This seminar helps early stage PhD candidates design their research project. In particular, participants will:

• acknowledge process, philosophical, and methodological ambiguities in their research;
• understand the interplay between theory, method, data, rhetoric, and authorship in their research;
• apply a framework of 21 questions to focus and design their research;
• diagnose the current strengths and weaknesses of their research;
• learn strategies for literature review, theory development, and theory testing;
• formulate alternative research ideas and research questions;
• design a literature review;
• discuss alternative qualitative research designs;
• discuss alternative quantitative research designs;
• develop a conceptual model;
• discuss alternative measurements;
• design data collection and analysis;
•  design their thesis project.