定惠独家|牛津大学读博有哪些步骤？

采访者|柳嘉如

受访者|Elvira Miceli

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受访者Elvira Miceli向各位朋友打个招呼，并期望可以在牛津见到大家。

博士学位是对于像我一样希望从事人文科学领域研究工作的人的最后一步。

尽管从理论上说，一些研究职位是适用于一些受过更少培训的人员的。但竞争使得这一现实逐渐减少。在我的艺术史领域，最高级别的职位是大学教授和博物馆馆长。现在如果没有博士学位，就不可能获得其中任何一个职位。我之所以选择在牛津大学攻读博士学位，是因为一位研究中世纪的西西里王国资深学者在这里工作。我正在研究的手稿就是在那个时期创作的。

The doctorate is the last step in the training of those who, like me, want careers in research,whether in the humanities or the sciences. Though some research positions are in theory available to those with less training, competition is rendering this a dwindling reality. In my field of art history, where the highest-level positions are those of university professor and museum curator, it is now impossible to become either without a doctorate. I chose to pursue a DPhil at the University of Oxford because a respected senior scholar of the medieval kingdom of Sicily, where the manuscript I am studying was made, works there.

在英国，申请人文学科的大多数博士项目主要包括三个步骤。

第一步，符合必要要求的学生必须要向未来的（可能的）导师提供和博士项目相关的非正式建议书。在今天，主要是通过发邮件来做这件事。如果未来的（可能的）导师同意并愿意指导研究项目。

那么在第二步，学生需要向这个相关的博士项目提出正式申请。这个过程，在今天主要是通过电子的方式，需要提交项目建议书，至少一份写作样本和多封来自之前老师的推荐信。如果负责招生的委员会对学生感兴趣并且接受了申请。

那么就到了第三步也是最后一步：除某些例外，学生需要与委员会成员进行面试。一旦被录取，该学生将可能获得任何可用的机构奖学金，并根据其最终费用和条件决定是否接受这个录取。

In the United Kingdom, applications to most doctorates in the humanities have three steps.First, a student with the necessary prerequisites must approach a prospective supervisor with an informal proposal for a DPhil project. Today this is usually done via e-mail. If the prospective supervisor agrees to support the project,the student must as a second step make a formal application to the relevant DPhil course. This process, now often completed electronically, tends to comprise the submission of a project proposal, at least one writing sample, and multiple letters of reference from previous teachers. If the committee responsible for admissions to the course is interested in accepting the application, the student must as a third and final step, with some exceptions,pass an interview with committee members. Once offered a place in the course,the student is considered for any available institutional scholarships and given time to decide whether or not to accept the place based on its final cost and conditions.

My application to the University of Oxford’s DPhil course in Oriental Studies was successful, I believe, thanks in no small measure to my supervisor’s strong support for my project and his influence within the course. He is personally interested in the manuscript I am studying and has played a leading role in the Faculty of Oriental Studies for years. I also believe the detail and clarity of the formal project proposal I submitted, including my ability to describe my qualifications for completing the project, strengthened my candidacy.

我的博士工作与以前的研究之间的主要区别在于，我现在必须自由安排自己的时间来完成长时间的项目。我的其他课程全部都包含大量的相关教学内容，但并不是只和研究项目相关。我现在没有义务，但可以在牛津大学参加所有符合我兴趣的任何讲座或研讨会。（我博士工作的要求包括与我的导师进行定期，非正式的进度会议，以及每年正式的写作内容来保障最终的博士论文提交。我的写作不仅由我的导师来评价，还受到牛津大学来自其他相关专业教授的评价。）此外，现在我没有像之前课程那样严格地要求在上学期间住在我的学校附近。因此，我有极大的灵活性来做跟研究相关的旅行。

The major difference between my doctoral work and my prior studies is the freedom I currently have to structure my time in light of a long-term research project. While my other degree courses all consisted in large part of taught components with related assignments—increasingly,though not exclusively research tasks—I now have no such obligations, but can attend any lecture or seminar at the University of Oxford as suits my interests. (The requirements of my doctoral work consist of regular, informal progress meetings with my supervisors and yearly, formal writing deadlines that culminate in the final submission of the DPhil thesis. My writing is evaluated not only by my supervisors, but also by other professors from the University of Oxford with related expertise.) In addition, I am now not as rigidly obligated as in my past courses to live near my institution during term time. I therefore have significant flexibility for research-related travel.

在这一学年，我的博士学习只获得了Khalili中心的部分资助。在明年以及我的课程余下的两年，我希望我可以得到由牛津大学提供的一项或者多项奖学金的全额的资助。我现在获得的奖学金是我最初在2018年秋天申请牛津大学东方研究专业博士时所申请的。在那个过程中，我不仅被学校考虑是否录取，还被考虑在获得了该课程的名额后，能否获得几个牛津大学的奖学金来资助我的部分或全部学习。已经在牛津大学学习的学生每年都可以重新或者必须申请其中的一部分奖学金。

This academic year,my doctoral studies are only partially funded, primarily by the Khalili Centre.By next year, I hope to be fully funded for the remaining two years of my course, if possible by a scholarship or multiple scholarships still from within the University of Oxford. I won my current funding through my original application to Oxford’s DPhil course in Oriental Studies in the fall of 2018.As part of that process, I was considered not only for a position in the course, but also, once I won the place, for several Oxford scholarships to fund part or all of my studies. Students already at Oxford can re-apply to some of these scholarships yearly, and I mean to do so as necessary.

