Module Directory

This module provides the opportunity for students to undertake a longer independent research project that caps off their MA studies, and, often, is a stepping stone for PhD studies.

Students will be supported in identifying a suitable topic (and title) by the PGT Director (Philosophy) and the academic staff member who has agreed to act as their supervisor.

The aims of this module are:

1. To develop skills as independent researchers in Social and Political Thought.


2. To complete a longer independent research project.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Define a topic for independent research.


2. Demonstrate their newly acquired research techniques and critical analysis skills by applying them to the production of a level 7 Dissertation.


3. Acquire, and demonstrate mastery of, further, in-depth subject knowledge on a particular subject matter in Social and Political Thought, such as crises of democracy or issues of justice.

Skills for your Professional Life (Transferable Skills)

By the end of this module, students will also be expected to have learned and honed transferable skills like the abilities to:

1. Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant;


2. Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information;


3. Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure;


4. Be sensitive to the published views of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them;


5. Think 'laterally' and creatively - see interesting connections and possibilities and present these clearly rather than as vague hunches;


6. Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position if shown wrong.


7. Think critically and constructively.

This module consists in producing an MA Dissertation in Social and Political Thought. It provides the opportunity for students to undertake a longer independent research project that caps off their MA studies, and, often, is a stepping stone for PhD studies. Students will be supported in identifying a suitable topic (and title) by the PGT Director (Philosophy) and the academic staff member who has agreed to act as their supervisor.

Each student is required to submit, in writing, a provisional dissertation title, an outline of their proposed research and the name of their supervisor by the end of Week 24.

In preparation for this, the PGT Director will hold an initial dissertation planning meeting in the autumn term (usually during Week 8), during which the process of formulating a dissertation topic will be explained.

Students will communicate with their prospective supervisors between Weeks 20-23, to discuss their choice of title and research topic, and then to finalise the outline of their proposed research and ensure that their supervisor signs the relevant form for submission of the title and outline to the Graduate Administrator by the end of Week 24.

The dissertation should be 10,000 words in length (excluding footnotes). Further detail can be found in the Philosophy and Art History Graduate Handbook.

This module will be delivered via:

• Meeting with PGT Director in the autumn term about research techniques appropriate for an MA Dissertation (level 7).
• Individual supervision in spring and summer terms.