Do you have any news (courses, call for papers, job announcements, etc.) that you would like to publish on the Ph.D. network website? You are welcome to write a post on our website and promote your content free of charge. Your relevant content will be promoted on our website, newsletter and social media.
We are currently accepting the following types of submissions:
The Call for Papers for the Eighth Joint Doctoral Conference is open.
More Information can also be found on the conference website.
The Eighth edition of the Joint Doctoral Conference invites early-career and senior researchers in sociology and related disciplines of social research to gather for two days of academic discussion, feedback and collaborative exchange.
This year, the two-day conference will take place in Tilburg, the Netherlands, on 26–27 November 2026. This event is organized by the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University.
The annual conference offers PhD candidates a supportive and engaging environment in which to present their research, discover and discuss the work of their peers and receive constructive feedback from senior researchers.
The Joint Doctoral Conference began as a collaboration between the Universities of Bamberg, Milan, Pompeu Fabra, Tilburg and Trento, and has since grown into an established international platform for doctoral collaboration. We warmly welcome PhD researchers from both within and beyond this network to Tilburg to share their research, expand their academic networks and contribute to a growing community of emerging social scientists.
Submissions are invited in the form of either paper or poster presentations. You may indicate your personal preference beforehand in the Qualtrics form. We aim to accommodate your request but will organize the conference based on the submissions received. Contributions may be empirical or theoretical and can be submitted at any stage of the research process.
If you would like to present during the conference, please submit an extended abstract (2-3 pages, references excluded, in .pdf format) via this Qualtrics form. Participants are encouraged to act as a discussant of one paper during the conference. Please indicate your availability for this role in the form.
Deadline for the submission of abstracts: 1st of May, 2026.
After this deadline, the Committee will decide on the papers selected for the conference and will inform you about the outcome of this decision at the beginning of June. If you are selected to participate in the conference as a presenter, you must submit a full paper (or near-final draft) ahead of the conference so that a discussant can read and provide detailed feedback on your work. The deadline for the submission of your full paper is November 2nd. Please note that individuals presenting posters do not need to submit their entire paper ahead of the conference.
The participation fee is 50 euros. This includes lunch and coffee breaks; it does not include dinner and accommodation. Our cancellation policy ensures that, should you cancel your participation before November 11th, your participation fee will be refunded in full. Cancellations after this date will not be refunded.
For any questions, feel free to contact us at: Phdconference2026@tilburguniversity.edu
We look forward to welcoming you to Tilburg!
Kind regards,
The Organizing Committee
Iman Delimustafić, Inbar Eliav-Paran, Mine Kühn, Adrian Kunz, Romy Oomens, Ben Scane, Elif Şeyban, Tessa Veraart and Franca Witlox.
Timeline
Submission of abstracts via Qualtrics form: May 1st
Registration deadline: August 1st
Submission of complete paper: November 2nd
Conference dates: November 26th – 27th
The Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences is currently offering two DAAD GSSP Scholarships for Doctoral Candidates. If applicable, we kindly ask you to include our current Call for Applications for Scholarships on your website/in your next newsletter.
Job Title: 2 DAAD GSSP Scholarships for Doctoral Candidates
Institution Name: Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences
Deadline for Applications: 10 February 2026
Further Information: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/en/bagss/application/daad-scholarship/
The detailed Call for Applications can be found below and attached to this mail.
We would greatly appreciate it if you could help us advertise the DAAD GSSP Scholarships.
If so, please reply to this e-mail with a quick confirmation and a link to advertise.
Thanks a lot in advance.
Best regards,
BAGSS Team
________________________________________________
III BAMBERG GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS – DOCTORAL CANDIDATES
DAAD GSSP Scholarship
The scholarships are available from 1 October 2026 for up to four years.
We welcome applications from candidates aiming to write their doctoral thesis at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences. The school supports scholarship holders through personal mentoring, workshops and support services.
The Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences is a multidisciplinary Graduate School funded by the Bavarian State. We seek to stimulate and guide cutting-edge doctoral research on some of the most crucial challenges modern knowledge-based societies are facing.
