| Course Type | Course Code | No. Of Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation Core | SLS3SC303 | 2 |
Semester and Year Offered: Monsoon Semester of every year
Course Coordinator and Team: TBD
Email of course coordinator: TBD
Pre-requisites: None
Course Objectives/Description:
The aim of the guided reading course is to facilitate self learning/ reading on a topic of research interest, and help the Scholar gain detailed domain specific knowledge. The guided reading should be related to the scholars PhD work. This course is intended to bridge the gaps of other courses and cover detailed reading and analysis of the relevant texts of specific research domain.
The scholar will work under the supervision of a faculty to research, read and analyse the relevant reading material. The academic advisor will be responsible for assessing the progress of the scholar. This course will be tailored keeping in mind the research interest and the weaknesses and strengths of the scholar concerned in relation to his/her proposed research work. Typically, scholars will do this course in the second semester of PhD course work and by which time the scholar should have identified a research topic.
Course Outcomes:
On successful completion of this course students will be able to:
Brief description of modules/ Main modules:
Depending upon the strengths and weakness of the scholars concerned in relation to his topic of research interest, the academic advisor and the course coordinator will help the scholar identify relevant literature for reading and analysis. While the Academic Advisor and the course coordinator will help in setting the reading material, the scholar will have to help him/ her in the work of, research, reading, and writing. There will be no class room teaching for this course, however, detailed discussions with the Academic advisor, the Course coordinator and other faculty, as the scholar concerned or the Academic Advisor may deem necessary, will be held on regular basis.
It is a course that will equip the scholar with the knowledge and skills necessary to pursue research. It is also expected that the course helps the scholar to gain further clarity of the theoretical, methodological, ideological and analytical tools covered in previous coursework. The format of the course and the reading list will be tailor made as per the needs of the scholar and the topic of the research. Therefore, the format of the course will depend on the faculty supervising and coordinating the course. The scholars would generally be required to read the classic works related to the topic of the research and also review leading journals over the past few years, focusing on important articles and debates. The scholar will be free to seek help and guidance for any issue of interest and usefulness like, topics on which the scholar may need more help or additional reading material. However, the scholar is expected to hold interactions with the academic advisor and mandatorily complete all the course work that the academic advisor may assign during the course. The overall coordinator of this course will be the Ph.D. programme coordinator.The main focus of the course will be on the following:
This course isreading and writing intensive (in connection to the writing seminar) and will comprise reading selections from prescribed books. Each research Scholar will present the reading for the week for each class in an annotated bibliography format. The aim is to thoroughly familiarise students with the arguments made in the texts and evaluate them along the following parameters: Theoretical frameworks, Research methods, Historical context and Topical context.
The Research Scholars will be expected to identify literature sources in consultation with their academic advisor and create an annotated bibiliography with a minimum of 25 sources, at least eight of which will be entire books related to various aspects of their doctoral proposal and the rest will be journal articles or book chapters. Each week, students will be expected to present for discussion at least 6-8 sources. The students will finalize their annotated bibliography in consultation with their academic advisor, the course coordinator, and the feedback received from their peers.
Based on the annotated bibliography and ongoing discussion in class and with their academic advisor, students will identify research questions and the methodology for their research, towards a draft PhD proposal. Different components of the proposal will be discussed and presented each week. Peer review will again be an important component of the class presentation. Based on the feedback of their academic advisors, the course coordinator and their peers, students will develop a research proposal for their PhD dissertation.
Assessment Details with weights:
The scholar is responsible for reading the material prescribed, gain the knowledge according to the timetable agreed with the academic advisor and demonstrate before the faculty unit / coordinator of the course that he / she has achieved the learning objectives. The academic advisor may require the scholars to submit written assignments, make presentation(s)/ oral examination and the weightage of such assessment situations shall be announced at the time of the commencement of the course. Besides other assessment situations, as decided by the academic advisor, the scholar will have to make an oral presentation before the sociology faculty and the fellow scholars. At the end of the course the academic advisor/ Coordinator of the course shall submit the Grade obtained by the scholar in the course mentioning clearly whether the scholar has passed or needs to repeat the course.
A sample of assessment below:
1.Survey of literature presentation: 30%
The format and final date (first week of April) for this presentation needs to be fixed by the scholars in consultation with their academic advisors and promptly communicated to the course coordinator. This will be entirely evaluated by the academic advisor in communication with the course coordinator.
2. Discussion of texts: 40%
This component will be spread through February until April. In the month of February, each scholar will read and discuss some selected texts related to some common research themes. From March until April, each scholar will present their weekly annotated bibliographies for peer review.
3. Presentation of a proposal: 30%
At the end of the semester, each scholar will present a research proposal. The date of this will be fixed by the course coordinator with the academic advisor. The course coordinator in consultation with the academic advisor will evaluate the presentation.
Reading List (basic as the rest are decided with consultation with academic advisor):
