The MRes provides training in research methods combined with work on a specific anthropological research project under academic guidance.
During this course, systematic critical discussion of your own and other research projects trains you in:
- How fieldwork contributes to social scientific knowledge
- How to isolate the theoretical questions that inform particular pieces of ethnography
- How to identify the kinds of empirical evidence necessary to address those questions
You are allocated a supervisor and faculty advisor in the same way as those registered for the PhD; and you will normally continue with this supervisor throughout your PhD.
Details of the course
The taught element of this course consists of these compulsory streams:
- The Pre-fieldwork seminar.
- The ‘Experiences from the Field’ seminar, run by writing-up students recently returned from the field.
- The Ethnographic Methods Course, Parts I (Michaelmas) and II (Lent).
- The Senior Research Seminar, scheduled for Fridays during term time. This is the place where the Department really gets together, and we attract very good speakers from the UK and overseas.
- Anthropological Lives, which explores the lives of anthropologists who made striking and distinctive career decisions and/or unexpected use of their anthropological material.
Please see the MRes Course Outline and the MRes/PhD1 Timetable. Reading lists for the Pre-field seminar and Ethnographic Methods courses are available from the MRes/PhD1 Moodle Course.
You are also strongly encouraged to attend other optional elements:
- Anthropology Beyond the Academy - a series of presentations from speakers from a range of fields, reflecting on how their study of anthropology has informed their subsequent careers.
- Ad hoc sessions in Transferable Skills or anthropological methods, such as technologies of research and data management, film-making and research with children.
Additional training
You are also expected to develop your own training programme by making full use of the range of courses available in the Social Anthropology and the University more widely. You should discuss your training needs with your supervisor, but you should consider the following:
- Language learning sessions. These can be organised through the University Language Centre or privately, or you can also arrange to attend undergraduate language courses, depending on circumstances.
- Training in advanced statistical methods or other qualitative social science methods provided by the Joint Schools Course in Research Methods. Of particular interest to you will be the modules on Historical Methods and Sources and Doing Qualitative Interviews, but others may also catch your eye.
- Participation in Undergraduate or Masters level lectures and seminars which address on themes specific to your research topic (this might for example include attending the seminars in the ethnography of a particular geographical area – see the course information for SAN4 Ethnographic Areas).
- Research seminars at one of the Area Studies centres in the University: African, Middle Eastern, Latin American, South Asian, Mongolia and Inner Asian, Scott Polar.
Introductory week
During the first week, you are required to attend the University’s safety and risk assessment courses and the Department of Social Anthropology’s induction course.