Specialised research agendas have been grouped into four thematic pillars:
PILLAR 1: Education, personal development and learning from early childhood to adulthood
PILLAR 2: Educational and social inequality across the entire life course
PILLAR 3: Changes in human capital, labour markets and demographic structures and their relation to social structures in modern societies
PILLAR 4: Governance, institutional change and political behaviour
// QUALIFICATION AND REQUIREMENTS:
Requirements
We invite applications by highly qualified graduates from the fields of Sociology, Psychology, Educational Science, Political Science, Labour and Educational Economics, Demography and Statistics. Candidates must hold a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in one of the aforementioned subjects or be very close to completion and should not have lived in Germany for more than 15 months by April 2026.
Successful applicants will be required to take up their residence in Bamberg, a city noted for its high quality of life and great conditions for research and study. DAAD Scholarships amount to a monthly stipend of 1,400 EUR, plus other allowances according to the DAAD guidelines.
The Graduate School is committed to diversity, equal opportunities and the compatibility of family and career.
For further information about the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences, the application process and the required documents, please visit our website at
https://www.uni-bamberg.de/en/bagss/application/daad-scholarship/
The deadline for the submission of your application is Monday, 10 February 2026.
The SOEP on campus two-day workshop provides a practical introduction to applied panel data
analysis using the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), a rich household panel collected
annually since 1984. Participants will gain practical knowledge of SOEP’s contents, data structures, sampling methods, and weighting procedures. The workshop further introduces estimation strategies suitable for panel data with different units of analysis, such as households, individuals, and dyads.
This hands-on workshop aims to equip participants with essential skills for working with household panel data, emphasizing practical applications and analytical techniques with SOEP. By the end of the course, attendees will be able to structure longitudinal datasets, understand sample designs, apply weights, and conducting preliminary panel data analyses.
Day 1: Introduction to SOEP Data
• Session 1 (Lecture):
‣ Introduction to SOEP content and structure
‣ Documentation and online support
• Session 2 (Tutorial and Hands-on):
‣ From raw SOEP data to structured longitudinal datasets
‣ Data management strategies
‣ Descriptive analyses
Day 2: Practical Applications and Analysis
• Session 3 (Lecture):
‣ Analytical potentials of household panel data
‣ Introduction to causal interpretation with panel data
• Session 4 (Tutorial and Hands-on):
‣ Hands-on exercises on panel data analysis
‣ Interpreting and presenting results
Dr. Cristobal Moya (DIW, Berlin); For inquiries, please contact Cristóbal Moya (cmoya@diw.de).
English
The course schedule is October 16 from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and October 17 from 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The room is the GEISO computer lab, room 2160, H1, on HSU Campus, Holstenhofweg 85, 22043 Hamburg
• Basic knowledge of R or Stata
• Familiarity with basic data analysis, such as descriptive statistics and regression analysis
If you want to enroll in the course, please send an email to meisterc@hsu-hh.de
Wie lassen sich erhobene Daten zielführend auswerten? In der Veranstaltung werden grundlegende Kenntnisse zu Statistiksoftware SPSS vermittelt. Im Vordergrund stehen dabei die Programmoberfläche und einfache Auswertungsverfahren der Deskriptiv- und Inferenzstatistik.
(Unipark, Sociosurvey)
1. Kenntnisse in deskriptiver Statistik wünschenswert (Lage- und Streuungsmaße, Zusammenhangsmessungen)
2. Labtop/Tablet mit Zugang zur Campus-Lizenz SPSS (Einrichtung über Intranet – Rechenzentrum, Software- und Campuslizenzen)
Von Forschung zu Expertise – Rolle als Kommunikator:in definieren
Wissenschaftskommunikation kann Brücken schlagen in die Gesellschaft, in Verwaltung und Politik. Doch wirkungsvolle Kommunikation setzt ein klares Verständnis der eigenen Expertise und ihrer Relevanz außerhalb der Wissenschaft voraus. Dieses erste Blockseminar führt in zentrale Konzepte der Wissenschafts(kommunikations)forschung ein und beleuchtet besonders öffentliche Erwartungen an Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaftler:innen. In praktischen Übungen reflektieren die Teilnehmenden ihre eigene Expertise und identifizieren konkrete Kontexte und Zielgruppen, für die diese Expertise relevant ist. Das Blockseminar wird mit einer Skizze eines individuellen WissKomm-Projekts der Teilnehmenden abgeschlossen, das sie im Rahmen des Kurses realisieren werden.
