AISSR has an agreement with the Social Science Graduate School of the VU University to the exchange of course participation free of charge for PhD candidates.

The AISSR Educational Committee PhD has the task of assuring the quality of teaching and of the teaching process of the AISSR-GSSS PhD educational programme.

This advanced course is for PhD students with previous experience in using ethnographic methods (including participant observation, open interviews, and ethnographically analyzing other relevant materials).

This course aims to familiarize PhD students having little to no fieldwork experience, with ethnographic research practices. In the first 4 (out of 8) weekly 3-hour seminars, we will read and discuss assigned readings (about 50-70 pp. per week). Most of the assigned readings will consist of ethnographers’ reflections on their own ethnographic research experiences.

During this series AISSR faculty members present the work of a great thinker in the field of social sciences immersing us in key features of the social science canon and ‘Great Thinkers’ and to explore contributions across disciplinary lines.

Courses fitting the individual PhD candidate's needs and featuring skills and topics that complement personal expertise and contribute to the project, under the condition that the programme group approves this participation.

All AISSR PhD Candidates are requested to develop a training programme with their supervisor and document this in their PhD Trajectory Plan. PhD and supervisors decide together which courses the student should take, depending on their previous training. PhD students should follow (or have followed) sufficient training in Methods, Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Theory (equal to around 30 ECTS).

A short practical course for people beginning their research/PhDs, this course focuses on the fundamentals of academic writing, looking at articles, theses, and at argument, structure, style, paragraphing, writing for different audiences and relevant grammar.

The objective of this course is to help AISSR students of all disciplines to develop the research design and methodology for their own research project.

This fall we will organise a Short Intensive Course for all PhD candidates whom explore urban issues in their work and are keen to question the gendered assumptions and epistemology mobilised in the field of urban studies. With this SIC, set up as research lab, we aim to experiment with feminist research methods and ethics that could illustrate alternatives to a patriarchal analytical scheme (see a short description below).

Short Intensive Courses (SICs) are initiated, developed and organised by PhDs themselves. The aim of a SIC’s is to bring PhDs from various programme groups together to jointly discuss key methodological, theoretical or other academic related work.

The Central Teaching and Learning Centre offers various (advanced) courses for teachers.

This course is designed for PhD researchers in their third of fourth year who aspire a career in academics. The course aims at preparing the participants in writing excellent postdoctoral research proposals, with specific attention to early career grants. An additional goal is to help the PhD researchers to shape their academic careers.

The course focuses on preparing participants to write up fieldwork, write articles for publication and to write PhD theses.