Experience „Week of Methods“ 2017
Looking forward to the next one: 12th GGG Week of Methods in retrospect
Following old traditions, GGG organized yet another Week of Methods in July 2017, to be precise: already the 12th one! This annual offer allows PhD students to deepen their knowledge of methodological approaches, to learn and apply new methods within interdisciplinary contexts and to avail themselves of methodological stimuli and solutions of related disciplines for their own projects.
After the introductory note the joint start into the Week of Methods was marked by the keynote speech given by Prof. Dr. Michael Böcher (University of Magdeburg) on “Scientific Knowledge Transfer in a New Age of Politics“. He demasked the proposed ‘new age‘ of politics negating scientific facts as actually not so new, and presented a new model of scientific knowledge transfer. A lively discussion followed the talk.
On this year’s schedule we had three workshops:
- Towards an Intersectional Research Methodology (Dr. Stefanie Boulila, Göttingen)
- Qualitative and Comparative Analysis in the Social Sciences: An Introduction into Design, Technique, and Software (Markus Siewert, M.A., Frankfurt a. M.)
- Einführung in die Mehrebenenanalyse (Dr. Carl Berning, Mainz)
Besides the mandatory program there were also optional offers in order to encourage exchange and strengthen ties between PhD students and with GGG. On Tuesday after the workshops, the barbecue organized by GGG was a huge success, not only due to the great weather. Participants were invited to explore the Historical Observatory under the guidance of Bettina Roß. The former living quarters of Carl-Friedrich Gauß, nowadays Lichtenberg-Kolleg’s library, are usually not open to the public. Across creaking boards and ancient stairways you can reach the observatory’s dome still hosting a telescope from the 1920s. On Wednesday we had lunch together. Many participants of the Week of Methods accepted these optional offers even though heads were spinning and this intense week of workshops was exhausting for everyone involved. We were extraordinarily pleased with this outcome and had many inspiring conversations with PhD students from various faculties and countries.
Concerning organization, this Week of Methods worked out very well and it seems that participants could profit from the methods learned for their current and probably also future projects. At first, teachers were confronted with a quite heterogeneous audience, concerning subject, state of dissertation and knowledge of the PhD students, but at the end of the course week they were all quite impressed with how well everyone participated.
We are already looking forward to the 13th Week of Methods in 2018. To make it a success again, planning has already started. If you have wishes for workshops on methods, please let us know at ggg@uni-goettingen.de.