GIGA Honours Doctoral Programme Graduates

On 5 October 2018, the GIGA honoured 14 junior researchers who have successfully completed the institute’s own Doctoral Programme. The graduates studied a broad range of issues in their doctoral theses including micro enterprises in Mexico, urbanisation in the post-quake region around Chengdu as well as middle classes and social mobility in South Africa.

GIGA President Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar congratulated the graduates at the ceremony and underlined the policy implications of their research: “At the GIGA, we are very proud of the broad range of theoretical and empirical contributions that our doctoral students are making to the social sciences. This kind of rigorous, policy-relevant research is especially important in the current political climate, which some are calling post-factual.”

In the context of the festivities, Prof. Narlikar and the acting academic director of the Doctoral Programme, Dr. Maren Wagner, also welcomed six new doctoral students. The GIGA Doctoral Programme supports junior researchers from Germany and around the world in advancing their research and their academic careers. During their dissertation the GIGA doctoral students are fully integrated in the research operations of the institute. The comprehensive training imparts the GIGA’s Global Approach and broad methodological skills, for instance in the field of Comparative Area Studies, to a new generation of researchers.

Further information about the GIGA Doctoral Programme. The next application period begins at the end of 2018.