Doctoral school of the Maria Grzegorzewska University has an honour to invite you to an open lecture – “What is theory for? Crucial reminders for doctoral research.” - by South African Professor Marthinus Conradie. The event will take place on Tuesday, 26th of March at 1:30 pm in the room 4061 in building D. First part will be open for all interested and the second one will be exclusive to our doctoral students.

It is possible to attend the lecture online. Link  

The Professor is excited to share his invitation:

“Dear doctoral student. As you probably already know, your doctoral journey is a heady mix of contradictions: Excitement about taking on this great project! A sense of empowerment flowing from your conviction that you are working on something that matters to you. Anticipation about future career prospects. Anxiety about how you are going to wrap your head around all the theory you are reading, all the data you need to collect and analyse. This presentation is designed to calm you down. Let’s get back to basics and run through some key questions. What exactly is theory for? What am I supposed to do with it? How am I supposed to write a theoretical framework? What does theory have to do with my data? How should I write a methodology section? What is transparency in methodologies? What should I look out for in my data analysis? These are some of the basic starting points for my discussion. I aspire to give a broad overview of the answers that I consider vital for research. I will also use examples from my own research in critical race theory as a way of grounding my suggestions. Most of all, I look forward to interacting with you and hearing about how you think these ideas apply to your research.”

Professor Marthinus Conradie holds a PhD in critical discourse analysis and inferential pragmatics. He works at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. His research interests are grounded in discourse analysis and critical race theory, which he has applied to examine everyday political argumentation, the construction of race and racism as well as whiteness.