Information Event on Research Stays Abroad

Thursday, 30 January 2025, 4-5 p.m.

How about...?
... to work together in person with experts you've only known from lectures and papers?
... to access resources that you don't normally have access to here in Cologne?
... or to take a look outside the box of your usual working day and familiarise yourself with new working techniques ‘hands on’?

A research stay abroad during your doctorate is more than just a presentable element on your academic CV.
Many highly specialised research projects benefit from an expansion of their network, and your independent profile as a researcher is usually strengthened in the long term through experience gained in a new working context.

Why it's usually worth setting up camp abroad before committees, teaching and projects have you in their grip again, what support the University of Cologne can offer when planning, preparing and carrying out a research stay abroad, but also which challenging, inspiring and even amusing experiences may await you: you can discuss all this in an informal atmosphere with three colleagues who should know:

Katrin Kaiser is a consultant for ‘Studying and Researching Abroad’ and deputy head of the International Mobility Department in the International Affairs Division at the University of Cologne.

She informs, advises and supports students, but above all doctoral candidates, with regard to shorter or longer stays abroad and in the search for suitable host institutions, funding opportunities, etc. She regularly organises information events and individual counselling sessions. 
She says: ‘Going abroad is always enriching. Research stays abroad, e.g. during your doctorate, offer the opportunity to think outside the box and gain new insights into your own field of research. On the one hand, prior specialist knowledge can be expanded to a particularly high degree and constructive insights into the world of study or work are guaranteed. On the other hand, the opportunity is offered to deepen foreign language skills, gain access to global cultures and broaden one's personal horizon of experience. The lecture will highlight the various structures and ways to organise a tailor-made stay abroad”.

Meng Yi is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Human Sciences. Her research focuses on body politics in contemporary Chinese artistic discourse, exploring how artistic representations of the body reflect and challenge sociopolitical, cultural, and economic contexts.
From October to December 2023, she spent a research stay at the College of Arts and Letters at California State University in San Bernardino; in autumn 2024, she was a visiting researcher at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco) in Paris.
She says of her time in Paris: ‘This journey has been nothing short of transformative. It has not only broadened my academic horizons but also enriched my perspective in a multicultural environment, fostering both intellectual and personal growth. My time here has been a profoundly rewarding chapter-one that I will carry forward into my academic pursuits and personal endeavours’.

Katharina Girndt is doing her doctorate in Intercultural Communication and Development Policy. She spent several research visits in South Africa for her dissertation. “Conducting the interviews online was not an option for me. Getting to know the social setting of my study participants was essential for my research process. The conversations around it, a spontaneous invitation to a book launch, spending together - all these experiences gave my data and the analysis a unique selling point.”
In her dissertation, she focuses on the experiences of women in South African suburbs and attended seminars at the University of Western Cape (Cape Town, South Africa).

So how about an information and exchange session on the topic of a stay abroad after work?

Katrin Kaiser will briefly (approx. 15-20 min.) present the services of the International Mobility Department in the International Affairs Division (in German); Meng Yi and Katharina Girndt will briefly talk about their personal experiences from the time in Paris, California, and Cape Town (approx. 10 min. in English). They will then be available to answer general and specific questions and to exchange in German or in English).

When? 30 January 2025, 4-5 p.m. 

Where? Seminar room of the Graduate School, ‘City-Passage Lindenthal’, 1st floor, Dürener Straße 89, 50931 Cologne

The seminar room can accommodate up to 20 people. We therefore appreciate a short registration by e-mail to Graduiertenschule-HF@uni-koeln.de.