Instructors: Christian Wicke and Iva Peša
Date and Time: Monday, 16 November 2020, 13.00-17.00, Zoom meeting

The national research school for political history OPG offers Workshops for 2^nd year PhD students. The workshops are an advanced follow up on the tutorials. Based on the PhD projects of the participants, interdisciplinarity and advanced methodology is explored and links with topical issues and practical applications are elaborated. PhD students learn to present their project in front of a forum of experts and discuss key choices in their research design.

Aims

• Disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity
• Methods and techniques
• Communication
• Professional Development

Organization

A workshop is a one-day meeting, focused on practical training and interactive learning, based on the input and research interests of the participants. Preparation consists of practical assignments related to the individual research project of the PhD-students.

Specific topics may change, depending on the expertise of the workshop conveners and requests of the PhD-students. Topics for the workshops are proposed to the director of studies and supervised by the Workshop Committee.

Registration

Participants need to register at bureau@onderzoekschoolpolitiekegeschiedenis.nl before 28 October. There is a limit of 15 participants; second year PhD-students have priority. After registering, you will receive a zoomlink and the readings.

Requirements and credits

• 1 EC: Preparing assignments and presentations for the workshop; active participation in the discussion.
  

Workshop Interdisciplinary Approaches 

This workshop looks beyond the limits of the discipline of political history. How do/can other scientific disciplines inspire and inform political history research? Which debates outside the confines of political history are of interest, and to which debates can your PhD-project contribute? This meeting will particularly be inspired by approaches from the social sciences and social history. We will engage with how to write political history ‘from below’ as well as the challenges of writing political histories of non-Western localities and topics. We will look at relevant examples of interdisciplinarity in political history research, for example political anthropology, political economy and political ecology approaches.

For this meeting, you should read (in advance):

• Edward Wang, ‘Toward a Multidirectional Future of Historiography: Globality, Interdisciplinarity, and Posthumanity’, History and Theory 59, 2 (2020), 283-302.
• Jenny Wustenberg, ‘Civil Society Activism, Memory Politics and Democracy’, Civil Society and Memory in Postwar Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 1-31.

Preparation

1. Based on the required readings, think of the different disciplines the authors consult and/or practice, before you present your findings during the workshop. Which comments or criticisms do you have on the texts?
2. Write a one-page reflection, explaining which methods and approaches from other disciplines have inspired your own PhD research, why and how. Which challenges are you facing in adopting interdisciplinary approaches? Please submit this to pesa@rug.nl and c.wicke@uu.nl by Monday, 9 November.

Outline workshop

13:00-13.15       Introduction by Christian Wicke and Iva Peša and explanation of the workshop aims.

13.15-13.45       Short discussion of readings (Wang and Wustenberg).

– 5 min break –

13:50-14.15       Teams of 2 (max 3) students interview each other on the interdisciplinary nature of their theses. Maximum 10 minutes per person. The one-pagers will be circulated in advance.

14.15-15.15       Interviewers present the research of their interviewees. 3-4 minutes per person.

– 15 min break –

15.30-16.25       Christian Wicke will briefly talk about different ideas of interdisciplinarity, and give examples of his own work, where more than just history was used. Iva Peša will subsequently give an introduction to ‘political ecology’. Thereafter, we will discuss the statement: Interdisciplinarity should be part of all political history writing. Explain why or why not, and also think about the difficulties of interdisciplinarity.

– 5 min break –

16.30-17.00       Final discussion: What could be fruitful future avenues for interdisciplinarity in political history? Can you think of any good examples?

Information: bureau@onderzoekschoolpolitiekegeschiedenis.nl