In keeping with the transdisciplinary approach of the Köln International School of Design, doctoral theses are supervised that contribute to the study of design from a variety of perspectives. This includes investigations of design issues using scientific methods as well as examinations of historical, social, media and cultural processes that have determined design discourses or have been influenced by them.
A cooperative individual doctorate is currently the most common path taken by doctoral students at the Köln International School of Design at the TH Köln. Here, future doctoral candidates contact a professor with an exposé (both at the KISD of the TH Köln and at a university) and write their dissertation in a self-organized manner and independently of a fixed program.
The Köln International School of Design participates in the NRW doctoral program. 21 universities of applied sciences – including TH Köln – have jointly founded the Doctoral College for Applied Research in North Rhine-Westphalia. In the future, outstanding master’s graduates from universities of applied sciences and universities will realize their doctoral projects there. Following a positive evaluation by the German Science Council, it offers its doctoral students structured doctoral programs. Design scientists are represented in the »Construction and Culture” and »Media and Interaction” departments. The programs qualify the doctoral students for a future career at the innovative interfaces between design and science.
The Köln International School of Design participates in the inter-university colloquium »Design doctorates« of the German Society for Design Theory and Research (dgtf). In July 2020, it hosted the 23rd Colloquium as an online format, which was included in the following Colloquium in May 2021.
In addition, as part of a structured doctoral training program, the Köln International School of Design is participating in the DFG-funded Research Training Group »anschließen – ausschließen. Cultural Dynamics Beyond Globalized Networks,« a collaboration of the University of Cologne, the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) and the TH Köln.
A joint doctoral colloquium is offered to promote young researchers in the fields of Design Theory and Research and Interaction Design.
Doctoral Supervision
Further information for early stage researchers
Service Desk of Graduate Center at TH Köln
Doctoral College for Applied Research in North Rhine-Westphalia
Image: »Blind Spots« by Dorothea Elisabeth Schneid & Jessica Martins Zisa