD students from Anthropology in Copenhagen and the section for Anthropology and Ethnography in Aarhus. PhD students from other research schools are welcome to participate in the courses, in case of vacancies. Please note that you will need to have a background in Anthropology, and your project should include anthropological or ethnographic fieldwork. 

PhD students in anthropology and related disciplines, who are not enrolled at PhD Programme in Anthropology at University of Copenhagen or Aarhus University, are welcome to participate in the PhD School’s courses if seats are available. You will be placed on a waitinglist and offered a seat in case of vancansies. 

All courses are announced on PhDcourses.dk.