In Norway, as part of the public defense of a PhD, the candidate begins by holding a 30-minute “trial lecture” on a topic decided by the committee. Candidates receive this topic 2 weeks before the defense, which for me is today! The topic should be relevant to the dissertation, and is often something that the opponents think was not covered adequately.

OK – it just arrived in my inbox. I’m very happy with the topic! It’s pretty much what I’d guessed it would be, because that’s what is lacking in my research, although it was part of my plan to do more research on this topic at the start of the project. I just didn’t get that far! So it’s actually a perfect topic for me.

I’ll get started making my trial lecture now! 🙂