Course From Dissertation to Postdoc: Strategies for Academic Progression

Course description

Even if the PhD defence is a festive and happy occasion, you may already be considering, planning, or perhaps even stressing about what awaits on the other side of the degree. In this PhD course, we will focus on how to work towards a postdoc position as a stepping stone to a career in academia.

In the course, the issue will be addressed from several angles. We will, for example, map and investigate different (mainly Danish) funding bodies, address how to apply for advertised postdocs in larger research projects, and explore how to reach out to senior colleagues for potential collaborations. Simona Zetterberg-Nielsen, an experienced PI in multiple research projects and collaborations, will share her perspectives and best practices for establishing or entering a research collaboration as a junior scholar.

Furthermore, we will dissect and discuss the genre of research applications. How do you write a concise and exciting project description? What are the components of a research proposal? What matters more to the people reading and evaluating it – the CV, core idea, state of the art, data, or perhaps international network? Lone Koefoed Hansen, chair of the DFF | Humanities Council at the Independent Research Fund Denmark, will address these and related questions. You will also start conceptualizing your own potential proposal that can be developed and expanded after the course.

Finally, the course addresses the process from a social and mental health perspective. We will discuss how to deal with competition, stress, envy, and anxiety, but also how to foster caring and respectful relationships with your fellow junior researchers. Hopefully, the course will help you approach the pursuit of a postdoc with a new calm and clarity.

Aim/Learning outcomes

In this one-day PhD course participants will identify, discuss, and work with different opportunities for pursuing a postdoctoral research position after the PhD. The course will serve as an introduction to how to approach and navigate research collaborations, funding possibilities, and the application genre.

Requirements for participation

• Submission of an abstract with a project description as well as a tentative research idea for a postdoctoral research project.
  • o Abstract length: Max. 500 words– describe your PhD project in 300 words and your tentative research idea in 200 words. 

Target group/Participants

• 8-12 PhD students; PhD students in the final phase of their scholarship will be prioritized over more recently admitted PhD students

Workload

• Course/ teaching hours: 7
• Preparation hours: 18
• Written assignments etc.: Mapping and reflection exercise before the course day

Language 

• English

Lecturers

• Lone Koefoed Hansen, PhD, Associate Professor at the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University. Koefoed Hansen researches and teaches within the areas of arts, culture, and digital technology with a special interest in how digital technology matters to humans, non-humans, and the societies we co-create. She currently serves as the chair of the DFF | Humanities Council at the Independent Research Fund Denmark and, thus, contributes to Danish research by participating in the funding of it. She is also a skilled research communicator and has, for example, curated @AUforsker on what was then called Twitter.
• Simona Zetterberg-Nielsen, PhD, Dr. Phil., Associate Professor at the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University. Zetterberg-Nielsen’s research, for which she has won several prizes, focuses on fictionality and the history of the novel. She currently serves as the PI of two large research projects on related topics. Furthermore, she is the head of the Centre for the Rise of Science and Fiction and a co-director of the research programme Historical Studies of Arts and Culture. In other words, she has ample experience in managing research projects and collaborations with junior scholars at different career stages.
• Ann-Katrine S. Nielsen, PhD, Assistant Professor at School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University. She is the organiser and course responsible. She has participated in several successful research applications as a junior and senior researcher and was, for instance, awarded a Carlsberg Internationalisation Fellowship in 2021. She currently serves as the co-PI in the IRFD-funded project Human-Machine Narration: How Generative Artificial Intelligence Transforms Recreational Storytelling (GAITS).

Literature

• To be distributed after the application deadline

Venue 

• 12 March 2026. 09.00-16.00. Helsingforsgade 8 , 8200 Aarhus N. Building 5008/Adorno, room 140

Course dates:

• 12 March 2026 09:00 - 16:00