PhD courses at Department of Thematic Studies (TEMA)

Listening to Children: rights, participation and voices of children in research and politics (7,5 credits)

Course period: August to September 2022
Language: English
Course content: Link to Syllabus. The course contains elements that aim to convey methodological and theoretical tools for an interdisciplinary and critical analysis of how children and young people's rights, participation and voices are used in research and politics of today.
Teaching and examination forms: The course takes place August to September 2022 for five weeks on-line, plus one campus-based week at Child Studies, Campus Valla, Linköping, Sweden.
Course coordinators: Karin Zetterqvist Nelson and Jonathan Josefsson

Introduction to STS (9 credits)

Course period: First half of fall semester 2022, half-time studies
Language: English
Course content: The course is an introduction to several key theorizations in the international field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). In addition to reading and discussing key texts, the course participants will also be familiarized with the criticism and debate surrounding key theoretical positions of the field. The course centers on STS-perspectives focusing on processes related to scientific knowledge production and technological change. This translates into the dominance of micro- or meso-perspectives in where the interpretations, practices and actions of various involved actors are analyzed and problematized. The course thus emphasizes theoretical perspectives and concepts that can be used to understand “science and technology in the making.”
Teaching and examination forms: The course is designed to provide ample opportunities for reflection and discussion of perspectives, theories and concepts in STS, particularly as they relate to the course participants’ own research interests. The course participants will be constantly challenged to discuss, critically examine and compare various perspectives, approaches and concepts.
The examination consists of the following components

• Active participation in all course sessions.
• Submission of a short seminar document (1 paragraph about the literature and a few questions) before each reflection seminar, providing brief reflections on or posing questions for the seminar in question.
• Submission of a course essay in which one theme related to the theoretical perspectives addressed in the course is discussed.

Course coordinator: Corinna Kruse
Enrolment: To enrol, contact the course coordinator.

 

Introducing postcolonial and decolonial feminisms (10 credits)

Course period: Weeks 37-43, 2022, fulltime studies
Language: English
Course content: The course focuses on the positionality of postcolonial feminisms in relation to postcolonial theories and methodologies and Western feminist trends in order to single out the existing dialogues and differences between these options. The course includes major theoretical and methodological texts in the field, as well as films, video, fiction, art. It is aimed at Tema Genus students as part of their obligatory set of courses to introduce the main strands of research at the unit.
Teaching and examination forms: The course consists of lectures and seminar. It can be offered both online and irl depending on the pandemic situation. The examination consists of the individual written course paper and active participation in seminars through general discussion, presentations.
Course coordinator: Madina Tlostanova
Enrolment: To enrol, contact the course coordinator.

 

Barnforskning: från klassiker till nya kritiska perspektiv 7,5 hp

Period: Vecka 38 – 47, 2022, half-time studies
Språk: Svenska
Innehåll: Länk till kursplan. I den här kursen studerar vi hur barnforskning har bidragit till att utmana förståelser av såväl människa som samhälle. Kursen har ett kronologiskt upplägg där doktoranderna läser klassiska originaltexter och bearbetar dem för att skapa en överblick över barnforskningsfältets framväxt. Kursens övergripande mål är att doktoranderna ska kunna redogöra för olika vetenskapliga traditioner inom barnforskningen utifrån klassiska texter samt resonera kring hur barnforskning bidrar till kritiska perspektiv inom samhällsvetenskap och humaniora.
Arbetsformer: Kursen är uppdelad i sex block som inleds med en föreläsning och avslutas med ett seminarium där de studerande förväntas ha läst litteraturen och förberett en presentation eller ett reflektionsdokument som ska ligga som underlag för diskussion. Seminarierna, som planeras ske på plats på Tema Barn vid Linköpings universitet om pandemiläget tillåter, är schemalagda till följande datum: 22 september, 6 oktober, 20 oktober, 26 oktober, 11 november, 25 november. Föreläsningar kommer vara digitalt inspelade, alternativt ges på Zoom eller på plats i samband med seminariedagarna.
Examinationsformer: Kursen examineras löpande genom aktivt deltagande på obligatoriska seminarier till vilka doktoranderna behöver förbereda reflektionsdokument eller andra skriftliga underlag. Den examineras också genom flera korta inlämningsuppgifter.
Kursansvarig: Johanna Sköld och Johanna Sjöberg
Anmälan: För att anmäla dig, kontakta kursansvariga.

