Master Thesis Seminar 

Professor: Carol Galais 

The aim of this class is to help students in the final stage of their master’s thesis, mostly in regards the structure, order, quality parameters and writing of the thesis. During their undergraduate and graduate studies, students have for sure acquired a number of skills. They have learned the main theories and results from various fields of political science research, and become familiar with the various approaches and research methods in political science. They have learnt to use various statistical or qualitative techniques for data collection and analysis, and some even have written small pieces of research, for instance in the form of seminar papers. The final master thesis represents an important additional step in one’s academic training, adding professionality, accuracy, systematicity and relevance to their work.

We envisage the writing process as the first serious, professional paper that students will write. The seminar will guide students through the steps necessary to achieve this outcome, from the definition of one’s research question to the presentation of the final work. It will also give students information on what may come next, by discussing PhD projects and political science research as a career. On all of these topics, the seminar will give much importance to the concrete questions and problems of the participants. The aim is to acquire practical knowledge that can be applied directly to one’s own research.