Chances and Challenges - The BGHS Podcast

In this episode, Martina Kessel, professor of modern history and gender history, shares her view on PhD supervision, internationalisation, and gender history. In her talk with Sabine Schäfer, executive manager of the BGHS, she gives insights into what has changed during the last decades and what she is expecting and also hoping for the future.

This episode offers insights into what it's like to quit the PhD. Mariza Mathis, a former member of the BGHS, talks to Sabine Schäfer, executive manager of the BGHS, about the process she went through when she had doubts about continuing her PhD and how she finally decided to quit and take on a job in science management.

This episode sheds light on why it makes sense for PhD researchers at German universities to engage in academic self-government. First, it ensures that all members of the university bring their perspectives to the institution's decision-making processes. And second, it helps to get acquainted with the institutions’ structures and people, which might boost the academic career. Sabine Schäfer, executive manager of the BGHS, talks about this often underestimated topic with Oliver Flügel-Martinsen, professor of political theory and dean of the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University.

Todays Episode will be about one of the leading principles of the bghs: Internationalization. Around 36% of our doctoral researchers are internationals, which shows that that topic is extremely important to us. We offer a programme that can be entirely completed in English without knowing german, all of the information we give out comes in a german AND English version and we have a Coordinator for Internationalization, Clara Buitrago. But there is only so much we can do alone. The entire “eco-system” of the university plays a huge role for caring for and supporting international doctoral researchers, so institutions like...