Research Design in cultural sociology

Period of duration of course
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Course info
Number of course hours
20
Number of hours of lecturers of reference
20
CFU 3
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Modalità esame

Submission of work-in-progress documents, oral presentation.

Prerequisiti

The course is required for students in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year (as presenters), as well as students in the 4th year (as respondents).

Programma

In this intensive 20-hour long seminar, doctoral students enrolled in the first three years of the PhD in Political Science and Sociology, working in the field of cultural studies and the sociology of culture, join forces with PhD students in political communication and comparative politics to present their work before an audience of professors, post-doctoral researchers, and peers. Besides improving reciprocal knowledge and fostering networking, the research design course aims at discussing, with reference to each project, the main steps in the development of a research design, from the selection of the key research questions to their theoretical framing, the case selection, the choice of the empirical methods of investigation, the challenges of fieldwork, and the analysis and presentation of the results. Involving participants at different stages of advancement of the academic experience, the seminar also provide students with the opportunity to develop their skills by making a critical contribution to each other research, both during the sessions and in successive informal sessions that are in part already ongoing and that the seminar intends to stimulate further. Students are allocated approximately an hour each to present their work, receive in-depth feedback from two respondents, and open up the discussion to the remaining seminar participants.


Obiettivi formativi

The three main objectives of the seminar are:


  1. Allowing PhD students to receive feedback on different aspects of their dissertation, including research questions, theoretical framework, methodology, and presentation of the research results.
  2. Developing presentation skills before an audience of junior and senior scholars.
  3. Developing networking opportunities, especially with doctoral students working in related fields of research.