The European graduate School for Training in Economic and social historical Research (ESTER) is a European platform for postgraduate teaching. ESTER announces its annual Research Design Course (RDC) for economic and social historians on 28-30 October 2019, in Lyon (France)

The Research Design Course (RDC) is a format promoted by ESTER since the late 1990s. The RDC assists PhD students in social and economic history in setting up a high-quality and well-designed plan for their dissertation under the guidance of a team of leading senior researchers whose task it is to provide comments and feedback

The RDC consists of a 3-day workshop. Prior to the workshop, PhD students will prepare a paper (of around 25 pages) according to a set of guidelines. During the workshop, each paper will be examined in separate 70-minute sessions. Each session will begin with comments prepared by one of the participating PhD students, followed by comments by one of the senior commentators, after which a general discussion among all participants will take place.

PhD students should apply online and submit an 800-word abstract of the content of their dissertation project. A first selection of students will take place on the basis of the abstract. After this stage, students who are accepted will be asked to follow a set of guidelines in order to write their research paper.

More information can be found on the ESTER website: https://www.ru.nl/posthumus/ester-international-programme/research-design-course-2019-lyon-france/