Introducing “ABD Stories”

Some fifty doctoral students graduate each year from the Graduate Institute. If pursuing doctoral studies always implies strategic choices with regards to the research topics, the path towards a thesis also remains a journey bespeckled with experiences and encounters. Because each path towards a PhD is unique, this podcast series is dedicated to the vagaries of doctoral students’ lives in Geneva.

https://abd-stories.simplecast.com

Paroma Ghose defended her PhD thesis in June 2020. In the first episode, she tells us about how she studied the lyrics of songs by rappers in France between 1981 and 2012, in order to write a history of the “Other”, or what she termed the “Fifth Estate”, in France.

Check it out on the podcast’s page and subscribe from your favourite app. More research podcasts are also available on our website.

Why Shouldn’t Your PhD Thesis be Accessible to Everyone?

A PhD thesis is the result of many years of hard work, and the author generally hopes it will be the start of a successful academic career. But quite often, it is only read by the authors themselves and their supervisors. Who should be allowed to access it, and how? Our colleague Catherine Brendow discusses the main reasons why PhD students are generally reluctant to make their thesis open access.

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An anomaly among anomalies: Colonial membership at the League of Nations

Rather than a grouping of sovereign states, the League of Nations, the precursor organisation to the United Nations, admitted several colonies and Dominions as member-states. Perhaps the most unusual addition to the League was that of British India, that was described as an ‘anomaly among anomalies’.

In today’s podcast, we will discuss under what terms colonies could be member-states of an international organisation, as well as why an Empire would want to admit them. And finally, we will cover the precedents that the inclusion of India caused at the League, and how they left their footprint in the structure of the UN.

Thomas Gidney discusses his PhD thesis on how colonies could become admitted as member-states of international organisations, and the role they play in British imperial policy.

An anomaly among anomalies: Colonial membership at the League of Nations

Picture: LONTAD project
Music: England, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Pictures of the Floating World

Book of the Week: “The UN Human Rights Council: A Practical Anatomy” by Eric Tistounet

Since its establishment the work of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has been subject to many interpretations, theories, comments or conclusions. This comprehensive book dissects every aspect of the UNHRC’s work and analyses the efficiency of, and interactions between, its mechanisms.

Authored by the first Secretary of the UNHRC, this book provides unique practitioner insights into the complex decision making processes of the Council alongside the core variations from its predecessor.

Publisher: Cheltenham ; Northampton : Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020
Call Number: 342.7 HEIA 127072

Event: Book launch at the Geneva Academy on Tuesday, 20 October, 12:30-14:00, on-site and online

Illustration: book cover

Some services suspended due to the migration of the library catalogue (Oct. 23 – Dec. 7)

On December 7th 2020, the Institute’s Library will join the new network of the Swiss scientific and academic libraries, the Swiss Library Service Plateform (SLSP), along with more than 470 other libraries. From this date on, our print collections and electronic resources to which we subscribe will only be accessible through the search engine of this new platform: swisscovery. The current RERO Explore will be disabled.

Between October 23th and December 7th, 30 million bibliographic references will migrate to the new platform. This transition phase will result in a limitation of some services such as requests for:

Interlibrary loans
New acquisition suggestions

Loans and returns will still be possible. The RERO Explore catalogue will remain available during that time.

The Library is aware of the impact these limitations may have on your academic activities during this transition period and apologises for the inconvenience these may cause.

Illustration: swisscovery logo