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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...

In this episode, we will get another perspective from a professor und the dissertation phase – this time from Professor Ruth Ayaß, she is Professor of Qualitative methods of empirical social research at the faculty of Sociology here at Bielefeld University and of course, she is the director of the BGHS.

Today we will talk about a topic that can be easily overlooked while doing a PhD at a university, even though it makes up a big part of the opportunities you have after finishing your Dissertation: non-academic career paths. We at the bghs really put in effort to show that becoming a professor is not the only career goal you can have after finishing your PhD, but there are so many more options out there. Therefore I am really excited to talk to someone who does Career Couseling professionally, so I am sure she has even more inside into that...

Today, we will have a little peek on the other side, because I will talk to a professor about his perspective on his PhD Phase, as well as his view on the supervision relationship. My Guest today is Frank Grüner, he is Professor of Eastern European History at Bielefeld University. His research interests center on Russian and Soviet history. He also participates in and organizes academical exchange events and programmes with different international researchers and universities and he is deputy director of the BGHS. So, internationality will also be a topic.
Of course, not every supervisor is the same and...

I am very happy because I will talk to another doctoral researcher from the BGHS today! Last time it was about a Research Stay and this time, I will talk to Ilgim Simsek about her field work. A lot of our doctoral researchers do field work for their dissertation to generate data to analyse, but I am sure that even though it is so common, or maybe because it is so common, the whole thing can feel like a questionmark in the beginning. And that’s why I want to illustrate how it can look like and for that, Ilgim and...

Today will be less about the academic side of a PhD, but rather the logistical side of life: Finding a place to live, sorting through all that paperwork or finding your way around the bureaucratic system in Germany. It will be mainly aimed at international doctoral researchers, but there is also enough information about things that could help people from Germany as well.
My Guest is Monika Bokermann, she works at the Welcome Center here at Bielefeld University and I am very much looking forward to talking to her about her day-to-day work there.

Writing a dissertation can bring up some challenges along the way, so we want to give you some insight into how to best tackle them. For that, I talked to Stefanie Haacke-Werron, an expert in academic writing and PhD coaching from the Writing Lab at Bielefeld University. We will start at the beginning with how to write a proposal, and talk about, among other things, feeling stuck, asking for feedback and how to stay motivated.