An intense two-day “Doctoral School,” hosted in Ottawa December 10-12, 2014 by two Trent University professors, has helped 19 PhD students from across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom improve the quality of their doctoral research, said Dr. Haroon Akram-Lodhi.

Professor Akram-Lodhi is professor of International Development Studies, chair of the Department of International Development Studies, and a fellow of Champlain College at Trent University. He is also editor-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, one of Canada’s leading social science scholarly journals. Along with Professor Chris Beyers of the Department of International Development Studies, he led the School at the University of Ottawa.

Prof. Akram-Lohdi said writing a doctorate can be the single most difficult enterprise undertaken by a scholar in the scope of their professional life. To improve their capacity to produce cutting-edge research, participants from a range of social science disciplines took part in two days of intense and interactive discussions focusing upon their research questions, research strategies and research findings.

He said it was extraordinarily productive for those taking part, “especially people in the early stages. Attending these two days probably saved them four months of frustration trying to develop a research plan.”

Speaking of one student participant, from an east coast university, who was only three weeks into starting work on his proposal, Prof. Akram-Lohdi said: “By the end of the School, he had a very clear idea what his proposal was going to look like… how his research is going to be structured.”

Prof. Akram-Lodhi said he knew when he was setting up the structure of the School that it wasn’t just the people who were approaching the end of completing their doctorate that would benefit. Many students that have completed their candidacy examinations have major troubles thinking about how they will undertake their research. “Research methodology in doctoral social science programs, whether disciplinary-based or interdisciplinary, is remarkably weak in Canada,” he said.

The International Development Studies Department at Trent has a Canada-wide reputation for excellence: “It’s very well-known that the small faculty we have are very good researchers who produce methodologically innovative globally-recognized research,” Prof. Akram-Lodhi said, adding, “We had two academics from Trent, a primarily undergraduate university, teaching PhD students from the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, from McGill, Dalhousie, Western… all these huge universities and we could offer them something that they were not getting from their programs.”

It is the first time the School has taken place. It was funded by the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development, out of a grant from the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa.

“Participants were glowing at the end of the School,” Prof. Akram-Lodhi said, largely because doctoral students rarely get an opportunity to discuss research processes. Adrienne Johnson, who is completing a PhD in Geography at Clark University in Massachusetts, said that she, along with the other participants, had “a memorable and productive experience and I hope this year's PhD School is the beginning of a long-standing tradition.”

Prof. Akram-Lodhi is going gauge interest from a range of potential funders so that the School can be taught on a continuing basis.

Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2014.