RESEARCH STAY ▼

DIFFERENCES IN ACADEMIC CULTURE

AN INTERVIEW WITH NADJA WEHL l by Madalena dos Reis Gonçalves

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SHORT PROFILE

Name: Nadja Wehl
Field: Political Science
Country: Germany
Occupation: Doctoral Fellow at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences
Research Interests: (Welfare) Policy Attitudes, Political Psychology, Political Socialization, Labor Markets, Causality and Causal Analysis, Panel and Multilevel Modeling

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▐ Nadja Wehl, one of our doctoral fellows, tells us about her research stay at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

// At which university or institution did you spend your research stay? Did you work on a specific project?

N.W. I spent 6 weeks in Tilburg, Netherlands, at the Sociology Department. I had the opportunity to present my PhD project in the colloquium there. Therefore, I mainly worked on the overall picture of my (paper-based) PhD, i.e. how the several papers are related, what overall conclusions can be drawn etc. But I also worked on and discussed about the specific papers / paper ideas with several people from the department there.

// In which way did the research stay inspire and enrich the work on your dissertation project?

N.W. Generally speaking, it was great for me to be incorporated in a new research environment. After all that means getting new perspectives and a different kind of feedback on your research as in your home institution.

// Which aspect of the research stay appealed to you most?

N.W. It was super interesting to see the differences of the academic culture between Germany and the Netherlands. During my research stay I experienced an extremely flat hierarchy. And that's not only true for the professional side. It was really cool to have events for everyone from the first year Bachelor student to the head of the department like e.g. a pub quiz.

// Interview: Madalena dos Reis Gonçalves

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