MA Modern Languages and Cultures

This unit will allow the student to complete a supervised research project in their chosen area of specialisation, supported by a programme of reading agreed with their supervisor. Using the research and conceptual skills developed in the taught units, students will identify a research problem in their area of specialism and then design and pursue an independent essay project in response to that problem.

The unit aims to:

• Introduce students to specialist knowledge in their chosen area of research specialisation

• Familiarise students with the state of the art in the scholarship relating to their chosen area of research specialisation

• Help students to develop a critical perspective on their chosen area of research specialisation

• Provide students with experience undertaking a pilot research project, applying skills and concepts encountered in the taught part of the programme.

• be familiar with major critical and theoretical debates which inform research in their subject-area;
• be able to elaborate personal theoretical responses to subject-specific research questions;
• have obtained an interdisciplinary perspective on subject-specific topics;
• have developed a sophisticated critical vocabulary and a critical perspective on their own research.
• demonstrate detailed knowledge and sophisticated understanding of a specific research topic in the language-based disciplines, including the existing scholarship in that field
  • build a coherent and cogent argument using relevant scholarly evidence
  • be able to use theoretical concepts in empirical research.
  • apply relevant methodology to the analysis of the material under examination
  • apply sophisticated theoretical concepts to the material which informs research in their subject-area
  • undertake critical analysis using appropriate methodological tools
    • be able to conduct independent research in a chosen field of enquiry;
    • present the outcomes of that research in written form