Fieldwork Thesis
Full course description
The fieldwork option is a great choice for students who want to gain hands-on research experience, learn how to use fieldwork methods, and train to collect and analyse field-collected data. It is designed for students who aim to pursue a research-oriented career or want to do field-based research in the Global South. The fieldwork thesis should contribute to relevant existing academic debates in the field of globalization and development studies and with a focus on the Global South. The resultant thesis may, ideally, form the basis of an academic publication. To facilitate a good and fruitful fieldwork experience, students are encouraged to choose their field site from among the places where current faculty members in the GDS programme have ongoing research programs or projects. Developing a research topic connected with an existing research program will ensure that they are embedded within a local context, and have the support of a local (research) organization or university. However, when students have access to their own networks, they may organize their own fieldwork site, in close collaboration with their FASoS supervisor. Fieldwork can only be done when a local contact is in place who agrees to facilitate the student's stay.
Course objectives
After completion of this course, students are able to:
- apply and make use of the relevant knowledge and skills acquired during the Master GDS
- identify and formulate clear research questions or theses that help to direct the research & writing process and engage with these as the primary investigator
- conduct a comprehensive literature search and bibliographic analysis, and assess the quality of the selected sources
- find, assess and critically analyse primary and secondary data, including independent research with field methods (e.g. participant observation, interviews, ethnographic data analysis)
- critically reflect upon the relations between theories, concepts, methodology, and empirical findings and use these insights to build an academic argument and position themselves in an academic debate
- use theoretical perspectives from a variety of academic fields for a chosen research topic and within the scholarly domain of Globalisation and Development Studies
- write a complete academic thesis of appropriate structure and length in understandable academic English that is well-documented, including quotations, footnotes, in-text references and a reference list (APA)
- engage with and incorporate constructive (academic) feedback
- plan, carry out and finalize their own research within a fixed time‐frame
- acquire the academic and personal skills to conduct and reflect upon fieldwork research in an ethical and socially responsible fashion
Prerequisites
The courses: - GDS4000, - GDS4001, - GDS4002, - GDS4003 or GDS4004, - GDS4005