how to write a master's thesis in social sciences

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Thesis 101: A Guide for Social Science Thesis Writers

Welcome to the harvard library, finding a researchable question, finding scholarly resources in your field, covid-19 - information & resources, helpful library services & tools.

• Subject Guide

Sue Gilroy , Librarian for Undergraduate Writing Programs and Liaison to Social Studies  ([email protected])

Diane Sredl , Data Reference Librarian and Liaison to the Department of Economics ([email protected])

Kathleen Sheehan , Research Librarian and Liaison to the Depts. of Government, Psychology & Sociology ([email protected])

Congratulations on choosing to write a senior thesis! This guide brings together resources and information to help you as you work though the thesis research and writing process.

What is Already Known

Handbooks  are a stock-in-trade for academic researchers. Typically, they're edited volumes, with chapters written by authorities -- or recognized experts, and they synthesize current "consensus" thinking around a particular topic, the most widely accepted perspectives on a topic  They usually contain extensive bibliographies which you can mine as well.

• Cambridge Handbooks O nline
• Cambridge Histories Online
• Oxford Handbooks Online
• Very Short Introductions

Current Trends & Questions

Literature reviews  are essays that help you easily understand—and contextualize—the principal contributions that have been made in your field. They not only track trends over time in the scholarly discussions of a topic, but also synthesize and connect related work. They cite the trailblazers and sometimes the outliers, and they even root out errors of fact or concept. Typically, they include a final section that identifies remaining questions or future directions research might take.

Among the databases for finding literature reviews, we recommend you start with:

• Annual Reviews offers comprehensive collections of critical reviews by leading scholars.
• Web of Science can be a powerful tool in uncovering literature reviews. A keyword topic search in Web of Science much like HOLLIS, will return results that you can then sift through using a variety of left-side filter categories.  Under document type, look for the review.  

Prioritizing My Reading  

• Oxford Bibliographies Online combine the best features of the annotated bibliography with an authoritative subject encyclopedia. Entries identify key contributions to a topic, idea, person, or event and indicate the value of the work. 
• Anthropology
• Social Studies
• Multidisciplinary

Research Guide:

• Anthropology Research

Key Databases:

• Anthropology Plus
• Anthropology Online

Library Research Contact:

Susan Gilman , Librarian for Tozzer Library

• Economics Research  
• Business Source Complete
• Business Premium Collection

Diane Sredl , Data Reference Librarian

• Library Research Guide for History  
• America History & Life
• Historical Abstracts

Fred Burchsted , Research Librarian

Anna Assogba , Research Librarian

• Sociology: a Guide to Research Resources
• Sociology Database
• Social Sciences Premium  

Kathleen Sheehan , Research Librarian

• Government: a Guide to Research Resources
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Social Studies tends to be so interdisciplinary that it's sometimes hard to offer students  a "one-size fits all" starting point.  

Research Guides :

• Research Guides for Social Studies 98 (junior tutorials) may also cover -- broadly speaking -- an area of interest and you may find some leads there. But the 1:1 consult often can't be beat for  locating the databases and the primary sources that are  best suited to your project! 
• If your thesis is applied, our Social Sciences Premium database is sometimes, along with HOLLIS , a good jumping off point. 
• If your thesis is theoretical,   resources like Phil Papers or Philosopher's Index are also recommended.  

Sue Gilroy , Liaison to Social Studies, Lamont Library

• Contemporary Issues in Psychology

Key Database:

• Web of Science

Michael Leach , Head, Collection Development, Cabot Library

Research Guides:

• Research Travel Checklist
• HOLLIS User Guide
• Public Opinion Sources
• Beginner's Guide to Locating and Using Numeric Data
• Conducting Research Interviews: Selected Resources
• Academic Search Premier
• A Harvard COVID-19 Resource Roundup
• Harvard Library Restart Updates
• How to Borrow Materials and Use Our Services During COVID-19
• HathiTrust  for digitized materials
• Scan & Deliver
• Harvard Library Purchase request
• Check Harvard Library Bookmark - Use this bookmarklet to get quick access to subscriptions purchased by Harvard Library.
• Zotero: Getting Started  - A tool for saving, organizing and formatting your research sources.
• Ask a Librarian - Send us your question virtually.
• Borrow Direct & ILL  to borrow materials not currently available from the Harvard Library
• Harvard Map Collection
• Visualization Support
• Qualitative Research Support

The contents of this Guide are drawn largely from other Guides authored by Sue Gilroy, Librarian for Undergraduate Writing Programs and Liaison to Social Studies.

• Last Updated: Feb 26, 2024 1:50 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/thesis101

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

How to Write a Bachelor/Master Thesis in Social Sciences (Step-by-Step + Examples)

• Post published: April 19, 2021
• Post category: Resources
• Post last modified: April 10, 2024

Hello Auré from 2021! It’s 2024 and we now have AI to help us! I recommend readers to use the free consensus app which helps you find any study extremely quickly, as well as ChatGPT for feedback and to resolve any question you may have. Use Grammarly to spot mistakes in your thesis.

When it comes to transcribing, there are a wealth of AI tools you can use so you don’t have to transcribe the interviews by hand.

You can also write your thesis in Notion instead of Word as it has an embedded writing tool.

Good luck! I didn’t change the rest of the article so always remember that whatever you need help with, there will be an AI tool for that.

