PhD Courses in Denmark

Department of Anthropology UCPH in collaboration with the Department of Anthropology AU

Dates and time:
Day 1 is held in Copenhagen on 24 September 2025, from appr. 11 AM to 5 PM (precise time will depend on the number of participants).
Day 2 is held in Aarhus on 27 October 2025, from appr. 11 AM to 5 PM (precise time will depend on the number of participants).

Course objective: The course is primarily targeting PhD students who have recently finalised their fieldwork and are about to concentrate on the writing of their PhD dissertation.  The overall objective of the course is to assist PhD students to:

1. unpack their fieldwork material,
2. identify potential analytical issues and how to contextualise these,
3. discuss the development of analytical concepts.

The course will NOT include instructions in the use of computer programs for qualitative research and data management, but general questions about this can be addressed, if required.

Preparations for the course: Participants are requested to submit an ethnographic description from their fieldwork, further details below. The text should be submitted via email to the course organisers.

Day 1, 24 September 2025:
Day 1 will be an introduction to analytical thinking, discussing how to identify “densities” and potential analytical themes in the ethnographic material. This discussion will be based on comments from peers and lecturers on the pre-circulated texts. 

We will also pursue different analytical themes emerging in each project and discuss how the field can be constructed. What understandings of the field emerge? What are the implications of particular constructions of the field in terms of literature to cover and discuss? What are the requirements for validity? At the end of Day 1, each participant is tasked with a way to further push the analysis of their submitted text with a view to revising the text for Day 2.

Assignment for Day 1 to be circulated a week in advance: Each participant is to submit a 5-page text consisting of a ‘chunk’ of data with potential for the PhD thesis. It can be an ethnographic description that is iconic or particularly interesting for the research project. This might be a description of a situation, a person, or a case that seems to exemplify the tensions, puzzles, and themes you wish to explore in your thesis. It can be part of an interview that seems especially intriguing, or several observations that circle around the same problematic. You may already have an idea about how you are going to analyse your example, but keep that in reserve. You may also just know that this is somehow significant material. For now, simply try to present the data in a way that captures the reader’s curiosity.

The text should begin with a brief project outline (½ p.); provide an overview (list) of all empirical material (2 pp.) as well as the ‘chunk of data’ (5 pp.). The assignment must be submitted latest 15 September 2025 via email to all participants including the organisers.

Day 2, 27 October 2025:
This session of the workshop continues from Day 1. The focus of this session is on how one links analytical concepts to theories in an effective and consistent way. This discussion will be based on comments from peers and lecturers on the pre-circulated texts.  Texts by the lecturers (or their colleagues) may supplement the papers of the PhD students to broaden the discussion and highlight the difficulties we all have in making analytical sense.

Assignment for Day 2 to be circulated a week in advance: Re-write your first paper in a longer, more polished analytical version of approximately 10 pages on the basis of comments and suggestions from Day 1. The submission should analyse the chosen material in a way that fits into the overall narrative or argument of your thesis. Introduce analytical concepts that help to bring out issues or problems that advance our understanding of the ethnographic material and show us the direction that you may go in your thesis. The paper should be submitted 20 October 2025 via email to all participants including the organizers.

Readings: 100-150 pages (including peer papers).

Course organisers:
Samantha Dawn Breslin (samantha.breslin@anthro.ku.dk), Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen.
Anders Sybrandt Hansen (etnoash@cas.au.dk), Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University.

Max. number of participants: 7.

ECTS: 3.5 ECTS (0.5 ECTS per day + 2.5 ECTS for written material)

Target group: The course is primarily offered to PhD students from the departments of Anthropology in Copenhagen and Aarhus Universities. If there are vacant seats, PhD students from other research schools may participate. All participants must have a background in anthropology or a related discipline, and it is a requirement that the planned project includes ethnographic fieldwork.

Course fee: The PhD School at the Faculty of Social Sciences participates in Denmark’s national network for PhD courses. This course is free of charge for PhD students enrolled at a one of the participating PhD schools (PhD students enrolled at a Danish University, except from Copenhagen Business School). Other PhD students will be charged a course fee of DKK 1,200 per ECTS for participation in the course (PhD students enrolled at Copenhagen Business School or at a University outside Denmark).

Registration: Please register via the link in the box no later than September 1, 2025.

Further information: For more information about the PhD course, please contact the PhD Administration (phd@hrsc.ku.dk) or the course organisers.