DISSERTATION WORKSHOP

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DISSERTATION WORKSHOP

• 12 March 2009

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Dissertation

• What?
• When?
• Why?

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Why?

• Your own topic
• Independent Learning
• Project Management
• Applying what you have learnt to a major piece of
  research-based analysis
• 40 credit module - 33 of final year
• 60 credit module - 50 of final year
• A very serious matter

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When?

• Completed by April 2010
• Initiated now with a proposal
• Appointment of a supervisor by May 2009
• Meeting with supervisor
• Agree Summer work plan

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Schedule

• May/June meeting with supervisor
• Summer bibliographical research, basic research
• September revised proposal and annotated
  bibliography
• Autumn semester c.5 tutorials
• December submit 4000-word paper
• January supervisors response
• Feb-April - independent completion of
  dissertation with tutorials as necessary

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What is a dissertation?

• Proposal
• Research Questions
• Archive
• Method

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Proposal

• Literature Review
• What is the state of scholarship
• What might be a new possibility?

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What not to do

• No vague ideas
• No hopeful suggestions
• No huge projects

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Methodology

• What have you been trained to do within your
  area?
• What is it to do art history or cultural studies
  or museum studies etc.?
• What methods can you use to develop your own
  research?

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Steps

• Prepare a concrete, specific research proposal
• Consult study guides
• Plan a strategy of work from now to September and
  set aside real study time
• Come to tutorials and sessions in Sept with basic
  research, a bibliography, and concrete work
  seeing or collecting material

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Plan the Dissertation Year Now

• Step One Proposal
• Step Two Supervisor meeting
• Step Three Summer Workplan
• Step Four attend training sessions and tutorials
• Step Five submit 4000 paper

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Proposal

• This needs research now
• Library-based bibliographical research
• Reading some articles in journals like Art
  History or Oxford Art Journal or Journal of
  Visual Culture or Architectural History
• Looking at Study Guides to help you shift from
  essay writing to research dissertation
  preparation
• Key thing a question not a subject