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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