FAVD013 Managing Ph.D. Theses

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2015
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 10 credit(s). Type of Completion: graded credit.
Teacher(s)
Richard Nowell (seminar tutor)
doc. Mgr. Petr Szczepanik, Ph.D. (assistant)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Jiří Voráč, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: doc. Mgr. Petr Szczepanik, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
each odd Thursday 15:50–19:05 03019
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Students will participate in, and help to direct, multidirectional dialog geared toward the formulation of pragmatic and, to some extent, personalized solutions to the key intellectual, professional, and emotional challenges facing doctoral researchers. While recognizing the influence of individual character, personal circumstances, and time spent researching, the perennial nature of these challenges means that they must be addressed throughout postgraduate study (and beyond).
Accordingly, by the end of the course, students are expected to have identified the specific challenges they are encountering on their program of research, to have devised (or come closer to devising) personalized solutions to these challenges, and to spotlight those areas they feel demand greater attention. To demonstrate their development in these areas, students are required to write a short reflective essay of around 2,000 words detailing how they have begun or plan to implement personalized solutions to the following challenges:
• Identifying the combination of methods and approaches I will us in my thesis
• Determining what I am going to say about my topic in my thesis
• Organizing, and setting parameters to the scope of, my thesis
• Managing, and making the most, of my time researching and writing my thesis
• Coping with the various pressures of researching and writing my thesis
• Integrating my doctoral research and thesis findings/examples into my teaching
Syllabus
  • More detailed description of the SESSION STRUCTURE AND PEDAGOGICAL METHODS see in the attached PDF file.
  • Undertaking doctoral research is a supremely rewarding endeavor characterized by a host of new challenges. Regardless of personal disposition or circumstances, candidates can invariably expect to face issues relating to their methodologies, scope, argumentation, and time management, to pressures of one sort or another, and to integrating their research into other aspects of academic life. While individuals must ultimately develop their own ways of overcoming these challenges, this process is aided immeasurably by exchanges of ideas and a supportive environment. This series of seminars aims to offer just that. Through multidirectional dialog, students are encouraged to develop the tools with which they can successfully negotiate their Ph.D. (and perhaps academic life more generally).
  • SESSION 1: WHAT METHODS SHOULD I USE IN MY THESIS? 1 OCT
  • SESSION 2: WHAT DO I WANT TO SAY IN MY THESIS? 15 OCT
  • SESSION 3: HOW SHOULD I ORGANIZE MY THESIS? 29 OCT
  • SESSION 4: HOW DO I USE MY TIME TO PRODUCE MY THESIS? 12 NOV
  • SESSION 5: HOW DO I COPE WITH THE PRESSURE OF MY THESIS? 26 NOV
  • SESSION 6: HOW DO I INTEGRATE RESEARCH AND TEACHING? 10 DEC
Teaching methods
This course is organized into six fortnightly sessions, each of which is in turn divided into two parts. In both parts, students are encouraged to apply ideas discussed in previous seminars alongside newer ones in their pursuit of practical, workable, transferable solutions to everyday problems encountered by most research students.

The first – shorter – part of each session focuses on both the named challenge and potential solutions thereto. Here, students will speak about the challenges they have faced – and perhaps continue to face – the solutions they have already developed and those they still need to develop, and share advice with other members of the group about how they might deal with the specific challenges they are facing.

A second – longer – part of each session will play host to a “Ph.D. Clinic”, wherein one student will introduce the specific problems they are encountering with a chapter or a section of their thesis (NB: these problems may be of any sort and do not need to be of the type discussed in the previous part of the session). Previously distributed to the rest of the group, the manuscript under examination, which will have been in advance by the group, will be discussed with a view to helping the author resolve the issues s/he is having.

PREPARATION

No secondary readings are set for the seminars as each requires two written forms of preparation:

1. A written reflection of one’s experiences of the challenge discussed in the subsequent session.
These documents will sent to the instructor but not circulated to the rest of the group.

2. An evaluation of the thesis section submitted for the following session’s “Ph.D. clinic”.
Anonymized versions of these documents will be sent to authors after the relevant session.

Students submitting a chapter or section of their thesis should email the instructor their manuscript by the same dates, so they can be punctually distributed to the rest of the group. Students need only send original Czech-language versions, as a means of ensuring the manuscript is not altered during translation. This should be accompanied by a circa 200-word overview spotlighting the content of the section/chapter and how it is expected to fit into the overall thesis. During the session itself, the student in question should be prepared to briefly outline the issues they feel they are having with the section. The instructor’s role in the Ph.D. Clinic is twofold, and does not include reading the manuscripts themselves; rather, it is to moderate, and if necessary steer, the discussion, and when necessary offer general advice related to the production of academic documents.
Assessment methods
two written forms of preparation:

1. A written reflection of one’s experiences of the challenge discussed in the subsequent session.
These documents will sent to the instructor but not circulated to the rest of the group.

2. An evaluation of the thesis section submitted for the following session’s “Ph.D. clinic”.
Anonymized versions of these documents will be sent to authors after the relevant session.
Language of instruction
Czech
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