University Events Calendar

EUF researchers look back and report on their doctoral phase, the conditions for success, opportunity and support structures, delays, crises and progress in the course of their doctorate.

The first interview will take place with Dr Samantha M. Litty and will address the question: From your perspective, what factors influenced the completion of your doctoral project?

Dr Litty is a postdoctoral researcher and head of the DFG project: Visibilising Normative Regional Historical Multilingualism (ViNoRHM). She reports on her doctoral experience at the University of Wisconsin - Madison at the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic+, where she successfully completed both her MA and PhD in 2011-2017. Her doctoral research was on the sociolinguistic development of varieties of German and English in Wisconsin (1863-2013). Samantha is a so-called ‘first-gen student’, the first in her family to ever go to university, which means that she had to overcome all academic experiences without prior knowledge or practical experience from her family environment. In addition, a general overview of the American doctoral system is given and the difficult issues of underfunding, family crises and sexual harassment are addressed.