ENGAGE.EU PhD Workshop in Toulouse
A new edition of the ENGAGE.EU doctoral workshop was held in Toulouse from 20 to 21 April. The workshop was an opportunity for international and interdisciplinary exchange for doctoral students of the participating ENGAGE.EU universities from different disciplines. The lecturers of the participating universities gave feedback on the projects and also many tips on systematic literature research, academic career planning and media work.
The PhD students presented their dissertation projects in three parallel streams on the topics of:
- Health and well-being
- Social and digital eco-systems
- Social and organisational justice
“The diversity of the topics ranged from drug problems in Latin America and stress at work to social security for solo self-employed people in Europe. Methodologically, the entire spectrum of the social sciences was represented here, which also inspired a lot of new ideas”, explains Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus from the University of Mannheim, who contributed to the workshop as a mentor.
The Participants appreciated the opportunity to work on a specific research project, but also to work across disciplines and address international issues. The diverse profiles of the participants made the exchanges enriching and useful for the further development of their research projects. Also Emma van den Terrell enjoyed the workshop and found it to be a very supportive environment. She is a doctoral student at the Chair of Sustainable Business at the University of Mannheim. “I look into the ethical challenges of what it means to measure social issues like human rights or social values. I have to say I had a difficult time picking a track at the workshop, because I applied with a research project, where it focuses on all three of the offered topics. In the end I was in track to the digital ecosystems.”
Each participant had to read the papers of the research track. It was a small intimate setting with one or two professors as mentors that gave feedback to the participants. “It was a really good conversation of people that presented their papers and everyone giving them practice and very supportive feedback. I really enjoyed the interdisciplinary atmosphere, because we got to talk to people who are doing all sorts of different things in different fields within management.”
Besides the workshops, the participants had the chance to get to know each other better and see some of the landscape around Toulouse. In the evening, the organizers invited everyone to a trip on the Canal du Midi and a guided tour of the city by local students showed that Toulouse – “the rose city” – owes its name to the many historic buildings in uniform red sandstone.
“The organization of this conference was really great. They also did a good job on promoting the different opportunities that ENGAGE.EU has. So I would definitely recommend it”, Emma van den Terrell sums up. “I just wish there had been a little bit more time where we could exchange more with the people from the other tracks that also had really interesting topics. But I think that's just the problem of a workshop setting where you can't go to everything.”
Professor Ebbinghaus also finds it worthwhile to apply for such an exchange in the ENGAGE.EU network: “It is a great opportunity in order to look beyond one's own national and disciplinary horizon and to establish personal contacts. An information session illustrated how research visits are promoted within the network. The ENGAGE.EU websites will also be further developed to foster the exchange of researchers.”
For more information about research opportunities, visit engageuniversity.eu/academics.