Students who undertake to complete a Dissertation with the Department will acquire 12 credits in IR. For administrative reasons, we will break down the distribution of these credits into two sections within your transcript, titled ‘Research Methodology II’ [4 credits] and ‘Dissertation’ [8 credits].
Completing the requirements of the courses on Research Methodology is an essential component of your dissertation, and will be a critical feature of the dissertation program.
The courses in Research Methodology will help students in developing their initial Research Question, as well as a Research Prospectus, or a detailed plan for the ways in which they will complete their dissertation.
Students who wish to be considered for supervision by the IR Department must first submit a brief proposal of their research interests after having completed the course ‘Introduction to Research Methodologies (IR 2053)’, which is also a mandatory course for all IR Majors.
Students interested in completing a dissertation should identify the themes and approaches that they are interested in, in consultation with the instructor for the course (Prof. Amit Julka in Spring 2024).
After completing the course, students should submit a short statement of their research interests to the OAA at the end of Spring 2024, specifying, if possible the name of a primary supervisor who has agreed to take on the project. The Department will select proposals based on whether it can allocate faculty members whose areas of research interest overlap with the proposal, as well as based on agreement of a member of faculty to take on the project.
After being selected, dissertation students will have to assemble a Research Prospectus of 5000- 6000 words at the end of Monsoon 2024 (4 credits). In Spring 2026, they will complete the rest of the dissertation. (8 credits).