Name: PhD Training School on Interdisciplinary Methods for Studying Space, Boundaries, and Power
Start: 2025-11-17T09:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-11-19T16:00:00+02:00
Location: Vytautas Magnus University

PhD Training School on Interdisciplinary Methods for Studying Space, Boundaries, and Power

VMU Vytautas Kavolis Transdisciplinary Research Institute and the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities are pleased to announce the upcoming PhD Training School "Practising Collaboration: Interdisciplinary Methods for Studying Space, Boundaries, and Power", which will take place on 17–19 November 2025 at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.

ABOUT
This training school will explore how territory, space, and boundaries can be studied through collaborative and interdisciplinary methodologies.
We will approach territory, space, and boundaries as socially and politically constructed phenomena, shaped by cultural meanings, historical processes, and power relations. It emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to study complex and rapidly changing boundaries—between nations, communities, humans and machines, or societies and the environment. Future scholars need to grasp collaboration both as an epistemic stance and a practical research strategy, including co-creation with communities, multi-sited fieldwork, participatory mapping, and digital ethnography. In particular, with the raise of computational methods and AI-enhanced research tools, collaborations between quantitative and qualitative paradigms are pertinent. Carefully planned and innovative crossing of boundaries between disciplines, approaches can empower scholars also to reach more societal impact.
This three-day training course will provide early-stage researchers (Master students, PhD students and early-career postdocs) with conceptual, empirical, and methodological tools to rethink how territorial dynamics operate within and across different kinds of borders.

HOW TO APPLY?
To apply, please provide:
🔹 One-page letter with an expression of interest, motivation, and a paragraph describing the relevant academic pre-experiences and activities with the topic of the Training School;
🔹 A Curriculum Vitae (CV).
🔹 A brief (300–400-word) concept note (abstract):
- Frame the research problem in relation to the school’s theme;
- State research questions, theoretical framework, and planned data/methods.
All applications should be submitted via email to [email protected] no later than 3 October 2025. All applicants will be contacted directly by email by 10 October 2025.

FEES
📍 The training school cannot provide scholarships, but does not charge participation fees. Coffee breaks and lunch will be provided.

MORE INFORMATION
📍 More information and the call are here: https://ki.vdu.lt/en/2025/09/10/phdschool/

This workshop is one of the activities of the project “Strengthening of R&D activities of the Vytautas Kavolis Transdisciplinary Institute of Social and Humanities Sciences (SOCMTEP)”. The project is financed by the Lithuanian Science Council and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports of the Republic of Lithuania, contract no. S-A-UEI-23-13 (12/27/2023). Funding program – “University Excellence Initiative” (No. V-940).