at a glance

Teaching language(s):

English

Date:

Spring semester 2027

Target group:

All doctoral candidates

Location:

On-site Belval Campus

How to apply:

More information coming soon.

Description:

In social sciences, education or the humanities, students receive thorough training in both theories and methodologies. They learn how to stand on the shoulders of researchers that came before them and read their texts. They are also exposed to a variety of concepts that they learn to draw from for their own research. They also learn to design significant research and to develop their methodological thinking and practices.One dimension is, however, often missing in that education: students more rarely learn how to produce their own concepts, theories and theorization.

This interdisciplinary seminar brings together students from a variety of fields to explore the practice of theorizing, addressing questions such as:

how is theorizing done?
Are there contexts that encourage discovery?
What sorts of habits of thinking can support coming up with new ideas (such as for example using analogies, metaphors, typologies, naming techniques…)?
Does theorizing vary according to one’s field (empirical, speculative)?

We will explore how writing is often an important part of the thinking process and practice different writing and thinking moves in order to unleash our intellectual imagination.

The workshop is designed to be hands-on. Students will be asked to read classics of theorizing from different fields. They will also be required to do practical exercises of speculation on everyday life problems (working from puzzles, observations and mind games)

By the end of the seminar, the students:

will have learned basic blocks of the theorizing process;
they will have learned different strategies that are used in the social sciences, education and humanities for theorizing ;
they will have experienced what it means to write for getting ideas and how to move from data to concepts;
they will have a wider perspective on how different disciplines use recurring strategies for coming up with arguments and deepening them;
they will be ready to apply this learning to their own doctoral thesis work to strengthen their theorization.

Instructors:

Prof. Dr. Ingrid De SAINT-GEORGES

Last modified: Thursday, 1 October 2026, 2:52 PM

Heuristics and the Art of Theorizing

at a glance

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