Course info

This is an advanced IRPS theory course targeted at the first-year doctoral students. It is open only to doctoral students doing a PhD in IRPS. Its overarching ambition is to provide participants with a context for reflecting on the theoretical and conceptual focus of their doctoral projects at the IHEID. The course learning objective is therefore two fold: it aims to provide participants with entry points to theoretical controversies in IRPS and to give them an opportunity to practice engaging (theoretically and conceptually) with their own PhD projects. Both objectives are pursued considering the pluralistic context of the IRPS department and the IHEID community more broadly. To this end, the course is organized in three parts. The first looks at some of the lasting conceptual controversies that shape IRPS theories. The second focuses on some of the epistemological and ontological lineages that continue to inform theoretical controversies in IRPS at the Institute and beyond. The third involves the faculty of department in a thematic discussion of about how to conceptualize, theorize and problematize in IRPS. The course is a seminar where participants will be given the opportunity to practice different forms of theoretical engagement and writing. The course will be assessed through two short written assignments and a final paper. The former will give students an occasion to engage with and locate their PhD project in relation to different controversies in IRPS. The final assignment will provide an opportunity to formulate research questions in theoretical and conceptual context.