Programme outline

Module 1: Neuchâtel, September 20/21, 2007
Introduction to the 3rd cycle (Ellen Hertz, Janine Dahinden, Heinz Käufeler)

Module 2: Zurich, January 4/5, 2008
Identity (Peter Finke, UniZh)

Module 3: Bern, April 25/26, 2008
Mobility/Migration (Hans-Rudolf Wicker, UniBe)

Module 4: Geneva, June 12/13, 2008
Sex, Gender and Sexuality (Fenneke Reysoo, IUED, Genève)

Workshop: Bern, September 19/20, 2008
Research Presentation (Marc Matter, UniBe)

Additional Module: Luzern, Nov. 14/15, 2008
State (Jürg Helbling, UniLu)

Module 5: Neuchâtel, December 5/6, 2008
The Market as Concept and Activity (Ellen Hertz, UniNe)

Module 6: Basel, ca. January 2009
Material Culture (Walter Leimgruber & Anna Schmid, UniBas)

Module 7: Lausanne, March 27./28. 2009
Cultural Heritage/Patrimony (Irene Maffi, UniL)

Module 8: Fribourg, May 15./16. 2009
Spaces of Interculturality (François Ruegg & Véronique Pache, UniFr)

Additional Module: Ascona, June 12./13. 2009
Death and Revitalising Ritual (Angela Hobart and Pedram Khosronejad, Centro Incontri Umani, Ascona)

Project responsibility
Prof. Ellen Hertz, project director (UniNe)
Prof. Heinz Käufeler, coordinator (UniZh)

Board of Directors
Dr. Yvan Droz (iued, Ge)
Prof. Jürg Helbling (UniZh)
Prof. Walter Leimgruber (UniBas)
Prof. Irene Maffi (UniL)
Prof. François Ruegg (UniFr)
Prof. Heinzpeter Znoj (UniBe)

The Graduate Programme in Ethnology/Anthropology (“Graduate School”) is a two-year graduate-level programme for specialized training and tutoring, writing and presentation workshops, peer contact and support. The Graduate School enters its third cycle in autumn of 2007. The cycle runs from September 2007 to June 2009. The programme is designed for speakers of French, German and English and applies the Swiss diplomatic principle
of “chacun-e parle sa langue”.

Doctoral students in ethnology and social or cultural anthropology from all Swiss universities are invited to participate in the programme as “fellows”. Fellows are given the opportunity to receive expert and peer feedback on writing for their doctoral theses. They are also given the occasion to gain targeted overviews of specific themes, discuss key readings in these areas with international and national experts, and consolidate their overall training in the discipline. Students who attend five or more modules in the graduate program (preferably, but not necessarily in one two-year cycle) receive a certificate of completed studies. All related expenses (travel to the modules, food and lodging on site) are covered by the Graduate School. New candidates can apply at the beginning of each academic year, but preferably at the beginning of a two-year cycle. The deadline for application to the third cycle is September 1, 2007. Candidates should submit a letter of motivation, a thesis project (max. ten pages), a letter of recommendation from their supervisor and a CV. Please address all applications to Heinz Käufeler (coordinator) at: hck@ethno.unizh.ch.

Students may enrol at any time during their doctoral studies (respecting the annual deadline for enrolment). While it is preferable that students follow two consecutive years, it is possible to follow one year’s worth of modules, leave for the field, and complete the rest of the modules upon returning in a subsequent year.
It is possible to attend single modules of particular interest without being enrolled as a “fellow” in the Graduate School; the participation fee per module for “visitors” is CHF 80. Those interested in becoming “visitors” should contact the coordinator.

Module structure

1 The modules are generally animated by three (maximum four) experts, including the representative of the host institution. We encourage host institutions to invite both foreign and national experts in the topic covered by the module. Invited experts should be fluent in at least two of the three working languages of the Graduate School (German, French, English).

2 The host institution representative chooses two to three articles that can be considered as presenting a general overview of the state of the art (including divergent approaches, controversies, etc.) on the topic covered by the module. The coordinator distributes these articles to enrolled participants as required reading.

3 The modules take the form of advanced two-day seminars based on open discussion. Host institutions are encouraged to profit from the presence of foreign experts by organizing one or more public conferences before, after or during the module.

4 Experts are required to read all papers submitted by students (in the languages they master, of course) and to discuss these papers with the students in a spirit of constructive criticism.

Student requirements

1 Fellows are required to attend a minimum of five of the eight modules over the course of their two years of studies. In addition, they are offered a workshop in which they are given specialized training in oral presentation and argumentation skills.

2 Over the course of their studies, fellows are required to produce a minimum of two written texts (approximately ten pages each) in connection with two modules of their choice. These texts should be treated as first drafts of an article of publishable quality to be submitted to a leading journal in an area related to the doctoral research. Student texts should be sent to the coordinator for distribution to all participants at least ten days before the beginning of the module.

3 Students not writing papers for a given module contribute a short text in which they react critically to and raise discussion questions about the articles distributed for the module and the texts submitted by their peers. All students are requested to participate actively in the module workshops and discussions, in the same spirit of constructive criticism requested of experts.