The OSK’s teaching programme is geared towards the disciplinary training of RMA students and PhD candidates (including external PhDs). OSK organizes courses and seminars that stimulate their research, that offer them additional research tools and help them to gain specialized in-depth knowledge.

OSK offers teaching for PhD students on three levels:

1. Methodical courses for PhDs.
2. Master classes for PhD and RMA students.
3. Specialized meetings organized by the six OSK sections.

Ad 1) Methodological Courses for PhD students

The OSK offers a set of courses and other activities that will help PhD candidates attain the skills and experience required to successfully conduct their research and function well within the academic environment.

*‘Paradigms in Art- and Architectural History’ (ECTS: 2.5) focuses on the boundaries of the art historical discipline in two important ways: firstly, we ask what problems art historical structuring systems can cause and secondly, we pay attention to the specific problems it can cause in the art historical writing and research of the PhD candidates. The students will discuss theoretical texts on this matter and will also analyse the ways in which their own research might be affected.

*‘Structuring Art History: The Architecture of the PhD-thesis’ (ECTS: 2) focuses on ways to structure the PhD thesis. The PhD candidates will examine and discuss published examples and will also present the (provisory) structure of their own thesis to their peers for further discussion. As such, this course is especially useful to PhD candidates who are in their second or third year (at least 50% of the writing done) and who are starting to work on the final structure of their thesis.

*Progress reports (ECTS: 3) in which the PhD candidates publicly present their research progress to an external specialist (‘referent’) within the appropriate field of study. Every PhD trajectory contains two of these presentations: the first after approximately one year in which the student presents his or her fine-tuned research plan, and the second at the beginning of the third year during which research results will be presented and discussed.

Ad 2) Master classes for RMA and PhD students

Every year the OSK organizes a series of seminars on specialised art historical themes, offered as Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer Schools. Each of them consists of one week to ten days of intense teaching and site visits, accompanied by introductory meetings some weeks before and papers to be delivered afterwards. Each is rewarded with 6 ECTS. RMA students have to select two of these courses as a compulsory part of their teaching programme. PhD students are free to participate in these master classes if their topics fit into their research. More information about the training programme can be found here.

Ad 3) Specialized meetings organized by the six OSK sections

A third group of teaching activities for PhDs offered by the OSK are the various conferences and workshops organized by each of the six sections of the OSK.