 

Infrastructures (6 credits)

Course period: Second half of fall semester 2022, half-time studies
Language: English
Course content: This course will challenge, explore, and think about the (in)visibilities of infrastructure, while also taking up the challenge of building alternative and transforming current infrastructures. We will discuss different ways of conceptualizing infrastructures and how they help us understand contemporary society and issues of social change. We will link technological developments to cultural and historical processes, such as in the role of infrastructure in the construction of nationhood and as harbinger of modernity, and to recent issues in areas such as the research system, health care, energy or climate change.
Teaching and examination forms: Contact the course coordinators for more information
Course coordinators: Harald Rohracher  & Jonas Anshelm
Enrolment: To enrol, contact the course coordinators.

 

Gender and Sustainability: Introducing Feminist Environmental Humanities (7,5 credits)

Course period: November – February (Fall term 2022/Spring term 2023)
Language: English
Course content: Link to Syllabus. The PhD course combines critical and creative perspectives on gender and sustainability from the emerging field of environmental humanities as it overlaps with science, technology, humanities, art and feminist theory-practices. It explores postdisciplinary directions in sustainability from a set of positions in environmental humanities and feminist posthumanities. The course provides an introduction into the conceptual landscape of feminist environmental humanities, and an orientation into its methodological trajectories across the fields of science, technology, art and design. Notions of different scientific traditions in the past and present, and of inter- and transdisciplinary research are presented and framed in ways that are particularly useful for PhD researchers pursuing environmental humanities/postdisciplinary studies and practice-oriented research in art, technology and design. PhD researchers are provided with an understanding of key concepts – and the relationship between research questions, methods, objectives and outcomes – through lectures, literature seminars, workshops and collaborative project work. The course introduces participants to thinking on situated knowledge practices and ethics amidst a plethora of critical methodologies, qualitative and innovative methods, and performative research practices. On completion of the course, PhD researchers will be provided with tools to critically reflect over the epistemological and ethical challenges inherent to their own research practices and doctoral work, but also in relationship to gender, sustainability and to other actors involved in the very social business of scholarship. The course is an open collaboration with the KTH gender network, The Posthumanities Hub, a multi-university research group and platform for feminist posthumanities www.posthumanities.net and Gender Studies (Tema Genus), Linköping University.
Teaching and examination forms: The PhD course will be held online and comprises four modules. Module activities include shorter and longer lectures, panels, reading seminars, group supervision, workshops, field studies (field philosophy and participatory creative work), collaborative project work and presentations to train our creative skills in scientific communication, storytelling, exposé, and, in affirmative listening.
Module 1 Re-inventing nature, re-inventing methodology: 7-8 November, 2022
Module 2 Doing gender and sustainability: Practice-oriented research: 5-6 December, 2022
Module 3 Ethics of care in theory and practice: 16-17 January, 2023
Module 4 Gender & sustainability in new registers: Knowledge communication: 20-21 February, 2023
Course coordinator: Cecilia Åsberg
Enrolment: To be eligible for the course, PhD researchers have completed a masters’ degree or have an equivalent level of education in STS, history of science, technology and environment studies, gender studies, technology, art or design (such as architecture, planning, civil engineering, arts, crafts, and design) or affiliated subjects within the humanities and social sciences. To enrol, contact the course coordinator. Please apply FORMALLY to the PhD course Gender & Sustainability by submitting an APPLICATION to meike.schalk@arch.kth.se
Include the following documents:
• CV (short bio), one page
• Letter of motivation, half a page (why you would benefit from this course in your PhD-work)
• SHORT description of PhD project, one page maximum, with aim and research question, material and practice-oriented/methodological approaches and challenges

 

Feminist Technoscience & Bodies 10 hp (with a parallel 3 pt version run simultaneously)

