Welcome to the Faculty of Social Sciences! Postgraduate Taught Master’s Induction 2015 Dr Tim Hopthrow Associate Dean (Graduate Studies) The Graduate School.

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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