The doctoral defence is the oral examination of the doctoral thesis. While it is a major milestone for doctoral candidates, this event is often shrouded in mystery. In this article, I explore the doctoral defence from an international perspective. I have studied the format of the defence based on written testimonies as well as the literature on…

Academic careers are social processes which involve many members of large populations over long periods of time. This paper outlines a discursive perspective which looks into how academics are categorized in academic systems. From a discursive view, academic careers are organized by categories which can define who academics are (subjectivation)…

In spite of its numerous critics the concept "Bildung" is still one of the most important categories within the German speaking discussion on questions of education, learning and teaching. Apart from multiple differences there is a relatively great agreement in considering this concept as an irreplaceable category for educational…