Welcome to the Faculty of Social Sciences!Postgraduate Taught Master’s Induction

2015Dr Tim Hopthrow

Associate Dean (Graduate Studies)

The Graduate School

The Faculty of Social Sciences and You

• Community and Diversity in the Faculty of Social Sciences

• Broadening your horizons

• Your contribution

• Life beyond the Masters degree

Community and diversity

• Faculty of Social Sciences is the largest in the University, with more postgraduate students than the other two faculties combined

• Comprises 9 Schools/Centres: Anthropology & Conservation; Economics; KBS; KLS; Politics & IR; Psychology; SSPSSR; Centre for Journalism; Centre for Professional Practice

• Incredibly diverse; at first sight you might wonder what these divergent Schools could possibly have in common

• But what unites this community is the shared interest of its members in social relations

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Community and diversity

• That could be social relations in the animal kingdom, e.g. Anthropology project on male-female aggression & sexual coercion in chimpanzees

• Or human relations in all their complexity: violence & war collective bargaining & social networking child development management of drug offenders corruption in financial institutions community based micro-finance arrangements the psychology of the highest performing athletes the impacts of obesity on the local and global economy

• Often research on these themes is conducted collectively by colleagues from different Schools in the Faculty

Community and diversity

• Projects currently underway in the Faculty include: Gender management strategies adopted by female

entrepreneurs The impact of cannabis use on career, relationships &

health Water pollution protection regimes in Ethiopia The economic psychology of giving, public goods &

leadership Polygraph testing for sex offenders The social psychology of conspiracy theories Equipping athletes with the correct mindset to recover

from injury The impact of gender imbalances on peace &

democratisation in China and India

Community and Diversity

• Projects are diverse, so are the methods

• Develop theories of the social world

• Consider Metaphysical and philosophical questions Applied studies Experiments or mass data collection

• Philosophy – ethics

• Commitment to better understanding social relations

Broadening your horizons

• Broad range of research & and diversity of methods

• Competing perspectives on methods

• But we would encourage you to seek out more

• Why?

• Employers

• Wider appreciation

• Contribution

Broadening your horizons

• Acquired many skills

• Cutting edge research

• Engage with a rich research community right on your doorstep

• Research seminars and guest lectures

• Inaugural and open lectures

• Conferences, workshops & reading groups

Broadening your horizons

• Unique opportunity

• Sports clubs or Societies

• Travel

• Meeting people

• Careers service

http://www.kent.ac.uk/ces/index.html

Life beyond the Masters degree

• Advanced research & analytical skills

• Transferable skills

• Non-academic career

• Academic career

Funding for PhD Research

• Economic and Social Research Council

• University Scholarships and School Scholarships

• Deadlines for applications is late January

• Highly competitive

• Begin work on a proposal and application in the Autumn term

• Identify prospective original research question and prospective PhD supervisor, and work closely with them as soon as you can.

Finally

• Inclusive research community REF 2014

• THE Kent ranked 17th for research intensity • 85% of research staff submitted

• Independent study

• Feedback

• Make the most of your time here

• Good luck!

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