The purpose of the seminar is to give PhD students an opportunity to present progress on their dissertation/habilitation research, discuss challenges that they are currently facing, and collect feedback from colleagues (professors) who will be attending. To achieve this objective students are required to prepare a 20-30 min. presentation of their work, highlighting one particularly thorny or pressing issue (conceptual, methodological, empirical) that they are currently facing. The presentation should start by giving a brief update on where the PhD student stands in his/her research program (be it dissertation, habilitation or otherwise), followed by a relatively detailed description of his/her current challenges and what needs to be done next.

Presence is mandatory.

The assessment will be done based on the extent of preliminary preparation (e.g. well thought of challenges and articulated problems), the execution of the presentation and the ability to respond to critical questions during the discussion. In other words, the assessment is based on a concept/ research proposal (30%), presentation (30%), as well as Q&R or ability to answer questions adequately and active participation in the course and discussions (40 %).