Master of Arts Integrated Studies (MAIS) 602

Introduction

MAIS 602: Researching Society and Culture is a foundational course that will ensure students possess the methods required to carry out and complete interdisciplinary research.

Note: It is recommended that MAIS 601 and MAIS 602 be completed early in the program.

Course Outline

Throughout the course students will be encouraged to work across disciplinary boundaries, so that their work becomes an interdisciplinary, integrated project. The course is designed in the hope that students will learn something new, challenge themselves, engage with their colleagues in the course, and have fun.

• UNIT 1 (Weeks 1 - 3) Situating the Disciplines and Inter-disciplines
• UNIT 2 (Weeks 4 - 9) Doing Interdisciplinary Research: Perspectives, Insights and Adequacy
• UNIT 3 (Weeks 10 - 12) Doing Interdisciplinary Research: Analyzing, Integrating, Proposing
• UNIT 4 (Weeks 13 - 15) Case Studies from Interdisciplinary Area Studies

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to

1. understand the ways in which disciplinarians problematize the world based on specialist knowledge.
2. critically discuss and define “interdisciplinary” research.
3. identify specific steps researchers can take towards producing integrated research outcomes.
4. produce an interdisciplinary research question/problem for further investigation.
5. produce a literature review that explores a given research question/problem from varying disciplinary perspectives.
6. produce a research proposal that outlines an achievable Master's level research project.

Student Evaluation

Please note that your work on each assignment will be graded on a pass/fail basis. Your professor will also give you an indication of your strengths, weaknesses, and areas requiring improvement for each assignment. This evaluation process is intended to assist you in achieving greater competency as you progress through each stage of the course. Try to focus on your learning, rather than on how that learning is assessed.

The below weightings suggest an approximate percentage of the work in the course that you should devote to each activity. However, this will vary among students.