Prof Fran Tonkiss STC S205 and Dr Suki Ali STC S307

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Sociology. This course is not available as an outside option nor to General Course students.

Students undertaking this course need to have completed the first two years of the BSc in Sociology.

The dissertation takes the form of an independent research project of 10,000 words on a sociological topic of the students’ choosing, developed in consultation with their Academic Mentor. The dissertation process includes reviewing relevant literature on the topic of study, formulating a viable and sociologically-relevant research problem, collecting and analysing primary and/or secondary data (such as a case study, data set, fieldwork observations, corpus of texts, survey results or interviews), and writing up an independent analysis based on this research.

Students’ work on the dissertation is supervised in small-group and individual tutorials with their Academic Mentor over AT and WT.

The Dissertation process is supported by a series of compulsory group workshops in the AT and WT which focus on research project design. The workshops cover topics such as identifying a sociological problem for investigation, constructing a bibliography, research ethics, research access, data collection, data analysis and writing up.

7 hours and 30 minutes of seminars in the AT. 6 hours of seminars in the WT.

Seminars will be structured as follows: 5 x 1.5 hour seminars in the AT. 4 x 1.5-hour seminars in the WT.

5 x 1.5-hour small-group tutorials with Academic Mentors in AT. 2 x individual supervisions with Academic Mentors plus drop-in sessions in WT.

Reading Weeks: Students on this course will have a reading week in AT Week 6 and WT Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

One piece of formative coursework in the AT.

Dissertation (90%, 10000 words) in the ST.
Research proposal (10%) in the AT.

Assessment Particulars:

Research proposal (10%, 2,000 words): An electronic copy of the research proposal to be uploaded to Moodle no later than 4.00pm on the last Thursday of Autumn Term.

Dissertation (90%, 10,000 words): An electronic copy of the dissertation, to be uploaded to Moodle, no later than 4.00pm on the second Thursday of Spring Term.

Attendance at all classes and submission of all set coursework is required.