MAIPR Final Dissertation/Project Instructions First Stage: Topics and Supervision

Transcription

1 MAIPR Final Dissertation/Project Instructions First Stage: Topics and Supervision Deadline for submission of dissertation proposal: 1 April 2012 You are now expected to be developing your ideas for a final dissertation (thesis or project) which emphasizes one of the modalities of the course (scholarship, curation, creative practice) and which exemplifies in its content your engagement with the research questions guiding the course. The ideal topic integrates the new knowledge you have gained in your coursework for MAIPR with previous knowledge you have obtained in your home countries and previous study. Common to all theses and projects are the following components: 1. An appropriate topic and a thesis statement concerning it (what you will argue, prove, or demonstrate by way of the thesis/project.) 2. A series of research questions that you will investigate through the process of your research, writing, and creative work. 3. A coherent relationship between the conceptual and cognitive aspects of your work and any creative or curatorial work in the case of projects and the scholarly presentation of results in the case of theses. 4. A significant written component with a full bibliography for all theses/projects. 5. The length will be guided by the actual dissertation/projects, but the MAIPR documents specify 30,000 words or their equivalent (minimum of words in the case of a dissertation that accompanies a practice-based or curatorial project). In the case of projects, some of this requirement may be met by documentation, annotation, or other written archives in relation to projects, or in some cases by portfolios accompanying projects which show the research and analytic dimensions of preparation in addition to substantive reflection on the research outcomes embedded in the project and the ways that the project addresses the research questions (see #2 above). Your dissertation topics will be worked out in consultation with your tutors at your mobility location, and your potential supervisors at your home institution, but must be approved by the JAB (Joint Academic Board) of the MAIPR. In the year , the JAB consists of the following members: Milija Gluhovic, Silvija Jestrovic, Kati Röttger, Sruti Bala, Milena Dragicevic-Sesic, Ivana Vujic, Hanna Korsberg and Johanna Laakkonen. 1

2 Supervision: Your primary supervision will come from your home institution and your secondary supervisor will come from your mobility institution or the University of Helsinki. As far as possible, your preferences for supervision will be taken into consideration, but in order to distribute the workload and not unfairly burden any of the staff, the JAB reserves the right to allocate supervisors. The staff available to supervise include the following members: Bala, Eversmann, Oostveldt, and Tkaczyk (Amsterdam); Korsberg, Lahtinen, Maukola, and Paavolainen (Helsinki [Helsinki supervisors tbc.]); Dragicevic-Sesic, Vujic, Subotic, Dakovic, Todorovic (Belgrade), Jestrovic, White, Harding, Hutchison, Whybrow, Shewring, Holdsworth (Warwick). Specific Assignment: On April 1 st, you must turn in electronically to the MAIPR administrator Lindzey Mullard (MAIPR@warwick.ac.uk) and program Director Gluhovic (M.Gluhovic@warwick.ac.uk ) the following: A dissertation or project description which includes the topic and your approach, point of view, or claim concerning it. A set of research questions to be investigated in relation to this topic An explanation of the modality involved and how it relates to the topic A preliminary timetable for completion within the time allowed (due-date 20 December 2012) A preliminary bibliography of sources in support of the thesis or project This entire proposal should be no more than 1000 words, excluding the bibliography The JAB meets in Belgrade in mid-april We will review these proposals at that time, allocate supervisors, and also set an assignment for the summer school where each student will present their plan for these theses/projects. Common timeline for your theses/projects: On May 21 st, you must turn in electronically to your first and second supervisors, Lindzey Mullard and program Director Gluhovic a revised version of your dissertation proposal (submitted in April) as well as a description of any case studies, a table of contents, a work plan, and an annotated bibliography made up of ten items (10 books relevant to your dissertation topic, each annotation words). This document will be essential for the dissertation work in the summer school in Finland 27 May-2 June. The summer school preparation (in addition to the revised dissertation proposal): 1. We begin the summer school with a poster session exhibiting everyone s dissertation proposal. Please bring along a poster (A2 or A1 size) about your dissertation project. Don t forget to put your name on it. The poster should give a clear idea of what your research is about and make evident how interesting the subject is! The posters will be 2

