Unmasking Don Quixote: Five tips to avoid pitfalls during the doctorate quest
Doing a doctorate is a long, often solitary, and complex quest. While the process is usually gratifying and interesting, sometimes it is also stressful. The ultimate goal of doctorate students is to become independent researchers, capable of conducting rigorous investigations that contribute to the understanding of pertinent social or natural phenomena. […]
Ten things to consider when conducting interviews (especially in research on public policy issues)
In 2015 I did three months of field work in Colombia for my doctoral thesis in public policy. During these three months’ time, I carried out 72 semi-structured interviews with a range of actors related to natural resource governance in the country. The list included public officials, politicians, journalists, academics, […]
What I talk about when I talk about running (and doing a doctorate)
“Most of what I know about writing I’ve learned through running every day”, wrote Haruki Murakami in his 2007 best seller What I talk about when I talk about running. I cannot be as assertive as the famous contemporary Japanese writer but running has significantly influenced my life and during my […]