Period: Weeks 46-50, 2022
Language: English
Course content: Link to Syllabus. This course explores different tools (terms) and lenses (theories) to use when talking about the body. All of them can be thought of as parts of feminist technoscience studies. In the course you will read and engage with work that has left traces in conversations that are happening in in research on feminist technoscience and bodies today.
Teaching and examination forms: The course is designed to be participant-oriented in the sense that it seeks to maximize active interactions as learning activities. It offers many opportunities for discussion with lecturers on-site at The Department of Thematic Studies, Linköping University (provided that the pandemic so allows) and on Zoom with researchers from other universities, and with fellow course participants. The course comprises 8 obligatory seminars. You are expected to prepare for seminars by reading the course literature. During the seminars, course participants will be expected to respond to the texts by drawing parallels and identifying contrasts to other texts you have read and then present for the group something from your field which relates or refutes an idea in the readings. The course is examined by active participation in the seminars.
On-campus course dates
Making the Digital (2-day course, 14-15 November, Norrköping)
Making Knowledge (Tutorial: Thursday, 1 December, 13.15-17.00 Tema G)
Making Bodies (Tutorial: Thursday, 15 December, 13.15-17.00 Tema G)
Course director: Ericka Johnson (Email Ericka for the syllabus.)
Enrolment: To enrol, contact the course coordinator.

 

Feminist Methodologies (7,5/10 credits)

Course period: Late fall semester 2022, intensive 3-4 days.
Language: English
This course is taught as part of InterGender – International Consortium for Interdisciplinary Feminist Research Training.
Course content: The course offers an in-depth knowledge of relevant methodological frameworks appropriate for analyzing the field.
Teaching and examination forms: 7,5 ECTS credits are given for active participation in the 3 intensive course days and a short paper, 2-5 pages. 10 ECTS credits are given for active participation in the 3 intensive course days and an essay (graded pass/fail).
Course coordinator: Edyta Just
Enrolment: To enrol, contact the course coordinator.

 

Writing Course: Managing Expectations (3 credits)

Course period: It is not confirmed yet whether this course will be offered during the fall semester 2022, half-time studies
Language: English
Course content: This is a practical writing course that introduces ways of thinking about and constructing a narrative and then focuses on their appliance on the students’ texts. In other words, this course is largely hands-on. It primarily addresses PhD students, but will – if there are places left – also welcome postdocs and junior lecturers.
Teaching and examination forms:
The course work consists of

• participation in the classroom activities, including giving feedback to others as assigned
• preparation for classes
• assigned reading

The course is examined through active participation in the seminars.
Course coordinator: Corinna Kruse
Enrolment: To enrol, contact the course coordinator.

Key Concepts in Environmental Science (10 credits)

Preliminary period: September – November
Language: English
Course content: Having completed the course, the student should be able to:

• Demonstrate a conceptual understanding of sustainable development.
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of how sustainable development and related concepts are used within scientific practices and discussions as well as in public debates.
• Reflect on trends, contestations and interpretations of selected key concepts related to sustainable development in interdisciplinary environmental science.

Being able to apply selected key concepts to the student’s ongoing PhD research project.
Teaching and examination forms: This course is based on individual work and active participation in seminar discussions associated to the theoretical content provided by the course Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Sustainable Development (IPSD). The content of every lecture or seminar should result in a small text with a reflection. More specifically, as a result from each of the 6 activities from the IPSD course, 6 different reports (1 to 3 pages each), containing a reflection connecting the knowledge provided by the specific activity with the PhD aims, methodologies, theories, or perspectives, should be delivered.
At the end of the IPSD course, each PhD student must deliver a final report (suggestion of 5 to 15 pages) connecting the content of the course with the PhD project. Notice that the content of the 7 reports can, but doesn’t need to, be incorporated in the final report.
The Final Project shall include a description of the specific objectives, aim and context of the PhD project.
Course director: Anders Hansson
Enrolment: To enrol, contact the course coordinator or Susanne Eriksson

 

Interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainable development (3 credits)

