Pre-proposal Research Seminar

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This three-credit, pass/fail course is designed to help students in the crucial fifth semester of their graduate education to move toward a dissertation. It is directed toward the pre-proposal planning meeting that each student is required to hold by the end of their sixth semester with their presumptive dissertation committee. The seminar is team is team taught under the supervision of a separate, designed faculty coordinator. Each student works with a team of two to three faculty members who make up their presumptive dissertation committee. The student meets with each faculty member at least three times, once to plan what to read and at least twice to discuss the chosen readings. Each meeting lasts for roughly 2 1⁄2 hours. The specific outcome of this course includes (1) a problem statement, (2) a ten-entry annotated bibliography, and (3) a roughly twenty-entry aspirational bibliography laying out the things that the student currently sees as most relevant to their research project. These will serve as the basis for the pre-proposal planning meeting mentioned above.