Wissenschaft verständlich und ansprechend vermitteln
Eine zentrale Herausforderung der Wissenschaftskommunikation besteht darin, komplexe Inhalte verständlich und ansprechend zu vermitteln oder sogar in konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen zu übersetzen. Das zweite Blockseminar gibt einen Überblick über verschiedene Kommunikationsformate, -kanäle und -stile. In praktischen Übungen testen die Teilnehmenden, welche Kommunikationsformen und -infrastrukturen sich am besten für ihre Ziele und persönlichen Präferenzen eignen – von geschriebenem Text zu gesprochenem Wort, Live-Event, Artikel, oder Social Media Beitrag. In der Projektarbeit vertiefen sie die inhaltliche Umsetzung, entwickeln ein erstes konkretes Kommunikationsprodukt, und verfeinern Sprache und Struktur.
Dieses Kommunikationsprodukt werden sie dann bis zum dritten und letzten Blockseminar finalisieren.
Rolle als Kommunikator:in reflektieren und im Forschungsalltag verankern
Wissenschaftskommunikation bietet Forschenden neue Möglichkeiten der Sichtbarkeit und gesellschaftlichen Teilhabe, bringt aber auch ethische, professionelle und strategische Herausforderungen mit sich. Dieses dritte und letzte Blockseminar behandelt solche Fragen zu verantwortungsvoller Kommunikation, Vereinbarkeit mit anderen beruflichen Verpflichtungen (v.a. Forschung und Lehre), oder dem Umgang mit Kritik oder sogar wissenschaftsfeindlichen Angriffen. Durch Übungen und Diskussionen reflektieren die Teilnehmenden, wie sie Wissenschaftskommunikation nachhaltig in ihren Berufsalltag integrieren und strategische Netzwerke aufbauen können. In der Projektarbeit präsentieren sie ihr finales (oder vorläufiges) Kommunikationsprodukt, erhalten Feedback und entwickeln eine Strategie zur Veröffentlichung.
Die Kurssprache ist deutsch.
Institution: see Organisers & Supporters
Programme of study: International Research Workshop
Lecturer: Assoc. Prof. Dr Fabian Hattke (University of Bergen)
Date: see Workshop Programme
Max. number of participants: 20
Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS
Language of instruction: English
Contents: This course provides a basic introduction to the field of quantitative text analysis and natural language processing (NLP). It offers a theoretical introduction and hands-on exercises to explore the potential utility of different approaches to textual data (e.g., closed vs. open vocabulary text mining, sentiment analysis, topic detection, and data visualisation). The course teaches students to extract and process text from documents and to analyse the data by means of quantitative methods.
Software Installations: The course requires no coding or programming skills or prior experience with NLP tools. However, if students want to actively participate in the practical exercises and use their own datasets, they must install the following software on their personal laptops prior to the course.
Recommended literature:
You have to register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.
Institution: see Organisers & Supporters
Programme of study: International Research Workshop
Lecturer: Dr. Jonathan Mole (Europa-Universität Flensburg)
Date: see Workshop Programme
Max. number of participants: 20
Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS
Language of instruction: English
Contents: Writing an academic text is a complex task. It requires knowledge of a range of accepted writing conventions and the ability to construct sentences that are not only idiomatically and grammatically correct but also suitably connected to one another. An awareness of the requirements and a degree of practice are necessary.
