Project „Inclusion regarding gender equality for female PhD students with disabilities or chronic diseases“

This projects‘ first event took place on January 22, 2019, with a talk entitled „Sehen und Einsicht sind nicht dasselbe: Ein Erfahrungsbericht zur Promotion aus zwei Perspektiven“ („Sight and Insight are not the same:  A field report on PhD studies from two perspectives“). There, Dr. Christina Ernst (Theologian and alumna of GSGG) and Prof. Dr. Jan Hermelink (Practical Theology) jointly reported on their experience as PhD student and PhD supervisor, which was not exclusively, but substantially characterized by the fact that Christina Ernst is blind. Both of them provided the audience with exciting and very personal insights, for example in support systems or initial assessments which sometimes turned out to be wrong, and joked about linguistic pictures.

Christina Ernst talked about various aspects of her PhD studies, such as the dependency on technical equipment, on PhD financing and the status as scholarship holder. This status on one hand grants a certain amount of freedom and flexibility, but provides less close ties to the institute. Therefore, networking becomes more important. Also, some things would only work on demand, such as additional grants by the scholarship provider in order to finance a persona assistant. Other things went well, for example the cooperation with SUB, where an assistant was provided for research work.

Jan Hermelink did not think that it was such an unusual situation. In his view, a doctorate is always special and closely tied to the biography of the PhD student. It is most important to identify the many challenges during the PhD process caused by the individual background and ultimately, to facilitate access to a doctorate in general.

Another „Biographiezirkel“ is expected to take place on March 26, 2019. If you are interested, please contact ggg@uni-goettingen.de. You can find further information on the project at http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/594666.html.