About

The Interdisciplinary Doctoral School (MSD) is an institution of a unique type, clearly distinguished from the contemporary scientific and didactic landscape of doctoral schools in Poland by its pioneering character and individualised approach to the doctoral student’s academic work. The model MSD doctoral student is a member of the academic community with interdisciplinary preferences, primarily:

1. wishing to respect the multiplicity of research perspectives in their own doctoral work,
2. wishing to diversify and balance methodologies in order to achieve the most innovative profile possible for their own research,
3. trying to effectively transfer the conclusions of their own research and analyses to many spheres of economic and social life at the same time (in accordance with the basic assumptions of practical interdisciplinarity, where a plurality of reliable and multilateral approaches should produce a plurality of proven solutions).

However, the broadened – and also constantly enriched – reflection on the scope, possibilities and even innovative operability of one’s own doctoral workshop are not the exclusive aims of the MSD. Equally fundamental seems to be the integration of the scientific community, the first independent one, we should add, in the case of any doctoral student taking the first scientific steps in his or her career. The MSD strives to foster this integration, as it is obvious how much depends on it, sometimes shaping the life-long scientific goals of individual members of the School. The most important formative role within our institution is played in this respect by the integration seminar, which is intended to provide a synthetic picture of all doctoral projects in a given year and, at the same time, to enable critical discussion of their individual phases, methodology, innovativeness and, last but not least, the spectrum of interdisciplinarity. The classes are conducted in English, which verifies one of the basic skills of doctoral studies (presentation of one’s own theses in an international environment – both specialist and non-specialist).

What the Interdisciplinary Doctoral School proposes to its doctoral students is a dynamic institutional facility of a new type – meeting the needs of those young researchers who regard crossing the traditional boundaries of individual disciplines and fields of science as a modus operandi: for their own analyses, queries, and comprehensive research. MSD not only promotes innovation in scientific conduct, but also strives to be the architect of similar innovation: it is co-shaped, among other things, by the constant collaboration in the so-called ‘triad’ of MSD doctoral study (regular and intensified contact between the doctoral student and his/her assigned supervisors) and seminar work, in the School’s special thematic seminars, the so-called integration seminars.

In order to develop their own understanding of interdisciplinarity and to develop their own methodology, a doctoral student starting their studies at the Interdisciplinary Doctoral School usually cooperates with two supervisors representing the disciplines and/or fields of science within the scope of which the doctoral thesis is being written. At the same time, MSD UW constantly sensitises both its doctoral students and their supervisors to the great importance of constantly negotiating the notion of interdisciplinarity inherent in a given doctoral project and the impact of understanding the interdisciplinary methodologies used in this way on the innovative aspect of the entire dissertation – interdisciplinarity is, in this case, the basis of any structured reflection on scientific conduct, and not just a starting point or even one of the goals of analysis.

An important aspect of the cooperation and integration of the doctoral students of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral School is to respect their mutual diversity – scientific and substantive. Crucial in this respect seems to be the proper recognition of the scientific landscape of the School, co-created by all its doctoral students with complete equality. This is what the integration seminar at MSD UW is designed to foster. It is supposed to bring together the research interests of the School’s individual Year Classes, make them aware of their different scientific profiles, and teach them how to communicate the content of their future dissertations in a non-specialist manner (as a reminder, this is a skill that a doctoral student must demonstrate if they wish to achieve Level 8 of the Polish Qualification Framework).

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Dear Doctoral Students,

Below are the fields within which you can write your dissertation at UW