Throughout the terms preceding the initiation of the dissertation module students will be encouraged by their supervisor and the instructors of other modules they take to develop ideas for their dissertation research project. They will also be taught appropriate research methods. The final double weighted essay of their pre-dissertation will draw together materials they have learned through the preceding terms and will synthesise these with students' research interests in order to set up a prospectus for the thesis proposal itself. Students who are then passed into the dissertation module by the examiners meeting will, on this basis, complete a written plan for their research project with advice from their tutor. This will be assessed by the tutor and by one other member of the post-graduate anthropology teaching staff, and when this is approved the student and his or her tutor will intensively discuss methods of data collection, theoretical models for the analysis of this material, and the use and integration of research methods into both its preparation and its final presentation. The student will then independently work on the thesis over the summer until mid-September when it will be submitted. Throughout this time the student will be able to gain supervision through electronic mail.
Total contact hours: 12
Private study hours: 588
Total study hours: 600
MSc Ethnobotany
Dissertation (15000 words) (100%).
Reassessment methods: 100% project.
Reading list (Indicative list, current at time of publication. Reading lists will be published annually)
There is no specific required reading for this module, apart from readings included in the research methods module.
All students will be required to complete their own project-specific literature searches and read relevant literature for their research project. They will provide an account of this in the literature review section of the dissertation.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
8.1 set up a testable hypothesis
8.2 design a research project to test the hypothesis
8.3 select an appropriate methodology, involving either qualitative or quantitative approaches, or a combination of the two
8.4 negotiate access to the field of study, arrange the research and carry out the study
8.5 conduct data analysis and research using appropriate methods
8.6 write up the dissertation and organise and express cogently a body of research
The intended generic learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
9.1 articulate and assess a number of anthropological and cognate approaches to issues in ethnobotany
9.2 understand the study of ethnobotany in relation to how the subject has developed
9.3 evaluate various theories of how ethnobotanical data are organized and explained
9.4 think critically in anthropological terms about the relationship between ethnobotany and other aspects of culture and society
9.5 present ideas systematically and cogently in writing
9.6 summarise complex material succinctly
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