This course is a part of HF's PhD week.
Course Description
The article-based dissertation, or thesis by publication, has quickly become a common, even preferred format for doctoral research. This format transition, which is still to some degree understood against the backdrop of the more traditional monograph, presents its own challenges and possibilities for the PhD candidate, not least within the humanities. Still, the need to package and present discrete research outputs as part of a larger cohesive and holistic body of work remains an essential part of the article-based dissertation.
The “kappe” then, is a final piece of the thesis which can do just that. But how to write the “kappe” is far from obvious, and guidance on how to do so is still emerging. This course identifies the “kappe” as a distinct element of the full body of work in an article-based PhD dissertation and offers conceptual and practical perspectives on how to position the “kappe” and how to write it.
Course Preparations
Participants are asked to find a recent (within the last 7 years) article-based dissertation from their field (or another relevant discipline) which they find particularly excellent or particularly troubling and to bring it with them to the course.
Participants are also encourged to read a shorter selection of text, not to exceed 40 pages. Texts will be shared with participants when admission notices are sent.
In class
This course is divided into three sections.
The first section considers the “kappe” itself in the current Norwegian research environment and in the context of PhD research internationally, and establishes premises and practical frameworks for further work.
The second section is built to provide participants with the necessary framing and orientation to write a “kappe” appropriate to their own research and to the demands of the genre in light of the considerations provided in the first section.
The third section offers participants time to articulate or further develop a structure for their own “kappe,” to discuss and problematize examples in small, discipline-specific groups, and to consider additional lower-order structural and rhetorical examples.
Language
The course language is English.
Registration
Registration is now closed.
Course convenors
David Burke, Academic Writing Centre