Post-Fieldwork PhD Workshop
1-4 February 2021
Instructor: Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (Associate Professor, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales – FLACSO, Sede Mexico)
Facilitators:
Dr Andrew Fischer (CERES Scientific Director, ISS)
Dr Gemma van der Haan (Wageningen University)
Location: Online
Tuition:
(online): CERES Members: 250 euros; non-members 500 euros
In principle, member institutions pay for these fees, not the participants themselves.
Description: This course is intended to provide participants with the tools to develop a systematic writing practice, write more analytically, process and present data with authority and clarity, and preparing drafts of their doctoral theses components (be it research articles, book chapters or the entire dissertation).
Pedagogical strategy: The instructor will present specific techniques, strategies, and tools to manage your research pipeline, develop a research pipeline and a plan for writing up the dissertation results, over Zoom. Time for reflection and workshop-style application of the techniques presented will be provided (along with strategic breaks for rest/recuperation).
Workshop plan: Each day of the workshop will have morning and afternoon sessions. Attendees will have read by the morning of each day all assigned reading materials. Pre-session work assignments will also be provided and it is expected that participants will have completed those pre-session tasks. The instructor will go over specific techniques during the morning session, linking material covered in the readings with the pre-session assignments. After a 45-60 minute synchronous session, participants will have 105 minutes for individual work. The last 60 minutes of each 3-hour block will be devoted to ‘wrap up’, clarification on any questions participants may have, and set up for the afternoon session.
Each daily afternoon session will follow a similar pattern (instruction, individual work, wrap-up and clarification), with end-of-day work assigned for the following morning. This means that there will be at least 3 assignments to be performed post-session. On Day 4, we will wrap up the workshop with an integrated discussion of all the work that has been performed over the past few days. We will leave more time for discussion on the afternoon of Day 4.
Pre-workshop assignments and preparatory readings: The intention of each assignment is to prompt each student to reflect and consider their own research and writing practices. These will be provided with enough lead time for participants to read and be prepared.
In-session tasks: Each session will assign specific tasks to be performed as associated with each one of the learning objectives for either the morning or the afternoon session. These tasks, in conjunction with the pre-workshop assignments and preparatory readings, as well as the synchronous Zoom lecture, will help participants consolidate their learning.
DETAILED PROGRAMME (BROKEN DOWN PER DAY/MORNING/AFTERNOON)
| Day | Morning Session | Afternoon Session |
| 1 | The “ins” and “outs” of academic writing
· Writing as researching · Reading as writing · Developing and crafting memorandums |
Developing a planning system for daily (or other form of systematic) writing
· Daily (fortnightly, weekly) writing · Writing when blocked · Micro-writing |
| 2 | Presenting research I: Quantitative results
· Descriptive statistics · Models · Explaining results · Other types of quantitative research (SNA, GIS) |
Presenting research II: Qualitative results
· Field notes and notebooks · Quotations, codes, and themes · The ethics of fieldwork and on-the-ground reporting |
| 3 | Writing analytically I:
· description vs. analysis · different argumentative moves · different models for argumentation |
Writing analytically II:
· Linking theory with evidence · Presenting evidence · Writing in a second language |
| 4 | Moving from proposed research to presenting what you did:
· Integrating your work systematically with a publications planner · Developing a research pipeline |
Structuring the thesis:
· Overview Devices (DTP, DAT, GDN) · Planning the thesis (Gantt, backcasting) · Charting the thesis – drafting chapters, conclusions, analysis. |
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