European Graduate School for Training in Economic and Social Historical ResearchSecond ESTER-GLOBALEURONET Research Design Course (RDC)

OR HOW TO DESIGN, CONSTRUCT AND FORMULATE YOUR DOCTORAL THESIS

University of Barcelona, Spain, 28-31 July 2009

Keynote lecture: Professor Jeffrey Williamson

(Harvard University, Department of Economics)

ESTER and GLOBALEURONET announce their second jointly-organized Research Design Course for economic and social historians.

The ESTER network, established in 1991, involves more than 60 universities throughout Europe and offers high-level research training for PhD students in an international context. At present the Network is organised by the N.W. Posthumus Instituut, which is a national graduate school for economic and social history in the Netherlands and Flanders. GLOBALEURONET is a Research Networking Programme in economic history funded by the European Science Foundation. Its aim is to promote the convergence of quantitative research methods, the merger of national research projects into a European common research agenda, the organization of workshops, seminars, summer schools, and the international mobility of researchers. Since both networks aim at improving and internationalizing the education and training of young scholars in the field of economic and social history, they have decided to launch in 2008 a joint initiative targeted at PhD students in the early stage of their research project.

• Purpose

The Research Design Course (RDC) is a format promoted by ESTER since the late 1990s. The RDC course assists students in setting up a high quality and well-designed plan for their dissertation under the guidance of a team of leading senior researchers whose task is to provide comments and lead discussions.

First, students will be offered advanced theoretical and methodological expertise in the field of history. Theory and methodology in this sense should not be understood at the level of prevailing empirical theories that attempt to explain specific historical problems, such as the rise of the welfare state or modern economic growth. The theory and methodology offered in this course will focus on issues such as the goals and strategies of social and historical research, the use of concepts and language in historical explanation, the construction of data bases and the use of quantitative methods of analysis, or the construction of the “plot” in a historical inquiry. The aim of this type of reflection is to investigate the scientific procedures that historians use to reach scientific explanations and to combine all analytical elements into a synthetic and coherent historical account. The course welcomes students drawing from a wide range of theoretical and methodological orientations.

Second, the RDC course aims to assist PhD students in “constructing their dissertation plan”. Students will be invited to apply the theoretical and methodological knowledge they have obtained to their own dissertation project. This will be done in a well-structured manner. With the help of guidelines, students will be asked to write a paper in which a detailed work plan for the dissertation should be given. These guidelines serve as a kind of screen through which students examine their own project, and in particular the way in which they intend to put together the story and composition of their dissertation. The paper has a maximum of 25 pages and should provide the structure in which the remaining research for the dissertation will take place. The papers will be thoroughly scrutinized and examined during the course by junior and senior scholars together.

In this way the RDC course offers students help in sharpening and refining their research questions, in strengthening the focus of their research, in increasing the consistency of their overall dissertation plan, in making explicit the various theoretical and methodological choices that have to be made in the course of the project, and in improving the composition of the dissertation. The RDC course thereby aims at a better awareness of research choices that need to be made.

• Description and organisation of the RDC course

The RDC course consists of a 3- to 4-day workshop. Prior to the workshop students will be asked to prepare some extensive reading material and they will be asked to write a paper (25 pages) according to a set of guidelines. Work during the workshop consists of discussions of student papers. Each paper will be examined in separate one-hour sessions. Each session will begin with comments prepared by one of the participating students, followed by comments by one of the instructors, after which a general discussion among all participants will take place.

All papers must be circulated in advance; all students need to read and prepare all papers to be discussed in their group. This year a maximum number of 50 students can be admitted; work will take place in two or three groups of students. A team of senior scholars will be formed around Professor Alfonso Herranz Loncán (Barcelona) and Dr. Ben Gales (Groningen). A European Advanced Postgraduate Certificate will be awarded to participants who have successfully completed the course.

• Student requirements

The RDC programme is intended for PhD students in economic and social history regardless of the subject of their dissertation. Students need to be at the very least in the end of their first year of study at the time of the course, and at the most in the course of their second year. For a fruitful participation it is absolutely vital that students have been actually working on their own research for at least 6 months by the time they begin to write their paper so that they are able to put together a first extensive design of their research plans (aims, objectives, sources and methods). The working language for papers, presentations and discussion is English. Participants of the course should be aware of the fact that sufficient command of English is a necessity for a useful and satisfying participation.

• Applications and admission

Students should apply by sending the form, together with an 800 word abstract of the content of their dissertation project. It is important to note that application and abstract must be approved of and signed by the student’s supervisor.

A first selection of students will take place on the basis of the abstract. After this stage, students accepted will be asked to download a list of readings to prepare and a set of guidelines to follow in order to draft their research paper. The final admission to the course also depends upon the following points:

- the student must meet the deadline for submission of his/her paper,

- the quality of the paper: the paper must be of sufficient academic quality, and the level of the English used in the paper must be sufficient. The organizers thus can bar a PhD from participating despite earlier selection, if the paper signals that language skills are not sufficient for useful participation. The organizers have the right to refuse papers that do not meet academic standards.

Students of economic and social history from institutions and countries participating in ESTER and GlobalEuroNet will be given priority, but the organizers strongly encourage students based in any European university to apply.

• Dates and location

The RDC will take place at the University of Barcelona, Spain, from 28-31 July, 2009.

Students wishing to participate are requested to send in their application no later than 13 March 2009. For this purpose it is necessary to use the attached form. It is important to note that application and abstract must be approved of and signed by the student’s supervisor. The selection of students will be completed by the beginning of May. Deadline for submission of papers by accepted students is 29 May 2009. Following that date, the papers will be made available to all participants on the Posthumus website:

http://www.rug.nl/posthumus/esterinternationalprogram/index.

Copies will only be sent if participants make a request.

• Funding

Costs for accommodation, catering and course material will be fully covered by the organizers. However, the student’s home institution should cover travel costs.

• Addresses

For inquiries concerning this course, please contact the programme director Dr. Ben Gales, The ESTER School, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV GRONINGEN, The Netherlands, tel:* 31-50-363 8455, fax: * 31-50-363 8454, e-mail: nwp@rug.nl.

Further information concerning the ESTER School is also available on:

http://www.rug.nl/posthumus/esterinternationalprogram/RDC2009