Differentiation is key to understanding the internal workings and external relations of the EU. The coming spring semester, ARENA will offer PhD students access to frontier research on all EU relevant aspects of differentiation.
Photo: European Parliament / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
Following the successful evaluation of the social sciences in Norway (SAMEVAL), ARENA has been granted additional funds to organise a new PhD course on the implications of differentiation in Europe. This will allow the centre to strengthen national researcher training in its core research area.
ARENA's John Erik Fossum and Jarle Trondal will develop the annual PhD course, which will run for a period of three years. They aim to offer cutting-edge theoretical and empirical knowledge in the field of EU studies.
Linking up to international networks
The PhD training will draw resources from a large network of scholars with whom ARENA researchers collaborate. The teaching and training will build upon and link up to the EU-funded project EU3D that investigates differentiation, dominance and democracy in the EU and DiCE - Differentiation: Clustering Excellence, an even larger network bringing together several research clusters on differentiation, as well as the UACES Research Network on Differentiated Integration.
Through a combination of lectures by leading scholars and group work, the PhD course will introduce doctoral students to theories and observations on core aspects of differentiation in the European context.
'PhD students will gain access to state-of-the-art research on all relevant aspects of differentiation in the EU context. Differentiation is key to understanding the internal workings of the EU as well as how relations between the EU and the external world are structured and conducted', John Erik Fossum explains.
Jarle Trondal is also pleased to be able to offer this course on behalf of the top Norwegian research centre in European studies. 'It gives us an opportunity to make frontier research available to the next generation of researchers, and to discuss and get feedback on our work from rising talents in the field'.
Online or physical format to be settled
ARENA plans to offer the first PhD course in the spring term of 2021, tentatively in May/June. The coursework will correspond to 10 ECTS credits for students submitting a course paper. PhD candidates can sign up when the course opens for applications/registration in early 2021. In line with the purpose of the SAMEVAL funds, candidates in political science enrolled in Norwegian PhD programmes will be prioritized. However, the course will also be available for international PhD students.