在牛津大学，我隶属于研究中东地区艺术和物质文化的Khalili研究中心。 这个中心致力于研究伊斯兰艺术。虽然我的项目并不在这个范围内，但我的项目中，对于中世纪意大利南部地区的研究内容明显处于伊斯兰影响范围之内，因此属于这个中心的职权范围里。

At the University of Oxford, I belong to the Khalili Research Centre for the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East. Though the center is devoted largely to Islamic art and my project is not in this ambit, my research area of medieval southern Italy was markedly in the sphere of Islamic influence and therefore falls within the center’s purview. More information on the center can be found at 

https:// krc.web.ox.ac.uk/article/ about and on the connected website.

我的博士生导师是Jeremy Johns，他是牛津大学Khalili研究中心的主任，也是牛津大学伊斯兰地中海艺术与考古学的教授。他的学术资料可以在https://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/people/jeremy-johns上找到。根据在牛津大学越来越普遍的一种教学结构，我还有一位合作导师，Umberto Bongianino。他是伊斯兰艺术与建筑系的讲师，他的学术资料可以在https://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/people/umberto-bongianino上找到。像Johns教授一样，Bongianino博士也是中世纪西西里王国的专家。关于我的博士课题，我一直都积极咨询二位导师的意见。

My doctoral supervisor is Jeremy Johns, Director of the Khalili Research Centre and Professor of the Art and Archaeology of the Islamic Mediterranean at the University of Oxford. His academic profile can be found at https://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/ people/jeremy-johns. According to an increasingly common advising structure at Oxford, I also have a co-supervisor, Umberto Bongianino, Departmental Lecturer in Islamic Art and Architecture. His academic profile can be found at https:// www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/people/umberto-bongianino.Like Prof. Johns, Dr. Bongianino is an expert in the medieval kingdom of Sicily. I consult actively with both about my project.

我现在在牛津大学Khalili中心的同事包括博士和硕士，他们在许多不同的国家接受了培训，并且几乎只从事伊斯兰艺术方面的工作。我迄今为止受到的教育是作为西方中世纪主义者，但是和他们的交流还是发人深省。这个中心目前大多数学生的学术概况都可以在https://krc.web.ox.ac.uk/article/students找到。由于我才到中心不久，所以我的个人资料将在这学年结束前出现。

My present colleagues at the Khalili Centre include both doctoral and MA students,have trained in a range of countries, and work almost exclusively on Islamic art. Since my education to date has been as a western medievalist, my exchanges with them are thought-provoking. The academic profiles of most of the center’s current students can be found at https://krc.web.ox.ac.uk/article/students. As I am new to the Centre, my profile will be active by the end of this academic year.

My doctoral project is on the illuminations of a medieval southern Italian codex, the Liber ad honorem Augusti. The book was made between 1195 and 1197 in the then-kingdom of Sicily and has been held since the seventeenth century in what is today the Municipal Library of Bern, Switzerland. It is the unique extant manuscript and presumed original copy of the Latin verses known by the same name. The poem’s author, the little-documented Peter of Eboli, narrates andpraises Sicily’s recent conquest by his dedicatee, the Holy Roman emperor Henry VI Staufer, in the wake of the extinction of the Norman dynasty. I am interested in the manuscript in general and its understudied illustrations in particular as shapers of an early Staufer rhetoric of rule in southern Italy—in other words, as elements that helped the invading dynasty legitimate its authority and the new social order it wished to build. The topic demands close examination of the relationships between the book’s text and images, on the one hand, and the artistic traditions from which the illuminators drew, on the other.

As a medievalist in a center focused on Islamic art, I cannot but be interested in the possible impact of trade on the material culture of the medieval Islamic world and contemporary China. Most intriguingly, the proven exchange of goods between the two empires is raising questions about the development of Islamic and Chinese ceramics. Though I do not have active plans to do art-historical research in China, I would be curious to participate in initiatives from the University of Oxford in this direction.

我的目标是去研究、教授甚至可能策划关于中世纪意大利南部的艺术展。就现在而言，和在博士毕业后立刻进入博物馆工作相比，我更倾向于去从事博士后研究或者大学讲师工作。我也愿意接受更多有可能改变我的想法的机会。我的博士后和早期讲师的目标是把我的博士论文变成多篇期刊文章或者汇总成一本书籍。除了在上面这两个职业的教学以外，这些经过同行们评审过的出版物记录也将帮助我推进我的职业生涯。

My aim is to research, teach, and possibly curate medieval southern Italian art. For now I am more inclined to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship or a university lectureship than to pursue museum work immediately following the DPhil, but I remain open to opportunities that may change my mind. My goal as a postdoc or early-career lecturer would be to transform my doctoral dissertation into multiple journal articles or a book. Along with the teaching I would do in either position, this record of peer-reviewed publication would help me advance a professorial career.

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图片来源：

豆瓣电影《弗里达》《你能原谅我吗》

主稿人：柳嘉如；受访者：Elvira Miceli ；编辑&审稿：Tina；排版：YAYA

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