Guidelines for submitting a proposal and preparing a BA or MA dissertation
How to submit a dissertation proposal
Students interested in having me as their dissertation advisor are invited to contact me by email to arrange an initial meeting to discuss a proposal, indicating “dissertation request” in the subject line and specifying their course and chosen graduation period.
The message should also contain a preliminary formulation (approximately 250 words) of the proposed dissertation’s topic (preliminary proposal)
This initial meeting will be solely for the purpose of determining whether the project is feasible in terms of methodology, timing, and chosen topic (please read the sections on “timing” and “topic” below carefully).
If the project is deemed feasible and consistent with my expertise and teaching, one or two further preliminary meetings will be scheduled to better define the topic and methodology to be followed. After these initial meetings, students are required to draft a more detailed proposal (complete proposal) of approximately two pages, consisting of:
1) Provisional title;
2) Abstract (500 words max.) and keywords (6 min.-10 max.) of the thesis;
3) Brief description of the topic and methodology to be used;
4) Draft table of contents (structure of the dissertation, with titles and numbers of chapters and paragraphs);
5) Preliminary reference bibliography, which will be constantly updated as the work on the dissertation proceeds.
N.B. The dissertation is formally “agreed upon” only after the complete proposal has been submitted.
Timeline
Prospective graduates are encouraged to contact me well in advance so that we can proceed without haste in identifying the dissertation topic and methodology. For this reason, it is essential that students carefully read the guidelines regarding the timeline below:
1. In order to write the thesis, a complete dissertation proposal (organized according to the 5 points outlined above) must be agreed upon and submitted at least four months before the date of uploading the thesis file for bachelor's degrees, and at least nine months before for master's degrees.
2. It should be noted that, according to our University’s regulations, the upload date precedes the defense date by approximately one month.
1. At the time of upload, the dissertation must have already been fully reviewed, corrected, and approved by the supervisor. This means that the various chapters must be sent by email to the supervisor in the preceding months. Please note that the supervisor will only read final versions of the chapters, not drafts or partial drafts.
3. To allow enough time for an adequate final review, the complete dissertation must be sent to the supervisor approximately two months before the defense and one month before the deadline for the final upload.
4. Once the candidate has received all the corrected chapters from the supervisor, and after making the requested edits, they must send the complete file (from the title page to the bibliography) to the supervisor at least 15 days before uploading.
5. Only after formal approval by the supervisor may the candidate proceed to upload the dissertation within the specified deadline.
Choosing a dissertation topic
As far as the dissertation topic is concerned, students have a wide range of options. However, I prefer proposals that relate to my broad field of research interests: communication (verbal and non-verbal), the relationship between language and culture, speech as a cultural practice, linguistic ideologies, real and virtual linguistic communities, political discourse (in all its forms) and advertising, human interaction in public and private contexts, the anthropology of media and virtual audiences, forms of artistic expression (linguistic and visual), food and eating (e.g., the return to the land of neo-rural entrepreneurs, urban agriculture, the agricultural and discursive production of organic and biological foods), etc. I am not available to supervise dissertations that involve field research with minors, hospitalized patients, or individuals who are unable to give their consent to participate in research.
Ideally, the choice of topic should be considered from the early stages of the bachelor's or master's degree program. Once a potential topic has been identified, the student should conduct a preliminary research (on Google Scholar and in the library) in order to arrive at the preliminary interview with the chosen professor with some ideas about the topic and the research methodology they intend to adopt.
Types of dissertation
Dissertations can be either (i) theoretical and aimed at providing a critical review of the existing literature or (ii) based on empirical and/or field research.
BA dissertations generally fall within the first category: they are review essays and mainly involve the use of secondary literature (i.e., texts resulting from other people's research). For example:
· The presentation and reflection on a classic text of cultural, social, or linguistic anthropology (e.g., Marcel Mauss's The Gift) and the analysis of the debates it has sparked;
· The analysis of and reflection on specific modes of representation (through writing) of cultural phenomena and practices in one or more emblematic ethnographic monographs (e.g., what literary devices were used by Bronislaw Malinowski in his description of the kula exchange in The Argonauts);
· The discussion of a theoretical concept or methodological aspect that has marked the history of the discipline (for example, the concept of linguistic relativity and the idea that the language we speak influences our perception of reality and worldview);
· The presentation and discussion of some aspects of ethnographic literature on a people or cultural area (e.g., the “galactic political system” and conceptions of power in Southeast Asia);
· The discussion of a specific aspect of our present (e.g., how to anthropologically reflect on the Covid-19 pandemic);
· The reflection, presentation, and discussion of an anthropological paradigm or school (e.g., British functionalism as an approach to the study of language and culture).
Although a this type of review/survey/theoretical dissertation does not involve the collection of primary data, students must develop their own point of view on the chosen topic, demonstrating that they have conducted a critical reading of several texts and secondary sources (including films, audiovisual material, and documentaries).
MA dissertations are aimed at producing a more complex piece of work and are based not only on theoretical reflection on secondary sources, but also on a phase of empirical research and/or fieldwork. The candidate's original research contribution does not necessarily imply a period of fieldwork (i.e., immersion in “exotic” contexts, which has traditionally characterized anthropological apprenticeships). An MA dissertation may entail other forms of applied research and be based on the use of a historical approach (e.g., the study of documentary sources and archival materials) or the analysis of a corpus of linguistic, literary, and discursive data (e.g., transcription and analysis of Donald Trump's press conferences, comparative analysis of Korean instant noodle advertisements, analysis of film representations of New York City in the 1980s and 1990s). In any case, preparing an MA dissertation project involves choosing a topic and a specific context in which to investigate that topic.
Length and format
The standard length of a BA dissertation is a minimum of 40 pages (excluding bibliography and any appendices), corresponding to approximately 10,000 words. Please note that one page consists of 1800 characters, including spaces, or approximately 250/280 words.
The standard length of a MA dissertation is approximately 100 pages, corresponding to approximately 25,000 words.
Basic rules
· With regard to deadlines for registering for graduation sessions, each student is required to consult the website of their degree program in advance, in the “Studying” “Final exam” section.
· The dissertation must be written in strict accordance with the editorial guidelines indicated below.
· The file may only be uploaded after receiving formal approval from the supervisor.
· For Master's Degree students only: the co-supervisor must be agreed upon with the supervisor.
· Cases of plagiarism will be reported to the competent authorities.
Published on: March 14 2021
