Programme 2nd year
What you do during your Second Year
During the first semester, you will be required to attend classes and seminars, while beginning the research for your thesis. A supervisor will be assigned to each student at the beginning of the year, on the basis of his/her research interests.
Part of the year may be spent abroad (see this section for more info on this point). If you decide to spend the first semester abroad, you will be required to attend relevant courses in the foreign institution which is hosting you. Those who stay in Italy are required to continue attending Tuesday Seminars and PhD Colloquia. In June, you are expected to attend the Graduate conference.
Presenting your PhD project in the PhD Colloquium
As a second year PhD student, you are required to present your PhD project and your provisional findings in the PhD Colloquium, which takes place on Wednesday afternoons. All the participants will offer their comments about how best to develop your ideas.
One week before your presentation you should circulate a paper (15-20 pages) presenting your project and your findings to all members of academic staff and to your fellow PhD students. The paper should clearly address these points:
1. Your main research questions
2. Review of the existent literature addressing them
3. Your hypotheses
4. The empirical evidence you have chosen to test them
5. Methodological issues, i.e. how you will test your hypotheses on that empirical evidence
6. Relevant bibliography
7. Provisional table of contents of the PhD thesis
8. imetable of research and the writing of the chapters
You are strongly encouraged to start writing this paper at least 1 month in advance of the assigned date and to keep in close contact with your supervisor during this process.
The calendar of presentations is set at the beginning of the academic year. Ensure that you mark the date of your presentation in your agenda!
The presentation should address points 1-5. It should last approx. 20 minutes. Following this, there will be time for questions and comments by one or two appointed discussants and then the floor is open for general discussion.
One aim of the PhD Colloquium is to improve your presentation skills. To ensure that this is accomplished, you should prepare carefully and make use of technical devices that you might find appropriate (such as slides, Power Point presentations, etc.).
There are several websites that offer you advice on how to present your work. Here is a selection:
http://www.queensu.ca/idc/idcresources/handouts/presentations.html http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/Preparing_talks/TalkStrt.htm
http://www.ukans.edu/cwis/units/coms2/vpa/vpa.htm
http://johnmolson.concordia.ca/comm212/preppres.htm
More experienced PhD students and members of our staff will be happy to help you with suggestions and advice.
During the first semester, you will be required to attend classes and seminars, while beginning the research for your thesis. A supervisor will be assigned to each student at the beginning of the year, on the basis of his/her research interests.
Part of the year may be spent abroad (see this section for more info on this point). If you decide to spend the first semester abroad, you will be required to attend relevant courses in the foreign institution which is hosting you. Those who stay in Italy are required to continue attending Tuesday Seminars and PhD Colloquia. In June, you are expected to attend the Graduate conference.
Presenting your PhD project in the PhD Colloquium
As a second year PhD student, you are required to present your PhD project and your provisional findings in the PhD Colloquium, which takes place on Wednesday afternoons. All the participants will offer their comments about how best to develop your ideas.
One week before your presentation you should circulate a paper (15-20 pages) presenting your project and your findings to all members of academic staff and to your fellow PhD students. The paper should clearly address these points:
1. Your main research questions
2. Review of the existent literature addressing them
3. Your hypotheses
4. The empirical evidence you have chosen to test them
5. Methodological issues, i.e. how you will test your hypotheses on that empirical evidence
6. Relevant bibliography
7. Provisional table of contents of the PhD thesis
8. imetable of research and the writing of the chapters
You are strongly encouraged to start writing this paper at least 1 month in advance of the assigned date and to keep in close contact with your supervisor during this process.
The calendar of presentations is set at the beginning of the academic year. Ensure that you mark the date of your presentation in your agenda!
The presentation should address points 1-5. It should last approx. 20 minutes. Following this, there will be time for questions and comments by one or two appointed discussants and then the floor is open for general discussion.
One aim of the PhD Colloquium is to improve your presentation skills. To ensure that this is accomplished, you should prepare carefully and make use of technical devices that you might find appropriate (such as slides, Power Point presentations, etc.).
There are several websites that offer you advice on how to present your work. Here is a selection:
http://www.queensu.ca/idc/idcresources/handouts/presentations.html http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/Preparing_talks/TalkStrt.htm
http://www.ukans.edu/cwis/units/coms2/vpa/vpa.htm
http://johnmolson.concordia.ca/comm212/preppres.htm
More experienced PhD students and members of our staff will be happy to help you with suggestions and advice.
