Has doubled their number of PhD candidates

All new candidates met this week at the first lecture in the course “ME-631 Researching Social Sciences: Philosophical and Methodological Foundations”, which is a joint course for all PhD candidates at the faculty. The course will provide knowledge about the philosophical foundations and paradigms of social science research and will help the candidates to start designing research questions and designs.

Since 2016, the number of PhD candidates has doubled at the faculty, from 25 to a total of 50. The Dean of the Faculty, Anne Halvorsen, is proud of this development and of the fact that she can greet the 11 newest welcome. - I'm happy to see the interdisciplinarity that the candidates represent and bring to the faculty, both from their different academic perspectives and because they come from different parts of the world and have different experiences. Our environment has become very international, and accordingly we get several different perspectives on reality. This introductory course provides the candidates with an important common basis in social science theory and method, which is the element that unites our various disciplines - from traditional discipline studies to professional studies, from information systems to sociology.

International and interdiscinplinary 

In her welcome speech to the candidates, Halvorsen emphasized the need for interdisciplinarity. - We meet expectations for interdisciplinary cooperation in many contexts, and we have challenges in society and work life that formally call for it. We cannot expect a PhD candidate to be interdisciplinary in their own project, but they must be able to enter into collaborations where one contributes from various disciplines.

Gloria Ziglioli and Anette Ringen Rosenberg are both PhDs at the Department of Sociology and Social Work. Rosenberg started four months ago and Ziglioli in September. They both appreciate meeting colleagues across professional backgrounds.

- It is interesting to be able to look at the same topic from different points of view, and as a young researcher it is instructive to be challenged and argue with those who have studied something other than yourself. And that is exactly what to me is the value in social science, that there are no clear answers, but rather different interpretations of a topic. As a very international group, we also benefit greatly from sharing our different perspectives, says Ziglioli.

Rosenberg says it is valuable to meet others who are in the same situation and who are in the middle of the same process. - Especially because we are scattered around the campus area, it's good to spend time together and get to know each other better - also socially. Working on a doctorate can be a lonely project, but it is very much a question of what you make of it yourself. I definitly feel that there is room for knocking on each other's doors.

More about the PhD program.