Rationale
This year long module represents the culmination of the student’s critical development on the course. It provides an opportunity for students to explore a chosen area of Film studies. Students design and carry out a sustained and coherent piece of independent research in an area of scholarship that they wish to pursue and offer a critical reflection on it. While every effort will be made to accommodate student’s choices, it is anticipated that the topics chosen will generally relate to work undertaken in previous modules or possibly in other concurrent Level 6 modules. In each case, the work will draw on the appropriate methodological approaches introduced at Level 5.
Students undertaking a Film dissertation will work initially as a group with the module leader to formulate preliminary research proposals, to consider the feasibility of the chosen research area and propose an appropriate methodological approach. As well as meeting as a group to consider common research issues, students will then work independently, guided by specialist subject supervisors who will be assigned once proposals have been formulated.
A significant aspect of the module is the encouragement of critical self-reflection, culminating in the production of the critical review. This means that the student’s ability to reflect on and evaluate the process of research is also assessed and, to facilitate this, students are encouraged to keep a reflective journal of their research activities, viewing and thought processes during the year.
Indicative Content
The dissertation group will be introduced to the guidelines for writing a proposal, researching and writing up the dissertation, keeping a journal and writing a critical review. Students will be reminded of the academic conventions for referencing and producing bibliographies. The first few weeks will be taken up in discussing students’ initial proposals and supporting them to formulate individual detailed and considered research proposals to include defining the object of study, clarifying the critical approach or method and thinking about the aims of the research. Students will be reminded of methods for accessing and evaluating on-line resources and supported in identifying other resources.
The research proposal is submitted using the following headings:
The proposed content of a student’s research project will need to be agreed with tutors but will typically involve the analysis of a film text or texts or other objects of film study which can elicit close analytic reading situated in an appropriate critical and theoretical framework, whether aesthetic, formal, generic, ideological, representation, contextual or historical.
Once proposals have been agreed, students will work individually with their allocated specialist supervisors. It has been agreed that students will be able to see their tutors for a maximum of six tutorial sessions during the year. Students continue to convene occasionally to discuss conducting literature searches, focusing on key texts, refining aims, formulating research questions, and establishing the place of the student’s own argument or analysis within the field of study.
The dissertation group meetings will provide opportunities for students to develop and test their ideas by presenting them informally to their peers and to gain formative peer and tutor feedback. The sessions will encourage students’ critical self-reflection and evaluation of the process of work and provide guidelines and support for the writing of the Critical Review.
Assessment