MA capstone project guidelines

Students in the General Track of the M.A. in Anthropology complete a thesis as their capstone project. Students in the Applied Track complete a practicum with an organization or agency and write a report for their capstone project. These projects are equivalent in length and complexity.

Thesis Option

There are several models for an M.A. thesis. In the Dept. of Anthropology at UNC Charlotte, we envision a completed M.A. thesis as a paper that is potentially publishable in an anthropological scholarly journal. In practice, this means a paper that is no more than 50 pages of (double-spaced) text and usually closer to 35-40 pages of text, plus necessary supporting sections such as illustrations, charts, bibliography, etc. You may also include appendices which provide copies of survey questionnaires or interview questions or charts of raw data, etc., as appropriate for your topic. The appendices are not included in the page count.

You will write at least one preliminary document before the actual thesis. This preliminary document is the thesis proposal. After successfully defending your thesis proposal you will then start working on your thesis. The thesis proposal will be completed in ANTH 6910, Thesis Tutorial. The thesis will be completed in ANTH 6920, Masters Thesis. You will enroll for 6910 in the spring of your first year (assuming you start in a fall semester; this will be adjusted for students who start in the spring). You will enroll for 6920 in the fall of your second year (or the semester that is equivalent to your third full-time semester).

In ANTH 6910, you will complete a thesis proposal in which you (a) propose a focused research problem; (b) situate the research problem within current anthropological research and document the relevant anthropological literature related to your research problem (“literature review); and (c) describe the methods you plan to use. At the end of 6910, you will have an oral defense of your proposed research. If you are successful in your proposal defense, you will have clearly defined your research problem, comprehensively situated the research problem, and effectively developed the analytical methods. You may have started collecting data at this stage as well. Your data may be ethnographic, archival, archaeological, and/or biological in nature.

If your research involves gathering data from humans (e.g., interviews, focus groups, participant – observation, etc.), you must submit appropriate information to the University’s Institutional Review Boar d (IRB) for review and approval. This should happen during the proposal stage. You must receive approval from the IRB before collecting data from humans. If your research involves gathering data from animals, you must also submit appropriate information to the University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). You must receive approval from IACUC before collecting data from animals.

In ANTH 6920, you will complete gathering and analyzing data. This will be followed by writing the final thesis itself, which will include compressed sections (a), (b), and (c) from your proposal and will also include (d) a summary of the collected data; (e) analysis of the data in the context of your chosen theory or theories; and (f) conclusions. There will be an oral defense of the completed thesis. This will include a presentation of your research and questions about the thesis from your committee.

It takes focused writing to compress the material into the space constraints. Throughout your M.A. career, you should regularly read current scholarly journals in anthropology, so you develop an understanding of the writing style and structure used in anthropological publications. It is helpful to specifically read scholarly journals that publish research in n the area that you are working in. It is a good idea to format your thesis to meet the requirements of one of these journals. Your advisor can provide advice on appropriate scholarly journals.

Practicum/Report Option

Applied track students are more interested in learning to apply anthropological ideas and methods to issues facing communities in Charlotte or elsewhere. Their research project is collaborative with a community partner, who works with the student and advisor to develop research questions, methods (including data collection and analysis), and means for communicating results. The proposal includes information about the organization, research questions, methods, and relevant literature. Applied students create a final product in collaboration with their community partner to address their needs, and write an article draft intended to connect the project results to the anthropological literature (the latter is intended for the department rather than the organization). Students work with their advisor and the community partner to determine the final format of both parts.

Students in the Applied Track will take ANTH 6400, Practicum in Anthropology while they write their proposals usually in the spring of your first year (unless you are MA/MPH, then spring 2). You will: (a) identify your practicum location; (b) identify the potential research question(s) that you will address for the organization or agency (this must be done through collaboration with agency personnel); and (c) prepare a thorough literature review of the relevant work in applied anthropology and related fields (i.e., anthropology more broadly and other disciplines appropriate for your placement). This proposal document should clearly delineate the potential research questions, the appropriate methods for the project, and the ethical issues that need to be addressed. You will have an oral defense of this proposal.

If your research involves gathering data from humans (e.g., interviews, focus groups, participant-observation, etc.), you must also submit appropriate information to the University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) for review and approval. This should happen during the proposal stage. You must receive IRB approval before collecting data from humans. If your research involves gathering data from animals, you must also submit appropriate information to the University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). You must receive approval from IACUC before collecting data from animals.

The final product for the applied anthropology track will be a written document in the style of an academic article and an applied product negotiated with your community partner and your advisor. The article will follow the general format of an academic article and will likely only highlight a few key themes of your research, while also providing a literature review, methods section, and reporting of results and discussion. It is a good idea to follow the author guidelines for a target journal of interest. When the article and product are finished, you will have an oral defense that will include a presentation about your practicum and questions from your committee. The applied project can take various forms, depending on what is most useful to your community partner. This could be a workshop or training on your chosen topic offered to the community partner(s), an infographic delivering your results in an easily consumable manner, or an outline of recommendations for the community partner (among other options). While the exact nature of this project can change as needed, you should have conversations with both the community partner and your advisor about what type of project you might undertake during your proposal writing process.