planning a masters dissertation
TRANSCRIPT
Planning a Masters Dissertation Dr Reza Gholami
Dept. of Anthropology and Sociology
&
Academic Development Directorate (ADD)
Learning outcomes
• To gain an understanding of the demands of the early research process
• To gain an understanding of how one may break down a topic and create focused research questions
• To gain an understanding of the common difficulties and problems encountered in the course of producing a dissertation
Dissertation vs Essay writing
• Length – 10,000 words
• Harder to sustain arguments through a longer text, and easy to get side-tracked
• Depth or level of analysis
• YOU ask the questions! (And provide the answers)
Initial stages
• Selecting a topic
• Reviewing relevant literature
• Breaking down the chosen topic
• Identifying an underlying question or issue: ‘problematising’
• Generating questions and hypotheses
• Thinking about research methodology
Two very important questions:
• 1 – What sort of a relationship do you have with your
supervisor?
• 2 – When does ‘writing’ begin?
Initial reading: the basis of your literature review
• Exploring your topic area
• Identifying existing claims and counter-claims
• Finding a gap in current research or debates
• Collecting evidence
• ALWAYS read with an aim
Feasibility
What impact is the land reform
policy in Zimbabwe having on the
economy of the country?
Feasibility criteria
• Is your research topic too broad? • Is it too vague or ambiguous? • Do you have enough time to complete it? • Will data or existing literature be available and
accessible to you? • Is your chosen topic too recent?
Methods/Methodology
• What kind of sources will you look to – primary, secondary, empirical?
• What kind of info or data will you need to collect in order to answer key research questions?
• You must make the rationale for data collection clear and justify it
The ‘so what?’ factor
• Why is this topic worth researching?
• Why are you asking these particular research questions?
• What do you want to find out?
• How does your research complement existing scholarship?
• Why is your dissertation worth reading?
Breaking down a topic (my example)
Theories of ‘the secular’. (How) does this fit within them?
Reasons why this exists in Iranian history, society, diaspora?
Literature on Migration, Diaspora, Muslims in the West. Are there connections?
Anti-Islamic secularism within the Iranian diaspora in London
Can/should I develop a comparative perspective?
What sort of data/sources/research will I need?
What evidence is there that this even exists?
Implications for diasporic identity, consciousness, community?
Origins of this form of secularism?
ideas for an outline?
Generating research questions
(1) Is Islam, whether as religion or culture, always a
marker of identity for migrants from Muslim
backgrounds?
(2) Do Muslim religious beliefs and practices
necessarily intensify in migration and diaspora?
And, (3) what is the relationship (of power) between
Muslim secularities and religiosities within a migrant
community? How do they influence one another?
Generating questions
• Being ‘research questions’, these questions drive
research and focus reading (enquiries into the
literature).
• In other words, they stimulate thinking/theorizing and
help to generate knowledge.
• In time, with more focus and insight, they might boil
down to a more precise/robust question/title – this can
come rather late, though
Questions/Titles
Remember:
• Questions/titles develop and grow
• So attentive patience is important
• But this does NOT mean waiting idly for them to ‘arrive’
• They must be generated…
• And this is a (pro)active AND creative process
• (which also involves taking risks and prsenting work,
having discussions, long periods of thinking, etc.)
Main Research/Dissertation Q…
• In what ways do diasporic, Shi'i Iranian secularities
persist and inform the construction and experience of
diasporic notions of identity, community and
consciousness?
• Sometimes, you think of the research question after
you have drawn some conclusions. That is, you turn
your argument/hypothesis into a question.
Hypothesis
My MA hypothesis/argument:
• We know a great deal about Muslim diasporic religiosity. But not much has been written about how people from Muslim backgrounds construct diasporic notions of identity, community and consciousness through their secularities. Within the Iranian diaspora in London there exists a unique mode of the secular – which I would call ‘non-Islamiosity’ – which neither current theories of the secular nor the literature on Western Muslims is able to fully understand and appreciate. This secularism must be researched in its own right.