Universität Wien

420008 SE The Politics of Humanities Research (2025W)

8.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 42 - Philologisch-Kulturwissenschaftliches Doktoratsstudium
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle
Mo 15.12. 16:15-17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Mondays, weekly, from 6 Oct 2025 - 26 Jan 2026; Time: 16:15 - 17:45; will take place at the English Dep., Room to follow

The PhD seminar will be facilitated in English.

This class is an interactive ONSITE seminar in which regular and active participation is key to students' success. Online participation or hybrid 'listening in' is not possible, and sessions will not be recorded.
You may miss no more than 2 session (i.e. 2x90 minutes of class). If a viable doctor's note is produced, you may miss a third session of 90 minutes, but then need to compensate it at the teacher's discretion. If you miss more than three lessons, this will result in your failing the course, due to excessive absence.

  • Monday 06.10. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 13.10. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 20.10. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 27.10. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 03.11. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 10.11. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 17.11. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 24.11. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 01.12. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 12.01. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 19.01. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A
  • Monday 26.01. 16:15 - 17:45 Seminarraum 6 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-O1-22.A

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

With books banned from school libraries, researchers deported due to critical social media posts, and teaching and research being re-framed in the light of retraditionalisation, extremist politics and budget cuts, the humanities can take centre stage in the question of the politics of research. Humanities research has always spoken on the issue of power politics, so this might be the moment to return to this power and assess it in the light of your individual PhD projects.

In the seminar, you will have to opportunity to reflect, for your own PhD projects as well as for your disciplines more largely, how you deal with the ethics of your own research in the light of humanities research being scrutinised and censored for its 'bias' or 'politics'. This includes (but is not limited to) the following issues:

  • What are the key 'politics' underlying your project assumptions, i.e. your research questions?

  • What are the key 'politics' underlying the material, theories and methodologies of your/our projects?

  • Do you (and how can you) integrate the conscious reflection of this 'politics' into the text of your own manuscript?

  • What is your role as a researcher in your project?

As participants of this seminar, you will have the opportunity to discuss how you deal with the politics of humanities research in your own project. You can present actual results gleaned from your own reading and interpretation processes of your corpus. We will also discuss how your future interpretations and issues like corpus selection might be shaped by a reflection of the politics of humanities research. Therefore, the seminar is open to early-stage PhD candidates who are still working out their analytic framework and methodology as well as to PhD candidates who are nearing the end of their projects and are interested in presenting concrete results.

The seminar will be taught in English.

Assessment and permitted materials


  • Regular attendance and preparation of weekly session material

  • General participation in class, including individual contributions, work with a partner as well as work in groups

  • Presentation of your PhD project in the context of the project's politics in the widest sense (10-minute oral presentation), and 5-minute oral response and feedback to one of your peers' presentation

  • Portfolio of two written tasks (3.000 word-essay about your own project, 2.000 word-essay on one of the theory texts discussed in class)

Ensure compliance with the standards of good academic practice and the correct application of the techniques of academic work and writing.
Plagiarized and fraudulent performances (also in single tasks or parts of an exam) lead to non-grading of the course (entry of an 'X' in the transcript).
In case of doubt, the course instructor may invite students to a grade-related conversation (plausibility check) about submitted partial performances.
The use of AI is only permitted for specific tasks as outlined by the lecturer. Concrete instructions on Moodle as well as in class.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria


  • Active participation and contributions in class: 20%

  • Project Presentation and responses to other’s presentations: 40%

  • Portfolio Tasks: 40%


The benchmark for passing the class is 60%.

Marks in %:
1 (very good): 90-100%
2 (good): 80-89%
3 (satisfactory): 70-79%
4 (pass): 60-69%
5 (fail): 0-59%

Examination topics


  • Input phases combined with group work and classroom discussion

  • Student input from your project presentations session

  • Students' written research projects in the portfolio

Reading list

The articles or excerpts from the respective books will be made available on Moodle. The seminar corpus is not fixed but very much open to suggestions by participants and material that is relevant in the context of individual projects.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: We 24.09.2025 14:08