Module: HIS7008-60 Dissertation

Level: 7

Credit Value: 60

Module Tutor: Jackie Collier

Module Tutor Contact Details: j.collier@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module

This module is the culmination of your study and research on the MA. It provides you with an opportunity for intensive and detailed research-based exploration of a chosen topic, under the guidance of a dissertation supervisor with expertise in the field. The subject of the dissertation must meet the following criteria:

• It must be intellectually challenging: it should evaluate an unresolved debate, revise an existing historiography, or develop a new interpretation through its engagement with primary source material
• As a subject, it must neither be too large and/or amorphous to be studied analytically and reasonably thoroughly in 15,000 words (including footnotes but excluding bibliography and appendices) nor too narrow to constitute an appropriate academic challenge

Aims:

• To equip you to work independently to an advanced level, on all stages of an extended, self-defined historical project from conception to delivery
• To develop your ability to work at the forefront of historical knowledge by examining historiographical arguments critically and devising and conducting the required research in primary sources needed to generate and defend your own original historical arguments
• To assess your skills in organising and communicating their original research according to accepted academic modes of oral and written work

2. Outline syllabus

You will develop, in consultation with your assigned supervisors, a research question / s based upon a coherent subject of study. You will devise a detailed plan of research and a chronology for completing this, including regular supervisory meetings, in order to produce – to an established time and date – a piece of original historical research that meets the academic conventions and critical analytical requirements of a dissertation for a Master of Arts.

3. Teaching and learning activities

In addition to individual or small group supervisions, there will be opportunities to take part in workshops or seminars which explore, for example,

• Introducing the dissertation: choosing a topic, defining a question, and writing the research proposal
• Managing your research
• Constructing your argument

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW
• Description: Formal Proposal (including research plan) (2000 words) seminar presentation (30 minutes)
• % Weighting: 20%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW
• Description: Dissertation (15,000 words)
• % Weighting: 80%