Graduate Week 2023
The Graduate Week (GW) 2023 took place from 30.05. to 01.06.2023 as a cooperation event of the Graduate Centre (GKW) and the Graduate Forum (GFKW ) in a hybrid format. The week combined lectures by graduates (PhD students and postdocs) of the Faculty of Cultural Studies on the topic of Transdisciplinary Spaces in Cultural Studies in the context of the Graduate Conference with project presentations in the pitch format. In addition to networking opportunities, among other things on the needs of graduate students, two workshops and the market of opportunities were offered. The evening lecture was given by Prof. Dr. Volker Peckhaus and centred on the conference theme of transdisciplinarity from a philosophical perspective.
The aim of the graduate conference was to present new perspectives and reflections on transdisciplinary spaces in cultural studies. To this end, the widely discussed and applied concepts of space and their effects on transdisciplinary research were focused on in terms of questions, discourses and methods. The speakers provided differentiated insights into the cultural spaces and transdisciplinary negotiations that are important for their research and put them up for discussion. Through the open format, different academic disciplines of cultural studies were reflected upon, rethought and further developed in interdisciplinary lectures and discussions.
The workshop conducted in English "That's so German! - Is it, though? Approaching Cultural Contact Situations Differently", led by Ricardo Römhild (WWU Münster), focused on culture as a dynamic result of everyday practices and on people as individuals. In the spirit of this perspective, the workshop provided soft skills for cultural contact situations and guided reflection on one's own existing assumptions and experiences in light of the dynamic realities of identity formation that take place daily (also) in the university context.
The workshop "Are you already doing your doctorate or are you still procrastinating?- Effective strategies against procrastination", led by Prof.in Dr.in Katrin Klingsieck, gave the participants strategies from psychological procrastination research and resource-oriented counselling and coaching practice to not only recognise their own procrastination, but also to overcome it through realistic planning and adherence to time frames, the right workplace and self-motivation. A more in-depth study is possible in the two-day workshop conducted annually by ProLernen.
As part of the Market of Opportunities, 13 actors from the university-wide graduate support programme presented their services and invited interested parties to talk to them. In addition to the Competence Centre for Writing and the university's mentoring programmes, numerous other actors were represented who offer services for those interested in doctoral studies, doctoral students and postdocs.
On Tuesday evening, the Graduate Forum celebrated its 15th anniversary in a small ceremony with a look back at what it has achieved so far and an outlook on its future work as an interest group at the Faculty of Cultural Studies.
In the above-mentioned evening lecture, Prof. Dr. Volker Peckhaus rounded off the Graduate Week by highlighting the relevance of a transdisciplinary orientation of subjects towards a critical examination of the subject identities and clear demarcations of subjects that are often referred to.
Following this year's Graduate Week, lectures from the conference will also be published in an anthology in the wbg series Interdisciplinary Studies of the Paderborn Graduate Centre for Cultural Studies.
Finally, we would like to thank all participants of the Graduate Week for the insights into diverse (transdisciplinary) projects, the joint exchange, the fruitful discussions and much more.
Call for Papers anthology
We would like to draw your attention to the call for papers for the anthology of the series "Interdisciplinary Studies of the Paderborn Graduate Centre for Cultural Studies" (edited by Sabiene Autsch, Andrea Becher, Volker Peckhaus and Jochen Schmidt) following the 15th Graduate Conference of the GFKW. More information on the anthology and the thematic focus can be found in the call for papers.
