STIP-HF is an interest committee for all Ph.D. Candidates at the Faculty of Humanities in both academic politics and social matters.
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Annual Report from 2023
Annual report Stip-HF 2023
Spring
Stip-HF started the year with a general meeting, where we elected the new board. The new members were Marie Lund Stokka (LLE), Mohamed Aidarus Noor (AKHR) and Marie Magnor (LLE). In the constitutional meeting, three more members joined: Raphael Michaeli (AKHR), Anne Bredahl (LLE) and Karin Lillevold (AKHR). Marie LS was elected chair and Marie M secretary.
Our main activities in the spring semester have been organizing social activities for Ph.D. candidates. These include a combination of a writing retreat and topic day, payday drinks and a summer picnic. Stip-HF was also present at UiBdocs’ event “Representation for Ph.D.s and Postdocs at UiB” on February 7th, as well as the faculty’s orientation meeting for new Ph.D. candidates on February 10th. At both these events, Stip-HF gave a short presentation of the organization. We held a total of five meetings during the term where we met in person to plan our different activities and discuss matters at hand.
At the end of the term, we organized a document workshop at Ole Hjortland’s request where we scrutinized documents regarding the structure of the Ph.D. education and the assessment of the Ph.D. thesis. Stip-HF has also been in contact with the Group B representative in HF FFU on relevant issues regarding the Ph.D. education, such as providing input to “Changes in the mandatory part of the training component in the Ph.D. program at the Faculty of Humanities”. Stip-HF’s statement can be found further down.
Payday drinks
Payday drinks were arranged on the following dates: February 10th, March 10th, April 13th, May 11th, and June 14th. A varying number of people showed up to these events, on average around 10. We were mainly at Ad Fontes, with the exception of May 11th (Diskuterbar), and June 14th (picnic in Nygårdsparken).
Stip-HF writing retreat 10.-12. May 2023
In May we arranged an on-campus writing retreat for three full days, including the so-called “topic day”, which was about research stays abroad (1 hour on Wednesday and 1 hour on Friday).
The aim of the writing retreat was to create space for Ph.D. candidates to work on their thesis, and it was organized into shut-up-and-write-sessions. People were organized in smaller groups (either by us or themselves), and we asked them to share their working goals, challenges, and accomplishments throughout the retreat. These sharing sessions address an important aspect of the retreat, which is accountability. They build community by letting Ph.D. candidates get a sense of what others are working on and struggling with. Additionally, they generate some peer pressure and the sense that something is at stake.
Stip-HF provided coffee, tea, sparkling water, snacks (biscuits and fruit) and lunch every day. About 20 Ph.D. candidates participated. The feedback was mainly positive. Participants appreciated the on-campus setting, free food, and the shut-up-and-write sessions. Some found the writing sessions (50 minutes) to be a bit long, however, which is something to keep in mind when organizing future writing retreats.
Topic Day: Talk on research stay abroad
The topic day was a part of the writing retreat. We began the writing retreat on Wednesday with presentations given by a visitor from the International Centre, Ingrid A. Ødegård, and the Ph.D. coordinator at LLE, Angelina Penner Gjertsen. Both talked about going on research stays abroad during the Ph.D. program. Among other things, they informed the participants about practical aspects and why mobility matters. After the presentation we had a round of questions.
On Friday we had a panel of current Ph.D. candidates who shared their experiences of going abroad, and on planning research stays. There were four Ph.D. candidates on the panel (Marie L.S., Runa, Johanna, Craig). They each talked for a few minutes about what they have done/where they went and for how long, or about the plans they might have. The participants asked them questions on practicalities, what was good, not so good, advice for others etc.
Summer picnic
Stip-HF organized a picnic in Nygårdsparken on June 14th as a “sommeravslutning” for Ph.D. candidates. Approximately 15 people showed up to this event. Stip-HF provided snacks, soft drinks, and outdoor games.
Document workshop
On June 21st four members of Stip-HF participated in a document workshop. The aim of the workshop was to form an opinion on essential documents regarding the Ph.D. education and offer suggestions on revisions of these documents. We scrutinized the following documents: “Regulations for the degree of Ph.D.”, “Program Plan”, “Routines for the Assessment of the Ph.D. Thesis” and “Guidelines for processing recommendations for a minor revision”. We read the documents independently before we met in person to discuss what we found to be unclear.