Period: September – October
Language: English
Course content: The focus of the course is on key concepts and analytical approaches that are central to sustainability analysis within natural science, social science and humanities, as well as public debates on sustainability. The course provides an understanding of how key concepts and analytical approaches have evolved over time, are defined and applied in both scientific and policy contexts. Through the multidisciplinary approach, the course will address both natural and social science and humanities perspectives.
Lectures will provide contexts to key concepts and analytical approaches of importance for understanding and assessing sustainable development in various contexts. The seminars will be used to discuss the students’ readings of the literature and their understanding and assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the concepts and analytical approaches in general and also in relation to their ongoing PhD projects.
Teaching and examination forms: Active participation at seminars, the participants must be able to show that they have read and reflected on the literature.
The participants also write a reflection paper (3-5 pages) with the aim to relate relevant parts of the course to their ongoing PhD projects. The paper is presented and discussed at the examination seminar. The participants have access to 0,5h supervision during the writing process.
Course director: Anders Hansson
Enrolment: To enrol, contact the course coordinator Susanne Eriksson

More information

 

Reimagining the humanities (3 or 10 credits)

Course period: TBA
Language: English
Course content: The humanities have had a long history in the constitution of western knowledge, from the Renaissance to the shift in the organization of knowledge in the late nineteenth century through its division into the natural and human sciences. The very modifier “sciences” was the beginning of the humanities’ demise that we witness today, including the recent efforts to reanimate them through posthumanism and as posthumanities and through interdisciplinary misalliance with technologies and hard sciences. The central question of this course can then be boiled down to what does it mean to be human today? While claiming the necessity of keeping the humanities element in education and research, the course problematizes the way humanities have been previously understood and implemented, and reflects on possible ways of their rethinking to better answer the challenges of contemporary world such as climate change, mass migration, the post-peace condition we all share, the continuous erasing of memories and cosmologies, etc. No matter how critical we are of the humanities we have to agree that there are certain human issues or even issues of the human as such that require complex relational and critical epistemic attention and cannot be given up to hard sciences and technologies that are easily subsumed by the normalized economic growth and political status quo paradigm. Such are matters of immigration in today’s Europe or Earth exploitation (e.g. extractivism) globally, that are impossible to solve technologically if we stay within the same axiology that created these problems and that does not care about the well-being of human and other lives and the Earth.
Teaching and examination forms: The course consists of lectures and seminars. It can be offered both online and irl depending on the pandemic situation. The examination consists of an individual written course paper and active participation in seminars through general discussion. If the course is taken without the final paper submitted it is 3 ECTS. With the final paper it is 10 ECTS.
Course coordinator: Madina Tlostanova  
Enrolment: To enrol, contact Olga Zabalueva (course administrator)

 

Engaging with Normativity: Normative Embodiment and Normativity in Medical/Technological Knowledge Practices and Policy-Work (6 credits)

Course period: TBA
Language: English
Course content: The course gives an introduction to approaches that are central for researching normativity within STS, feminist STS, post-phenomenology, critical phenomenology including e.g. feminist phenomenology, and ethics/policy-work. It also engages with questions of how to address and engage with normativity in policy-work, for example on ethically pertinent questions. It presents key theoretical positions on how to conceptualize and analyze embodied normativity and normativity in perception; enacted normativity in different scientific, medical and other technological knowledge
production practices, and normative dimensions of policy-making. The term normativity is understood broadly as including normative dimensions, norms and values, including ethical or political norms and values. Teaching and examination forms: The course participants will be challenged to discuss, critically examine, and compare various perspectives, approaches and concepts. They will read and discuss key texts and be familiarized with the debates on embodied normativity and normativity in perception, enacted normativity in different scientific, medical and other technological knowledge production practices, and normative dimensions of policy-making, from within the fields of STS, feminist STS, post-phenomenology, critical phenomenology including e.g. feminist phenomenology, and ethics/policy-work. They will also be given ample opportunities for reflection and discussion of perspectives, theories and concepts in past research on normativity, and relate this to their own research.
Course coordinator: Kristin Zeiler
Enrolment: To enrol, contact the course coordinator.