BGHS.NEWS

The participants of the Workshop Exchange. Image: Thomas Abel

The discussion of research projects, presentation of proposals and the exploration of History: These were the topics of the PhD Student Workshop Exchange Bielefeld - Notre Dame, which took place at the BGHS from 19 to 24 May.

Two of the days were used to present and discus papers. “We did eight paper per day. That was intense in both reading and discussing”, says Ina Kiel, who is a doctoral researcher in history at the BGHS and was involved in organizing the Workshop Exchange.

Get a view from a different research culture

As part of the discussion the BGHS member and the doctoral researcher from Notre Dame commented on each other’s papers. “The goal was to get an input from another academic culture for the projects”, Ina Kiel describes the purpose. And the purpose was fulfilled: “The main difference was, that the doctoral researcher from the BGHS put a focus on the theory and the argumentation, while Notre Dame members put more effort in a good narration”, Kiel explains.

Beside the discussion of papers the workshop participant went for an excursion to Essen. With a visit of Zeche Zollverein, the Domschatz and Villa Hügel of the Krupp family in Essen the group explored interesting parts of German history. Especially the visitors from the USA appreciated the chosen places, says Kiel: “They were an grateful audience”.

Workshops ends with conference dinner

At the last day of the workshop exchange the participants were free to go for visits in Bielefeld they liked, like the Sparrenburg or Kunsthalle. With the Conference Dinner on Wednesday evening everybody who was involved in the workshop got the chance to speak about the experiences of the past days and to say goodbye to each other.

The cooperation between the University of Notre Dame, der the department of history of Bielefeld University and the BGHS exists since 2010. The workshop takes place every year and is run by the universities of Notre Dame and Bielefeld in turn.

More about the workshop in general:
www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/bghs/Programm/BGHS_spezifische_Formate/notredame