Unit information: Dissertation in 2026/27

Unit name	Dissertation
Unit code	HARTM0014
Credit points	60
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
Unit director	Professor. Mike O'Mahony
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	Department of History of Art (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Unit Information

Why is this unit important?

All MA students are expected to undertake a dissertation as the culmination of the programme of study. The dissertation provides a structured and supervised opportunity for MA students to pursue independently an agreed topic of interest with reference to and emerging from their previous studies and to produce an appropriately advanced piece of research. The dissertation involves devising a realisable topic, which has the potential to contribute to knowledge of the subject. After a conducting a survey of literature and other relevant materials, appropriate methodologies will be devised in order to explore a research problem. It would normally be expected that this topic would arise from work already undertaken on the programme, creating an opportunity to explore a specialist area in more detail.

How does this unit fit into your programme of study?

The dissertation is the capstone assessment for your programme. It is your opportunity to put into practice the research, analysis, and writing skills you’ve developed throughout the taught content of your MA. It is also a chance for you to undertake historical research that reflects your emerging specialism as a researcher. In other words, we see this unit as the culmination of your time on the History MA, as you continue to develop the disciplinary skills of the academic art historian.

Your learning on this unit

1. An overview of content Because the dissertation is a student-led art historical inquiry, the content of this unit will be driven by each student’s interests, existing expertise, and the topic they wish to tackle. Students may wish to build on material from the taught content of the programme, in order to expand upon subjects, primary source bases, and research questions they have addressed in some capacity, or to craft an original topic in consultation with their supervisor. This is your opportunity to explore, and in doing so, to develop an area of specialism as an art historian. How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit This unit aims to support you in undertaking an original piece of art historical research, concerning a topic of your choosing. It will develop your understanding not just of the art history context, but also of the ways in which art historians set about framing appropriate research questions and answering them. By the end of this unit, you will have transferable skills to do with project design, development, and management. But you will also be an art historian in your own right, having added to the collective disciplinary knowledge of the field. Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this unit students will be able to: 
   
   1. design a project that is realistic in scope
   2. identify and appraise existing work on a particular subject in order to generate research questions appropriate for an independent art historical inquiry
   3. distinguish between a range of different research methods and critical frameworks and select those most appropriate to answering the proposed research questions
   4. demonstrate substantial knowledge of a specific subject area through the identification and analysis of primary sources, including material objects, and relevant scholarship
   5. make a sustained written argument or intervention in academic debate and communicate it with clarity

How you will learn

Tutorials - supervision sessions.

How you will be assessed

Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):

Dissertation, 12,000-word (100%) [ILOs 1-5]

When assessment does not go to plan

When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. HARTM0014).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.

The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.