Stip-HF’s statement to “Changes in the mandatory part of the training component in the Ph.D. program at the Faculty of Humanities”
“We see and acknowledge the need to make immediate changes to avoid putting Ph.D. candidates in a very difficult situation, and therefore we are not opposed to the proposal. However, we believe it is important to emphasize that adopting a change that makes everything ‘fit together’ should not be a reason to stop working on the organization of transferable skills. Many people are requesting the return of university pedagogy as a course (even though we have discussed this with Ole several times and are aware of all the counterarguments). Because we believe that there should be an effort to offer an alternative to the literary review course, we are also skeptical about making literary review mandatory. Therefore, we believe that 10 ECTS in Philosophy of science can be made mandatory, but the literary review course should not be, despite it being the only course currently offered at UiB”.
Autumn
The term started with Marie Lund Stokka and Mohamed Aidarus Noor leaving the board. Two new members joined: Marianne Sætre Amundsen (AKHR) and Jorun Larsen (LLE). Karin Lillevold was elected chair and Marie Magnor stayed on as secretary.
This autumn, our primary focus has been to continue working on organizing social activities for Ph.D. candidates. Our activities consist of a combination of a writing retreat and a topic day, as well as payday drinks. Stip-HF has also discussed the possibilities to apply for funds to arrange more varied social activities. These include a cabin trip and a “pizza party” (an alcohol-free event as an addition and/or alternative to the payday drinks). As the application process takes time, we have learned that it is crucial to start early if these initiatives are to come to fruition, preferably at the beginning of the term. Moreover, the financial resources must either be sourced solely from the faculty or require contributions from all the institutions at HF. These initiatives might be something that the upcoming board should consider pursuing. We held a total of five meetings during the term where we met in person to plan our different activities and discuss matters at hand.
Stip-HF met with Ole Hjortland on September 29th to give him our feedback from the document workshop the previous term. A couple of members from Stip-HF were also present at the faculty’s orientation meeting for new Ph.D. candidates on October 20th. Furthermore, Stip-HF has been in contact with the group B representative in FFU (Tonje Skjoldhammer) and the representative in the Faculty Board (Tijana Przulj). Both joined Stip-HF’s meeting on October 16th. The aim was to present our different organizations and discuss how we could collaborate more closely.
Payday drinks
Payday drinks were arranged on the following dates: September 15th, October 15th, November 10th, December 15th. This term, the venue has varied, partly because Ad Fontes has been closed. We have visited, respectively, Det Akademiske Kvarter, Stereo, Lucky, and Colonialen. The turnout has been slightly higher than last term: On average 10-15 people showed up to the payday drinks this autumn. The last payday drink (December 15th) was intended as a “juleavslutning” for Ph.D. candidates with a quiz created by Anne and Marie, but due to various circumstances, the quiz was canceled. It is available in Teams (in the folder “Diverse 2023”), however, and can be used for another occasion.
Stip-HF writing retreat 5.-7. December 2023
In December we arranged another on-campus writing retreat for three full days. The “topic day” took place on the last day of the retreat and was a two-hour long workshop on writing held by Professor Laura Saetveit Miles.
Like last term, the writing retreat was organized into shut-up-and-write-sessions, as the aim was to create space for Ph.D. candidates to work on their thesis. People were organized into smaller groups: The tables were numbered, and the participants randomly picked a number when they arrived each morning, as a way of continuously shifting the groups. The intention was to ensure that no one ended up sitting alone. Every day the participants were asked to share their working goals, challenges, and accomplishments. Due to feedback from the previous writing retreat, the days were an hour shorter (8.45-15.00), and the writing sessions varied in length. The sessions in the morning were about 50 minutes and the sessions in the afternoon 30 minutes.
Stip-HF provided coffee, tea, sparkling water, snacks (biscuits and fruit) and lunch every day. About 15-20 people participated each day.
Topic day: “Introducing Introductions and Concretizing Abstracts: How to Begin or Summarize Anything”
The topic day was an integrated part of the writing retreat. The interesting presentation “Introducing Introductions and Concretizing Abstracts: How to Begin or Summarize Anything” was held by Professor Laura Saetveit Miles. The session lasted for about two hours and the participants engaged with the topic through group discussions, workshops, as well as a fruitful Q&A during Laura’s presentation. Everyone was asked to bring (ideally) successful abstracts for grant proposals or CfP’s, or introductions to articles or chapters they admired. Some of these were discussed by the end of the session. Several of the Ph.D. candidates that participated expressed that they found this session useful and inspiring.