1 February 2022

The Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) has a new PhD coordinator, Lydie Cabane. 

Who are you?

I am an assistant professor in the Governance of Crisis Group. I teach both in the BASS and CSM programmes. Before joining Leiden in 2018, I worked at the London School of Economics and various French universities. I have a PhD in sociology from Sciences Po Paris, although I now mainly work in areas of comparative governance. The research question that keeps me awake at night is: why is crisis management a central function of contemporary governance systems?

What is the role of the PhD coordinator?

The PhD coordinator is here to coordinate and build institutional support for PhDs. In practice, this means: organising a PhD seminar, PhD council, meeting new PhDs, facilitating inclusion, developing methodological skills, checking on PhDs’ well-being, etc. The PhD coordinator works in collaboration with the Institute, the Graduate School, and the PhD Dean, Dr. Afonso from Public Administration, whose role is to mediate between PhDs and supervisors when need be.

What is your vision for PhDs at ISGA?

I am very excited to use my diverse international experience to help make ISGA a great place to do a PhD. A PhD should be a moment of formidable personal, intellectual and professional development. Any PhD certainly comes with challenges, but accompanying PhD researchers is essential to make this journey a transformative and enjoyable experience through intellectual emulation, learning new skills, discovering new facts and theories, or building up a network. I also think PhDs should be a driving force of our research community as they bring up new ideas and empirical material essential to the future of research.

What are your priorities?

My first priority is to better include our PhDs within ISGA and make them more visible. Being part of a community is essential for PhDs’ well-being, learning the ‘tricks of the trade’ as well as being exposed to new ideas and research. We will also set up a PhD Council to formally represent PhDs and facilitate self-organisation. I will regularly engage with the PhDs and meet all new PhD students.

Second, I aim to enhance PhDs academic skills by organising seminars, readings groups, methodological training, etc. This is essential to make PhDs part of our research community, facilitate the completion of a PhD and prepare for life after the PhD.

Finally, I want to work on career advancement and see how at ISGA we could support further the graduate school in helping our PhDs researchers secure a job, academic or not, after the PhD.  

Contact Lydie

Please contact Lydie via phdcoordinator.ISGA@fgga.leidenuniv.nl