hu wissen 3 (pdf) - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

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english
Natalia
Besedovsky
would never have
imagined that the topic she chose for her PhD thesis would become
so hot. The 30-year-old sociologist, who studied in Cologne
and Princeton, is examining the role of rating agencies on the financial
markets. »Of course I will address the economic crisis and
the daily coverage of it, but I will also show how and why rating
agencies came to play such an important role in the first place,«
she says. Besedovsky sees politics as a major factor in the agencies’
rise to such influence. »Politicians at the EU level have been
basing their arguments on the assessments of rating agencies for
years,« she says. Our interview
with Besedovsky takes place in
her office at Luisenstrasse 56, a
magnificent old building that
once housed a school of veterinary
medicine and now serves as
the headquarters of the Berlin
Graduate School of Social Sciences
(BGSS). Part of the Institute
of Social Sciences, the BGSS
is funded by the Excellence Initiative
and was founded in 2002
as one of the first structured, research-oriented
doctoral programmes
for graduate students
working on topics related to democracy
and integration research.
It accepts up to 15 graduate
students a year, both from
Germany and abroad.
»Social sciences in Europe have traditionally focused primarily
on theory development and empirical research. We want to expand
on this tradition with our structured curriculum and the
intensive supervision we offer our graduate students,« says Professor
Klaus Eder, coordinator of the BGSS.
At the BGSS, »structured« does not mean overly regimented
with no leeway for independence and freedom of choice, but rather
guiding students’ academic development in the right direction
early on. The foundations for this are laid during the first year of
Wir müssen Unternehmen,
Regierungsorganisationen,
Stiungen und Interessenverbände
verstärkt auf unsere
herausragenden Doktoranden
aufmerksam machen
We need to bring our outstanding
PhD students to the attention
of businesses, government
organisations, foundations and
associations
the doctoral programme. »First of all, we attended courses on
methodology,« Besedovsky recalls. »Then we each wrote a review of
the relevant literature, and aer discussions with our fellow graduate
students and thesis supervisor, we fleshed it out into an exposé
of our thesis as a whole that explained why research is needed
on the particular topic in question.«
During the second year, students primarily collect data. In
Besedovsky’s case, that meant going to New York and spending
three months at the Institute for Public Knowledge and conducting
interviews with ratings analysts. (The Director of the Institute
for Public Knowledge, Craig Calhoun,
is currently at the BGSS as
an Einstein Fellow of the Einstein
Foundation Berlin.) Graduate
students at the BGSS receive
grants to fund such stays abroad
and allow them to attend conferences.
In addition, the BGSS has an
extensive network of partners in
Berlin and abroad, and organises
workshops and lectures in
collaboration with such distinguished
institutions as the Social
Science Research Center Berlin,
the German Institute for
Economic Research, the Hertie
School of Governance and the
Centre Marc Bloch. The graduate
students can gain valuable practical experience by working on
research projects at these non-university institutions. »We want to
help open up interesting prospects for our students once they’ve
completed their degree. Not everyone with a PhD necessarily
wants to pursue an academic career,« says Eder. »We need to bring
our outstanding PhD students to the attention of businesses, government
organisations, foundations and associations.«
Besedovsky, for her part, would like to continue working as a
researcher. She says she finds it demanding, but in a good way. To
help prepare her for her future career, she worked as a teaching
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