Qualification Concept

The qualification concept for the structured interdisciplinary PhD programme is embedded within the area of Global South Studies at the University of Tübingen. The qualification concept offers a platform for students of Asia, Latin America and Africa studies in which postgraduate students benefit from coordinated supervision concept including the following elements:

• Summer schools and international regional conferences organized by the DAAD-funded thematic network “Literary Cultures of the Global South”
• Cooperation in the area of international co-tutelles, supervision of doctorate students through the existing network of researchers at the partner universities in Tübingen's network Global South Studies
• DAAD Visiting Professor for Brazilian Studies / Distinguished Lectures Programme of Global South Studies
• Research visits of incoming doctoral students from partner universities

This qualification concept will, in terms of content, comply with the specific demands of a doctoral programme in transregional area studies in the Global South. Such demands arise out of the particular nature of interdisciplinary and comparative topics and the challenges of a scholarly engagement with world cultures under the aegis of the decentralisation of an occidental geopolitics of knowledge.

The qualification concept thus reposes upon three pillars: (1) the exploitation of synergies arising out of an interdisciplinary dialogue between diverse methodologies and theoretical approaches; (2) creating an enhanced international visibility for comparative approaches to Global South Studies; (3) supervised introduction of doctoral students to the presentation and publication of research results within an international field of scholarship. This will be achieved through the following means:

• Annual methodical and theoretical workshops along with distinguished guest lecturers / visiting professors
• Monthly “jours fixes” and regular research seminars
• Organization of panels at the annual summer schools / regional conferences where PhD students can present and discuss their own research results
• Involvement during the time spent abroad in advisory structures at the partner universities

Additionally, doctoral students will belong to the humanities section of the Graduate Academy at the University of Tübingen and can participate in courses and conferences within the “Doctoral Researcher Development Program” in order to gain soft and key skills and to initiate focused career planning. Certification for such courses can be gained.

Within the framework of these advisory arrangements, PhD candidates will be required to present their ongoing research progress every semester. These presentations will take place as part of the “jours fixes” or during the overseas stay in the advisory structures of the international partner university. From the outset, every project will involve secondary advisors from among the PhD programme staff members at Tübingen or among staff of the partner universities. Such advisors will also offer guidance for the planning and execution of the overseas stay. The regular “jours fixes” facilitate exchange amongst the PhD students and their advisors and provide practice in presentation techniques. The “jours fixes” also promote the active participation of the PhD students in the planning of the workshops and in providing feedback to their advisors on the quality of the programme. A final conference closing the 3-year programme will provide each PhD student the space for the presentation of results in the form of a lecture in front of an international specialist audience. The doctoral candidates receive an advisory portfolio in which the available qualifications, together with supplementary achievements such as the organization of workshops, summer schools and specialist publications, will be noted.