Summer Doctoral Programme

The annual Summer Doctoral Programme (SDP) is the highlight of the OII's year. It brings together doctoral students from around the world for a fortnight of study with leading academics in a multi-disciplinary environment that aims to provide constructive advice and support for students' doctoral thesis research.

The programme is structured around daily lectures, seminars and tutorials, aimed at developing student thinking on a range of issues central to the Internet. Students also have the opportunity to present and discuss their own thesis research with faculty and students.

The atmosphere is open, exciting, challenging, and intense (read the SDP (2003-2009): Recap, attempted). Students meet and work with a diverse group of their peers (a considerable benefit where students may not have large academic peer-groups in their own departments) and are exposed to a range of different disciplinary research cultures, perspectives and ideas. A range of social events provide a more informal opportunity for students and faculty to get to know each other, and to continue discussions. Student feedback for the programme has been consistently excellent.

Launched in 2003, the Summer Doctoral Programme has enjoyed three overseas stints so far (Beijing 2005, Boston 2007, and Brisbane 2009) and has already gathered an impressive group of alumni. The benefits of taking part in the programme extend far beyond the fortnight: students often form research collaborations and maintain research contact afterwards.

In the words of the SDP Convenor, Dr Victoria Nash: "What has most thrilled me over the past seven years is not the calibre of the participants (generally outstanding) or the range of tutors we have been able to attract (pretty stellar). No, it's what comes out of the Programme at the end of the two weeks - genuine lasting friendships and strong academic partnerships that have generated some really great results." To join the growing SDP community: make sure to apply!

News

• Catching up with Summer Doctoral Programme (SDP) Alumni

  15 February 2012 Editor's Blog

  Yana Breindl attended the 2009 Summer Doctoral Programme in Brisbane. She is currently a Wiener-Anspach Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow at the OII, working on digital rights campaigning in Europe. Having already spoken about the SDP with Yana, we caught up with her for another chat… Ed: You are now a visitor at the OII! What’s it [...]

• Looking Back on Ten Years of the OII’s Summer Doctoral Programme

  7 February 2012 Editor's Blog

  Every summer we invite a talented group of doctoral students from around the world to the OII for an exciting, challenging, open and intense fortnight of study with leading academics in the field: it’s the OII’s Summer Doctoral Programme! This year will see the tenth programme in the series, so we caught up with the [...]

• Summer Doctoral Programme 2011: Starting Monday!

  8 July 2011 Editor's Blog

  The ninth OII Summer Doctoral Programme will kick off next week, with 29 talented doctoral students arriving at the OII from top universities all over the world. As usual it’ll be a packed fortnight of seminars, presentations, tutorials and social events, designed to provide the students with valuable (and practical) input into their thesis research, [...]

• ‘Quite simply, I think the Summer Doctoral Programme is one of the best things we do’

  15 February 2010 Editor's Blog

  The SDP has been run since 2003 by OII Fellow Dr Victoria Nash. We asked: how did it begin? Why did the OII launch it, all those years ago? She replied: Back in 2002 when the Oxford Internet Institute was just a year old, I was tasked by the Director Bill Dutton to think [...]

• Summer Doctoral Programme: The one where we remember what it’s like to be a student again

  15 February 2010 Editor's Blog

  OII Fellow Dr Ralph Schroeder has been an SDP tutor since 2004. Asked for his thoughts and memories of the Summer Doctoral Programme, he writes: I’ve attended all the summer schools since 2004 (all but the first) and really enjoyed being a student again! Apart from teaching on the programme, students may have noticed [...]

• SDP2008: ‘the post about webscience, scholarship and digitisation of rare materials’

  25 January 2010 Editor's Blog

  More on SDP2008: Web Science .. it just keeps on coming. Hurrah for Web Science! OII DPhil student Christine Madsen writes about how the SDP helped her research on the impact of the digitisation of rare materials on scholarship in the humanities ... there's a bit on Tibetan exile communities at the bottom. I [...]

• SDP2009 (Brisbane) Student Documentary Rated ‘Devastatingly Abstract’

  15 January 2010 Editor's Blog

  Nicely produced by the ‘SDP2009: Brisbane’ student group, a two-part video documentary of the Summer Doctoral Programme 2009. Voiceover: “Viewers are advised that this presentation may contain no academic content, and may present participants in a semi-frivolous manner, with little regard for context. The following presentation may be devastatingly abstract.” It’s fun, shows some of [...]

• Even More Thoughts on SDP 2008: The Network Definitely Continues…

  11 January 2010 Editor's Blog

  This week we ask Monica Bulger about her experiences at the OII as an SDP2008 (and Web Science exchange programme) student. She writes .. On the first day of SDP 2008, Barbara Barbosa Neves delivered her presentation on Internet and social capital and, when an audience member suggested she look into Barry Wellman’s work, [...]

Last updated on: 18 July 2011