Doctoral Programme Culture - Text - Action

Concept of the Doctoral Programme Culture - Text - Action

Reflection on the theoretical and analytical potential of the concepts of "text" and "action" has a long tradition. From ancient rhetoric, poetics and ethics to the paradigms of "culture as text" and "culture as action", as established in cultural studies research, the two concepts have undergone theoretical and methodological profiling in numerous academic disciplines and research contexts, making them suitable as "key concepts" for the investigation of a broad spectrum of trans- and interdisciplinary issues. Thus, "text" and "action" play a central role in various disciplines from the perspective of the history and theory of science, whether as objects themselves (for example in language and literary theory, meta-historiography and meta-ethnography, action, practice and performance theory), as phenomena to be investigated (in literature, art and everyday culture, in religious, legal or ethical contexts), as methodological terms of analysis or as media and instruments of research.

Students in a lecture hall at the University of Graz ©Uni Graz / Marija Kanizaj

Based on an examination of the subject-specific concepts and uses of the terms "text" and "action", their interdisciplinary connectivity will be explored and the gains resulting from the interdisciplinary perspective will be made usable for concrete fields of cultural studies research within the framework of the dissertation projects.

The aim of the doctoral program "Culture - Text - Action" is the research-based interdisciplinary examination of the theoretical and methodological implications of the concepts of "text" and "action" for dealing with questions of cultural studies. The doctoral program is intended to support doctoral candidates from various disciplines who are working on a dissertation in cultural studies at the University of Graz with a clear focus on text and/or practice/action theory approaches in the implementation of their dissertation projects and to integrate them into interdisciplinary and international research contexts.

The interdisciplinary doctoral program "Culture - Text - Action" is aimed at doctoral students from all faculties of the University of Graz who are working on a dissertation in the field of cultural studies.

The focus of the dissertations is on the examination and analysis of literary and non-literary texts. Possible focal points include questions of function, synchronic and diachronic aspects, questions in connection with forms and practices of interaction and intervention of texts, the examination of the term "text" and "context", the investigation of plurimedial formations as well as questions of theory and method formation and models of interdisciplinary approaches.

Doctoral students are supported in the implementation of their dissertation projects and integrated into interdisciplinary and international research contexts. The supervision program includes project-oriented work in small teams, the organization of events including practice-oriented workshops.
International networking is promoted by the DP's integration into the European PhDnet "Literary and Cultural Studies", which has a total of seven European partner institutions.

Interdisciplinary courses (lecture series, seminar or doctoral colloquia) are offered as part of the DP. The participating doctoral students have the opportunity to present their work and its progress in internal colloquia. They are also encouraged to present their scientific work at international conferences and to strive to publish their work. Teachers actively support them in this. DP takes targeted measures to promote the academic quality of dissertations, it serves to internationalize education and aims to improve the career opportunities of doctoral students.

Active Faculty

Speaker: Christine Schwanecke, Department of English Studies

Former Faculty

 

Doctoral candidates