Publications - MPIfG

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MPIfG Report 1999–2002
stance and method of a dissertation with a candidate’s official Doktorvater (or
Doktormutter).
Additional Activities
Doctoral students at the MPIfG are fully integrated in the intellectual life of the
Institute. The MPIfG’s small size ensures that they are from the beginning involved
in all activities, including informal discussions, internal seminars and guest
lectures. Also, to offer doctoral students optimal working conditions, they are all
given single offices.
Still, the absence of a diverse university environment, together with the students’
consuming involvement in their thesis research, raises the danger of overspecialization
at an early stage of a student’s career. Also, if a student’s training at
the university stage was insufficient in specific respects, integration into a research-intensive
context such as the MPIfG does not on its own remedy this. Since
1996, the MPIfG has therefore organized internal training courses for its doctoral
students. Participation is obligatory, also for project assistants about to move on
to a doctoral dissertation grant at a later stage.
In August 1999, the two directors began co-teaching a bi-weekly colloquium
for the Institute’s doctoral students. The colloquium is listed at the University of
Cologne and can be attended by students from outside the MPIfG. Each doctoral
student presents his or her research project, which is then discussed by the participants
and the directors.
Other MPIfG courses aim to expand the reading experience of doctoral candidates
beyond their immediate research needs. Four Summer Schools, open also to
University of Cologne students, were held in the period from 1999 to 2002:
Summer School 1999: Comparative Political Economy.
A two-week intensive reading and discussion course
taught by Prof. Herbert Kitschelt of Duke University,
which ran from June 28–July 7.
Summer School 2000: Leading Approaches in German
Social Science. A lecture series featuring five prominent
German scholars using different approaches and methods
in Political Science and Sociology: Prof. Manfred
G. Schmidt, University of Bremen; PD Dr. Frank
Nullmeier, University of Hamburg; Prof. Dirk Berg-
Schlosser, University of Marburg; Prof. Michael Zürn,
University of Bremen; and Prof. Richard Münch, University
of Bamberg. Speakers first gave a lecture on
their research agendas and methods, which was open
to all members of the Institute, before discussing their
approaches in a two-hour workshop with the doctoral
students.
Summer School 2001: Game Theory and Its Applications
in Political Research. Prof. George Tsebelis (Uni-