Dissertation in Scottish Studies (P00674)

? Credit Points : 60 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : HCA-P-SSDISS

Students will complete an extended internship between May and August of the relevant academic year. During this time they will work on a more detailed research project (compared to the semester-long short internships), which will be supervised by both academic and curatorial staff and complete a 15,000 dissertation. The project will be chosen collaboratively and will aim to both reflect the interests and ability of the students and the needs and restrictions of the archival repository. Students may find it useful to maintain a record of their work - perhaps a visual diary using photographs - that can be used in their dissertation to illustrate practical elements of their projects.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : In order to progress to the Dissertation in Scottish Studies students must have achieved an overall pass of 50% or above in their coursework. This will include Sources for Scottish Studies, Archival Internships (x 2), Interdisciplinary seminar series in Scottish Studies and either one 40-credit, or two 20-credit, background course(s).

? Costs : Students may find it useful to keep a photographic record of their internship experience, which they can use as part of their written report. This will not be mandatory.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Postgraduate (School of History and Classics), (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Block 5 and beyond

? Additional Class Information : There are no scheduled hours but students are expected to undertake an archival internship after the second semester, on which their dissertation will be based. Students will arrange hours with the archival staff

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will be given an insight into the collection and management of various types of archival material. They will develop skills in using collections and archives for research and also to identify further possibilities for producing research projects based on the material contained in the collections. They will further their skills in independent research and critical analysis and as well as in research methodology and organisation in order to complete a written dissertation.

Assessment Information

Students will complete the supervised practical archival project and submit a written dissertation, which will be assessed. The dissertation will be 15,000 words in length, excluding appendices, bibliography and footnotes, and will discuss the aims, objectives and outcomes of the project. This should include a description of the sources and methodology that were used and an assessment of the overall project.