Dissertation (MSc/Dip African Studies) (P00843)

? Credit Points : 60 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : SPS-P-AFSD

All students will undertake a 15,000 to 20,000 word dissertation on a topic related to the field of African Studies to be submitted by a date specified in the University Regulations. The dissertation is a major piece of research in which a student is expected to formulate and sustain a substantive argument, based on relevant literature and field evidence. The dissertation is expected to engage critically and analytically with the literature in the field, building upon relevant concepts and theory covered in the taught element of the degree and deploying a range of secondary (and in some cases primary) sources as well as appropriate data-analysis and bibliographic skills. Fieldwork in Africa is encouraged where possible, but fieldwork can also be carried out in libraries and archives in UK and continental Europe. Students will make their first dissertation proposals during the Spring Semester and be be allocated research supervisors before the end of the Spring semester.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Postgraduate (School of Social and Political Studies), (School of Social and Political Studies, Schedule J)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

- To test the ability of students to undertake a sustained piece of supervised but independent work within the field of African studies which displays the research skills, training and knowledge acquired in the previous coursework.
- to test the ability of students to demonstrate an ability to engage critically and analytically with the literature in the field of their specialist interest.
- to develop and test the ability of students to employ relevant social science concepts and theories in formulating a thesis.
- to examine the ability of students to manage the conduct, presentation, and timing of an independent research project, employing appropriate data-analytical and bibliographic skills.
- to encourage those students who can carry out fieldwork in Africa itself to draw upon the many individual and institutional contacts and networks of the Centre in Africa, in pursuing their fieldwork.
- to publish and disseminate, in the Centres Occasional Paper series, the completed dissertations of those students who achieve a distinction in their work