MA Supervision Arrangements

All members of staff supervising MA students have been asked to produce a statement on the arrangements they set in place for supervising MA students, and their availability. You can find the relevant information by clicking on the entry for each member of staff below.

MA Supervision Arrangements - Page One

Enam Al-Wer
Doug Arnold
Bob Borsley
Vineeta Chand

Enam Al-Wer

I meet with MA students on individual basis during the following periods:

April to discuss general issues which relate to your research. General issues can include research design, theoretical framework, analysis procedure, relevant background reading and research.

End of May. By this date will have completed data collection. In the meeting you give me a short oral report about your data collection; we discuss specific questions about your research, and an outline of the dissertation.

End of June. By this time you will have written a draft of the major chapters of the dissertation.
I expect to receive a draft of the dissertation to read end of July (preferably in hardcopy). I will return the dissertation with my comments two weeks later. You will have four weeks to work on the final draft and submit by mid September. I am happy to arrange another meeting during July.

You can email me during the Summer. I am happy to respond to questions via email, but I prefer to discuss larger issues during our meetings.

Doug Arnold

I expect to see students I supervise individually approximately every two weeks for approximately one hour during the summer term. Supervision during the summer vacation depends on availability (mine and students'), but students can normally expect at least two meetings at times to be arranged. I am happy to respond to minor queries by email, usually within a couple of days.

Bob Borsley

MA supervision will consist of up to four individual 1-hour supervisions or the equivalent. I am happy to see you either during the summer term or during the summer vacation. (I will let you know when I am going to be away from the University during the vacation.) I will read drafts of individual chapters and give you feedback on them, but I will not read a draft of the entire dissertation before you submit in September. If you would like me to comment on drafts, you should send them to me by email at least 4 days before we meet. I will be available to answer minor queries by e-mail at any time.

Vineeta Chand

MA supervision will include 4-6 meetings (some may be on the phone, depending on schedules) during Spring and Summer terms (e.g. 6 shorter meetings or 4 longer meetings). These meetings are the space for us to work through your progress, problems and the results of your research project to that point. It is your responsibility to do the following:

arrange for the appointment in advance via email
to send me any relevant materials (e.g. research proposal, annotated bibliography, research questions, dissertation outline, data collection and transcription writeups, data coding and analysis plan and/or copies of your transcripts, coded data or results) at least 5 working days before the meeting
to come to the meeting prepared with questions, a summary of what you have accomplished, and any issues you are having, and to then follow up on any components which are suggested during the meeting.

I am also happy to review and comment on your analysis and writing (e.g. sections or chapters of your dissertation) once each during the Summer Term or the July-September period (although be forewarned that the turnaround on comments will be much longer during the July-September period). The goal of this feedback is to serve as a bellwether regarding the suitability and comprehensiveness of your theorizing/review of literature as well as your methodology, data, analytic plan and early analyses, and thus would be better to send to me far in advance of your final submission. During the Summer Term, if you would like to discuss any sections and my feedback, please arrange an appointment for at least 5 working days after you have emailed me the draft. As well, please let me know prior to the end of the Summer term if and approximately when you will be sending me sections during the July-September period, and I will let you know how soon I will be able to respond with feedback.

All of these components should largely be completed by the end of the Summer Term. Between July and September you will largely be on your own: I will not hold regular office hours, but am happy to answer minor queries by e-mail. I am sometimes away from email for 2-3 weeks, so please check with me regarding my schedule for July-September and plan in advance. When in town, I will respond to emails within a few days, if not sooner.