General information meetings on the Thesis Seminar Fall: see tab Information and Deadlines
Theme 101: Political Legitimacy and Justice (J. Belic)
The purpose of the thesis seminar is to accompany you when you write your master thesis. Students develop draft proposals into full research proposal, which will be the basis of their master thesis. All students of the specialization ‘Political Theory: Political Legitimacy and Justice’ are required to take this seminar. For this reason, this seminar is a broad church. Students are free to pick a subject of their interest as long as it touches on the themes of political legitimacy and justice, broadly understood. This includes themes in contemporary political theory, political philosophy, and the history of political thought. Besides the standard conceptual/normative approach of analytic political philosophy that can be either abstract or applied, students can also use methodologies from critical or interpretive political theory, and the history of ideas. In consultations with the instructor, students are supposed to garner their own literature.
Additional Information
Students are recommended to check the substantive readings listed in the Reading List prior to the beginning of the seminar. The reading list will be available on Brightspace at least one month before the seminar starts.
Registration
See 'Information and Deadlines'.
Examination
The thesis seminar is composed of a research proposal (first 8 weeks) and a thesis (remaining of the course). The research proposal ensures that the student is on the right track to carry out the research and write the thesis. It must be approved by both readers (see below), but is not awarded a grade. The grade of the thesis corresponds to 100% of the grade of the thesis seminar.
Research Proposal
The research proposal includes a problem statement, theoretical foundation, conceptualization as well as a sound explanation of the methods and techniques for data collection and analysis.The proposal must be approved by the supervisor and a second reader. The second reader will be designated by the Director of Studies. Please note that teachers are not obliged to provide thesis supervision if the proposal is not approved. The research proposal is not graded, it receives only a pass/revise/fail evaluation.
Master Thesis
The MSc thesis needs to comply with high standards of academic research. The formal requirements of the Master thesis are stated on the page ‘Thesis seminar information and deadlines’. The thesis evaluation form with the evaluation criteria will be published on Brightspace.
Students that drop or fail the course have to retake the complete thesis seminar (in the 2nd semester of the next academic year). Students should contact the Exam Committee if they are unable to complete the master thesis by the deadline due to circumstances beyond their control.
Timetable
See 'MyTimetable'