Fall/Winter Timetable

POL2810Y1Y L0101

M.A. Research Seminar I

Themes

The purpose of this seminar is to provide an opportunity to Master’s students to design and execute an independent research project over the course of the year on a question that interests them. The broader goal is to enable Master’s degree students to contribute to their future development, whether academic or professional. Thus it is the student members of the course who will shape its content. A primary interest of the instructor is to promote a debate over the respective strengths and weaknesses of the positivist-empiricist versus interpretivist approaches and methods in political science research, and their contribution to the study of democratization and democratic reform. Students will be encouraged, but not in any way required, to situate their work in one of these broad fields

Texts

Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970); Stephen Van Evera, Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997); Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber and Patricia Levy, eds., Approaches to Qualitative Research: A Reader in Theory and Practice (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Format and Requirements

The course is structured to provide maximum support and assistance to the students as they develop their projects and bring them to completion. In the first half of the fall term students in the seminar will consider the applicability of different theoretical approaches and methodologies to their thematic and issue concerns. We will consider how to pose an interesting research question or puzzle, how to select the appropriate methods and sources of data, how to frame a research proposal, and how best to utilize the resources available at U of T to bring the work to a successful conclusion.

In the second half of the fall term students will begin to define their research issues more specifically and concretely, selecting their cases and defining the scope and time period of their research problem,; and adopting the approaches and research methods that seem most applicable to these issues and cases. We will also invite specialists or experts to address the seminar on relevant topics such as use of electronic library resources and formulating and implementing research proposals. In the final week of the fall term, students will present brief (c. 5-10 minute) oral summaries and 5-10 page written drafts of their Research Proposals. These Proposals should include brief descriptions of the thematic issues, research questions, theoretical approaches and methods that they have tentatively adopted for their projects. These will be discussed in class, with colleagues assigned to make comments and suggestions.

In the first half of the winter term (January and February) there will be no regular seminar meetings. Students will meet intermittently in smaller seminar sub-groups organized primarily in terms of common research approaches and methods. They will also be expected to meet the instructor on an individual basis during this period for assistance in preparing more detailed research plans. which should include reports on their research progress up to that point.

In the final week of February, just after the Reading Week break, students will present progress reports on their research both orally and in writing. They should also be made available to the instructor and to other students in their subgroups beforehand. During the month of March the research proposals should be transformed into draft papers, which will be presented in a series of small group workshops, scheduled during the first week of April. The draft papers will be presented orally in a mini-conference format for about 15 minutes, and then evaluated and critiqued for 5 minutes by a commentator from the sub-group selected for this purpose, followed by general discussion. Written outlines of about 1-2 pages in length should also be made available at that time to both the instructor and other students in the subgroup.. .

In the case of those planning to graduate in the spring semester, during the following weeks in April the draft papers should be revised to incorporate responses to the comments and criticisms of the instructor and other students. These students will then submit their final papers to the instructor. They must submit their papers early enough in the last week of April to meet any deadlines for this convocation set by the Graduate Office. In appropriate individual cases, however, students may petition this Office in writing, with the support of the instructor, that they be granted extensions and later deadlines during the summer for completion of their final essays.

Students are expected to cover the assigned readings for each seminar session, to make oral presentations within the format described above at regular intervals, and to participate actively in the seminar discussion of each topic. Final grades are based on a composite evaluation of oral reports, presentations and participation each term (25% per term), and the final written essay (50%).