3 displayed all simultaneously at the opening session on Monday 28 May. The posters are meant to be a starting point for the dissertation work during the week. You may additionally use other supporting objects and your own laptops for technical enhancement, but the poster should be the main means of presenting the dissertation topic. 2. Please prepare a 10 minute oral synopsis of your dissertation (No powerpoint or other technical equipment) which you will present to a group of students in the seminars following one of the morning lectures. 3. Please bring important readings for your dissertation to work on during the summer school and discuss with supervisors. On August 27 th, you must submit to your first supervisor additional work from your dissertation chapters, along with a revised table of contents and bibliography, which will approximately equal words or half of your final dissertation submission. On November 7 th, you must submit to your first and second supervisors the 1 st complete draft of your dissertation. The staff has agreed to read your drafts and consult with each other (your first reader with your second reader) and prepare feedback for you by November 21 st. On December 20 th 2012, you submit formally your dissertation: We have set up a platform at Warwick on the departmental website where you all will file your electronic versions of your dissertations by noon on 20 December This must be a PDF version and it is the FINAL version you will not be allowed to change or amend it. All audiovisual documentation and any other audiovisual material that is to be assessed as part of your dissertation project must also be supplied on or by the 20th December These must be provided on three separate flash drives, DVDs and/or CDs. Unfortunately, audiovisual material cannot be uploaded to the website due to uploading restrictions, and we are unable to accept links to web sites. You must make sure that that one copy reaches each of your supervisors as well as Lindzey Mullard's office (so it can be sent to the external examiner) on or by 20 December Lindzey s address is: Lindzey Mullard MAIPR Programme Officer Department of Theatre & Performance Studies Millburn House The University of Warwick COVENTRY, CV4 7HS England On December 20 th 2012 you also must submit two hard copies of the PDF version of your dissertation. One bound hard copy of the uploaded dissertation must be delivered 3

4 to your home institution (therefore Warwick. Amsterdam, or Belgrade) on or by 4.00 pm on 20 December The second hard copy of the uploaded dissertation must be posted to the institution of your second supervisor. The postmark must be the 20 th December 2012 or earlier. The hard copies and CDs with your dissertations must be the same as the uploaded dissertations corrected or revised versions are not acceptable. Uploading your dissertations: Go to then click on the link named Final Submission on the side of the page (it s the bottom link). You will be taken to a Web Sign-on page. Input your Warwick username and password to access the final submission site. (Reminder: your Warwick username starts with the letters ts followed by a random series of letters). When you are in the site, you need to fill in your full name and Warwick University ID (your Warwick 7-digit student number, for example ). By ticking the statement I have read and understood the rules of e-submission, this confirms that you have read the document you are now reading. Click on the add your file pdf only link, from where you will be prompted to upload your dissertation. You may upload it only once, so make sure that what you upload is a final version with which you are fully satisfied. NB: there may be an upper limit for the uploading of one document to the final submission site (to be clarified shortly). If your dissertation contains images you therefore need to be aware of how large this will make your dissertation. If required, you may need to create two documents: a main dissertation document that contains only the text: a separate appendix document that contains any images. These must be uploaded together as two associated documents and must be clearly identified as such. Requests for an extension of your final deadline: These will be considered only in very exceptional circumstances. In addition to the JAB s approval they would require approval of an appropriate committee in Brussels. Style Issues: As you know, the programme as a whole has adopted MLA as the style book for all dissertations, but there are some matters that are at your discretion or should be checked against your home institution s preferences and rules. For example, whether you choose to use the US double quotation mark system with punctuation inside the 4

5 marks or the British model of single quotation marks and punctuation outside the marks is up to you and your supervisor. The size of the paper and the margins can be done according to your home institutions custom, but we do want you to follow MLA rules on double-spacing across the program. In the interests of having some uniform formatting, we will suggest an order to your materials that all dissertations can follow (unless there are special reasons to do it differently in special cases). Those should be: Title Page with title of dissertation, name, address, names of supervisors, home and mobility universities, date of submission Abstract or summary of no more than 300 words Acknowledgments page (if desired) Table of Contents Body of the dissertation (chapters 1, 2, 3 etc.) Notes (if any) Bibliography Appendix/Attachments as needed (documentation, other materials, photos if not incorporated into the body of the work etc.) 5