This workshop is primarily for people who are in the process of writing an academic text in English – a proposal, abstract, article, thesis, etc. It allows you to obtain individual feedback on a text you submit before the workshop. In the workshop, assistance will be given to enable you to self-correct any issues which have been highlighted (structure, understanding, logic, language, etc.). In addition, an overview of the important characteristics of academic English writing will be discussed. If required, exercises will be available to highlight topics such as academic style (formality, impersonal and objective language, passive voice, caution, nominalisation); structure of a sentence, paragraph and document level; reporting verbs and their forms; coherence and cohesion; and citation and reference styles.
A requirement of students: Please supply a maximum of 2 pages of text at least two weeks before the workshop begins. English language skills at CEFR level B2/C1 are required.
Recommended literature and pre-reading: None.
You must register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.
Institution: see Organisers & Supporters
Programme of study: International Research Workshop
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Daniel Schnitzlein (University of Applied Labour Studies & Innside Statistics)
Date: see Workshop Programme
Max. number of participants: 20
Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS
Language of instruction: English
Contents: Results of scientific research are often (and increasingly) complex and challenging to understand for a non-scientific audience. However, at the same time, the transfer of results from academic research to non-academic recipients, such as politics, private foundations, or private firms providing research funding, as well as the interested public, is becoming increasingly important. Probably the most important skill in this context is the ability to create a clear visual representation of your main (quantitative data-based) results.
Today, data are everyday companions in almost all scientific and professional fields. The graphical representation of data is both an elementary step in the analysis process and an important component in communicating the results. The course Principles of Data Visualization trains this ability and leads you away from the standard diagrams of common office/statistics packages to clear and concise data representations with the help of many practice-oriented examples. The course consists of 50% lectures and 50% hands-on sessions. The methods trained in this course apply to all visualisation tasks, regardless of the software package used. The exercises in the hands-on sessions can be carried out using your preferred software tool.
Requirement of students: Basic knowledge of empirical (quantitative) social and economic research is beneficial but not strictly necessary.
You must register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.
Institution: see Organisers & Supporters
Programme of study: International Research Workshop
Lecturer: Dr. Jonas Buche (Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture)
Date: see Workshop Programme
Max. number of participants: 20
Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS
Language of instruction: English
Contents: Since publishing the seminal work “The Comparative Method” by Charles Ragin in 1987, set-theoretic methods and primarily Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) have become a common research strategy in the social sciences. Set-theoretic methods analyse cases concerning the identification of sufficient and necessary conditions and assume set relations to be equifinal, conjunctural, and asymmetric. Since the introduction of so-called fuzzy sets to the method, there has been a growing interest in QCA as a welcome alternative to both small-n case studies and large-n statistical analyses. In short, QCA is recommended if ‘if…then’ hypotheses are analysed, if the goal is to derive sufficient and necessary conditions, if a comparison is planned, and if there is a mid-sized number of cases (between 10 and 60+).
The course provides a comprehensive introduction to QCA, offering a conceptual and technical orientation. It begins with an overview of the basics of set theory and distinguishes QCA as a case-oriented method from both the quantitative and interpretive-qualitative research paradigms. The single elements are built into the Truth Table Algorithm through the notion of necessary and sufficient conditions and truth tables. However, this algorithm is not free of problems. Therefore, some pitfalls and strategies for overcoming them are presented. The software tool fsQCA will be introduced and applied to published studies on the third day.
A requirement of students: No prior knowledge is required. We will use the software fsQCA, which can be downloaded at www.fsqca.com.
Recommended literature and pre-readings:
You must register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.
Institution: see Organisers & Supporters
Programme of study: International Research Workshop
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Daniel Schnitzlein (University of Applied Labour Studies & Innside Statistics)
Date: see Workshop Programme
Max. number of participants: 20
Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS
Language of instruction: English
Contents: The course provides an overview of the theoretical basics and empirical evidence of questionnaire design. The cognitive process of survey responding, including the challenges of designing effective survey questions —such as proper question wording and optimal response formats —will be discussed, as well as pretest techniques for evaluating survey questions. A practical part will accompany the lecture.
You must register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.