Dissertation

Semester and Year Offered: Winter

Course Coordinator and Team:Shivani Nag,Prabhat Rai

Email of course coordinator:shivani@aud.ac.in

Pre-requisites: none

Course Objectives/Description:

The MA dissertation is an opportunity for the students to demonstrate their ability to work independently and conceptualize or create a scholarly writing or product (i.e., the dissertation). It involves selection of a topic; synthesis and analysis of field/reflective experiences and readings from courses; and academic writing and referencing. The process is conceptualized, planned and completed under the guidance of the faculty advisor.

Course Outcomes:

• Undertake research independently.
• Contextualize the problem statement within the relevant academic discourse.
• Write a scholarly piece using academic conventions.

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

The entire dissertation process has been divided in three stages which have been further sub-divided. Every student will be assessed at each of these stages. These stages are:

1. Development of research proposal: Developing a good research proposal is a significant milestone in the research work. It gives a focus to the research questions that one wishes to pursue, situates them in the context of other ideas and academic research and lays out a methodological framework to carry out the research. This stage will constitute 20% of the total value of the dissertation component. It is divided into two sub-components, namely drafting the research proposal and its presentation for feedback. This feedback will help to better conceptualize the research problem and the method for the dissertation.
2. Research process: A dissertation is not simply a finished product. The entire process of this journey involves a dialogue with the research supervisor, submission of drafts, receiving feedback and incorporating relevant suggestions. A student is expected to have a minimum of four meetings and/or submissions before submission of the first draft. This will carry 10% weightage.
3. Research dissertation: Evaluation of the final dissertation by an external examiner and research supervisor and an open viva will be the final stage and will carry 70% of the total value of the dissertation component.

Reading List:

Student ill create a reading list based on their topic of inquiry from taught courses, literature search and in consultation with their advisors.

Assessment Details with Weighs:

• Proposal (10%)
• Presentation(10%)
• Process (10%)
• Grade (30%)
• Examiner’s Grade (20%)
• Voce (20%)