Desk Study Thesis
Full course description
This thesis exam option involves performing original academic research towards the objective of completing a Desk Study Thesis. Students gather, examine and analyse secondary and possibly some primary data, which contribute to answering a designed research question framed within existing academic debates in the field of globalization and development studies, with a focus on the Global South. The desk study thesis should contribute to the relevant academic debates and may, ideally, form the basis of an academic publication.
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
- 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
- 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 desk study research in an ethical and socially responsible fashion