As part of the 30-credit educational component, the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies provides subject-specific organized research training to candidates in linguistics and philology at the Faculty of Humanities.
A fixed part of this programme is a thesis seminar. The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages has primary responsibility for the education offered to literature candidates.
The Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies is also a part of the National Research School in Linguistics and Philology, which provides a national offer for this group.
Educational component
The doctoral education at the Faculty of Humanities (HF) consists of 30 credits (ECTS), five of which will be earned from the compulsory courses held by HF (Introductory seminar, Theory of knowledge, Ethics). As indicated in the programme structure, other compulsory activities rendering credits include giving papers at international conferences and dissemination in the form of feature articles, open lectures etc. The thesis seminar is also a compulsory component of the PhD programme. The remaining credits will be earned from various coursework at UiO and external institutions. It is recommended that one completes the main part of the doctoral education in the course of the first two years. In addition to the credit-giving activities, there is an obligatory midway assessment.
At ILN
In addition to the 5 credits which are awarded for participation in the HF’s general initial courses, you need to earn at least 4 credits from presentations held at international conferences. During your candidate period you must also earn 2 credits from various dissemination activities, one of which should take the form of public outreach. A minimum of 6/maximum of 8 credits will be awarded for various forms of participation at the thesis seminar, see below. In addition, you will earn a minimum of 6/maximum of 8credits (of the required 30 ECTS) for attending various optional courses for researchers or internal/external seminars. Please note that any activities carried out in addition to the above may have a beneficial effect on your doctoral project and your future professional career. The 30 credits are just the minimum requirement and therefore do not represent a complete measure of your competencies.
Thesis seminar
The thesis seminar shall account for a minimum of 6/maximum 8 credits.
ILN organises thesis seminars in linguistics each semester while ILOS organises seminars in comparative literature. Research fellows who are taken on after 1 January 2018 will need to present their own texts on at least two occasions, and serve as commentator on someone else's text at least two times. In addition they may get credits for participating actively in the audience at any other session.
Active participation means reading the texts that have been circulated in advance and contributing your own comments to the discussion. In order to obtain the best possible academic benefits, it is recommended that you should attend several thesis seminars and make more presentations and comments than is necessary in order to comply with the minimum requirement.
If you are interested, please feel free to attend various subject-specific thesis seminars (literature, areas, languages). If your project intersects with other disciplines (such as philosophy, anthropology or political science), you should investigate the possibility of attending thesis seminars at other institutes or faculties at the UiO. Please contact your supervisor about this.
- Presenting your own text: 2 credits
- Commenting on the texts of others: 1 credit
Conferences
Conference participation shall carry at least 4 training component credits.
Credits are awarded for presenting papers/lectures or papers at international conferences, i.e. conferences attended by participants from different countries.
- Papers/lectures: 4 credits
- Items: 2 credits
Dissemination
Disseminating research shall account for at least 2 credits, at least one of which should be derived from material aimed at the public. These activities should take the form of disseminating research, i.e. be related to your own research or discipline.
- Public outreach: 1-2 credits (for example, newspaper articles/feature articles, encyclopedia articles or lectures that are open to the general public: 2 credits, blogs: 1 credit)
- Lectures or teaching classes at non-UiO institutions (college, university or department, etc.): 2 credits
Elective courses and seminars
This tuition component shall account for a minimum of 8/maximum of 12 ECTS. Various in-house courses and seminars will be held, but you should also take advantage of the opportunities that are available outside the Department and at external institutions both within and outside Norway. PhD candidates are encouraged to seek relevant courses and seminars outside their own departments, and at external institutions within and outside Norway. Information about the different external courses may be sent to you by e-mail.
Apart from courses organised by ILN/HF, linguistics research fellows may attend courses organised by The Norwegian Graduate Researcher School in Linguistics and Philology (LingPhil). Apart from courses held during the course of the year, LingPhil also organises a summer school. LingPhil funds the participation of research fellows from the UiO and also has travel scholarships that you can apply for for other purposes. Attendance on courses offered by the humanities faculties at the Universities of Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen is generally free for PhD candidates at ILN/HF. Candidates cover their travel expenses by using their own assets.
All forms of course participation must be approved by a PhD supervisor in advance (see below). If the number of credits for participation is not specified by the organiser, the following standard norms will apply:
1 ECTS credit corresponds to 25-30 hours of work. The amount of preparation will therefore be more important than the duration of the actual course or seminar which you attend. For example, a seminar or course that lasts for 2 days and requires preparation in the form of reading a long list of professional literature could carry 2 credits. If you also make a presentation, the course could provide you with 3 credits. This needs to be considered in each case by whoever is responsible for approval of the PhD course in question. If you attend a course or seminar which is held abroad, it is important that you make sure that you have obtained enough documentation about what such participation entails.
View all courses and seminars at ILN
View all courses and seminars at the HF
Approval of training components
During the course of your PhD studies
As a rule, all planned activities and participation shall be approved in advance by whoever is responsible for the PhD course in question before such can be included in your training component. This also applies to activities proposed by your supervisor(s). In practice this means that PhD candidates who primarily attend linguistics thesis seminars held by ILN should confer with their PhD coordinator at ILN, and the latter will also estimate, for example, the number of credits that can be earned from dissemination activities. The recipients of literature scholarships shall similarly apply to their PhD coordinator at ILOS.
Confirmation of your participation in these various activities shall subsequently be submitted by e-mail to whoever is responsible for your PhD. The Research officer at your department will record your credits on Studentweb as and when you acquire them. For the sake of order, you should keep copies of all your documents. If you attend a seminar which is held abroad, it is particularly important to ensure that you have obtained enough documentation about what such participation entails.
When you submit your thesis
At the end of your scholarship period your research officer will help you edit your education plan. The education plan should not consist of (very much) more than 30 ECTS. This should be signed by the Head of Research at the department in which you are employed. This will also apply if you have attended a thesis seminar at another department. All language fellows at the HF shall apply to ILN’s PhD supervisor who will ensure approval of their activities and pass on information to their Head of Research.
Contact
Head of research Alessandro Palumbo has the overall responsibility for all candidates at DLS.
Ph.d. coordinator Sverre Stausland Johnsen is responsible for the training component in linguistics.
Research officer at DLS: Britt-Marie Forsudd
Ph.d.coordinator at ILOS, Atle Wold, is responsible for the thesis seminar for candidates in the field of literature.
See all courses and seminars at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies