Welcome to the CASTL Graduate School of theoretic linguistics
In the autumn 2005 we here at CASTL proudly could employ our first three Graduate School (forskerskole) PhDs in theoretic linguistics. Since then we just as proudly have employed three or four highly competent PhDs every year and hope to continue to do so the next five years (-2012).
Scientific goals
Our research aim is to research the nature of syntactic, morphological and phonological variation, in order to be able ultimately to determine along which grammatical parameters any two languages vary. To this end, we combine comparison of formal properties of small sets of related and unrelated languages with large-scale comparative studies and the study of language change. This is basic research about one of the most important properties of the human mind: the language faculty. Our emphasis, therefore, is on generating new knowledge.
Strategy
The strategy of the CASTL Graduate School is that new students work closely with an advisor to identify three courses, seminars or research teams they will participate in, starting immediately upon arrival. If a student has a gap in their background, they might choose to participate in one Masters level course and two research teams; in the fall semester, we also run a Professional skills course in which students are trained in writing abstracts for conferences, making presentations, developing arguments, etc. Students also begin writing already the first semester – not framed as the daunting task of writing a chapter of their dissertation, but rather as writing a term paper as a contribution to a research group. Participation in research teams is not a passive exercise; on the contrary, students are immediately engaged in hands-on research, they make presentations, begin working with language consultants and begin actively contributing to the research. With this strategy, students are guided towards thinking about research questions, rather than thinking about a plan for producing a dissertation. But, of course, the dissertation plan does emerge, and it’s inevitably a better one than what a young student would have developed alone. As it emerges, the student is already in a rich research environment.
Requirements
In addition to the formal requirements that all PhD students are fulfilling, the CASTL Graduate School require the following additional activities to be fulfilled before delivering the dissertation:
PhD students at the CASTL Graduate School follow an alternative course of study in linguistics within the PhD programme of the Faculty of Humanities distinguished by the fact that the Graduate School has stricter demands regarding work requirements as a compulsory part of the instruction module.
The instruction module consists, like the ordinary course of study, of three components comprising a total of 30 study points and equalling one semester’s work: subject-specific theory/methodology (15 study points), philosophy of science and ethics (10 study points) and communication (5 study points).
In addition there are compulsory work requirements for which no study points are awarded. PhD students in the Graduate School have participated in three semester-length courses, arranged by CASTL. This is either project courses arranged under the auspices of CASTL or semester length Advanced Seminars. PhD students have participated in dissertation seminars and have presented parts of the project at least three times during the course of the fellowship period. Parts of this requirement are met by presenting parts of their work at the CASTL project group seminars. PhD students in the Graduate School have written four essays before writing the dissertation.
Do you want to know more or apply to the CASTL Graduate School?
CASTL call for PhD Graduate School candidates once every year. The announcements are to be found at the University portal and the ERA MORE portals.
Please contact:
Curt Rice, Centre Director
Christin Kristoffersen, Head of administration
Gry Gaard, Executive officer