When it comes to theses, the guidelines depend on your university, your program, and your supervisor. Always make sure to follow these rules first.

I have written three theses in my academic career and passed all of them the first time.

This article will explain how to write a bachelor or a master thesis in social sciences.

You’ll learn:

• how I found my research question and two guaranteed methods to do so
• how I structured my work
• the five parts of theses and how to write them
• the different research methods and which ones to select
• how to find respondents
• the mindset to adopt to write your thesis
• how not to be late

You can also download my three theses to have a look at them yourself.

Table of Content

Click to expand/collapse

Part 1: The Theory

• Finding Yout Topic

What to Do if You Cannot Find a Thesis Topic?

Finding the research question and the introduction of your thesis, how to establish the theoretical framework of your thesis, which research method to select for your thesis, how to conduct the research for your thesis, how to find respondents for your interview, transcript analysis and presenting the results of your research, how to conclude your thesis, part 2: the mental behind writing a thesis.

• Don’t Focus on the End-Goal – Focus on the Next Step Instead

Break the Routine

Load up on things to do, realize what your time is worth.

• You’ll End up Dying at Some Point…
• Use Parkison’s Law

The Bottom Line

How to write a thesis, finding your topic.

The first thesis was the most complicated to write.

Even though I was studying communication, the theme I had chosen was “business model innovation” because it looked interesting to me.

Initially, I had decided to write something related to online news websites.

I wrote my research proposal and sent it to my supervisor.

He hated it and gave me zero.

While everyone in my class was already contacting people to interview, I had to do it all over again.

But I didn’t want to.

I was angry, and I considered quitting my bachelor’s altogether.

I wrote an email to the faculty asking to change group and join a political-themed thesis class.

They said no. Great.

I wouldn’t graduate then.

As I was weighing my options, an idea came to me.

I had written days earlier a paper for another course about the challenges that TV stations had to face due to Netflix and Amazon.

I thought the theme was great for my thesis because it had all I needed: innovation, media, and business.

I asked my supervisor if I could research this theme, he said yes, and off I was.

The second thesis was easier. Written in the context of a master’s in management, I had decided to base it on the first one but with another industry.

Instead of writing about Netflix VS TV stations, I wrote about hotels VS Airbnb.

I bought a ticket to Colombia and wrote the paper under the sun of Medellin.

For my third thesis, I wanted to analyze the power of the US, China, and Russia.

However, it was more suited for a book, so I didn’t do it and wrote instead about an idea I wanted to publish in Quillette (but they never accepted it).

One day, as I was daydreaming, I wondered how we could improve political decision-making.

So I looked at how private companies handled their own decision-making.

Turns out that they use data, algorithms, and AI.

So I thought that political decision-making would probably come to that point as well, with all the consequences on democracy.

That idea stayed in my mind, so I wrote about technological decision-making in politics, namely data science within the EU Commission.

Take a paper you already wrote and derive your thesis topic from this paper.

Let’s be honest, it is difficult to randomly come up with ideas to research.

Look at what you have already done, and go deeper.

The alternative is to take a paper you enjoyed reading and to look at their “suggestion for follow-up research” section.

A thesis is no more than an answer to a question.

Look around you, read the newspapers, ask questions.

What are people wondering about? What are the impacts of new technologies? What could be the link between such a field and another one?

How do people perceive such a phenomenon? What does it mean for both people and the phenomenon?

Find what you wonder about, and go research it.

Personal trick:  think for yourself. 

When I was studying for my master’s in political science, everyone went to research boring topics in international relations. As a result, they all struggled to find supervisors.

I did not research a boring topic in international relations. I went for a topic that was different and that  I liked . As a result, I had four different professors ready to supervise me, when most students couldn’t even find one.

Look outside the box and stop caring about other people.

The best way to succeed is not to be better than anyone else, but to  escape competition and rule over your own empire.

To summarize, here are all of the ways you can find a thesis topic:

• Take an assignment or a topic you have already written about and go further for your thesis.
• Take a previous thesis that you apply to another area (like I did with hotels and Airbnb).
• Find an interesting scientific paper and look at the “further research” section.
• Same thing as 3, but with a thesis from a student that wrote it the previous year.
• Be aware of what you are daydreaming about and see if it could apply to a thesis.
• Ask a researcher or professor about the unanswered questions in their domain of expertise. Don’t be obvious though, they shouldn’t know that this is because you want to write about it. Make it sound like it’s a simple conversation you are interested in.
• Read a bunch of papers about a topic and see which question has not been answered yet.
• Replicate: take a study, do it again, and see if it replicates (great for psychology).

Back to my first thesis.

As soon as my supervisor gave me the green light, I worked like a madman for the next few days.

The first step is to find a research question, aka, a problem to solve.

The problem should be as simple and as small as possible.

That’s what makes research difficult.

It’s easy to find big philosophical questions. It is less so to answer them.

Find the smallest problem possible for your question, or your theme will be too broad and you’ll have issues.

My question, as we said, was the survival of TV stations. I imagined they were going to die because of Netflix.

To make sure this problem was real, I had to read maybe 4 or 5 academic papers talking about this problem.

Once I had my proofs, I could come up with a research question.

Originally, I wrote:

“What is public TV stations’ strategy and response to counter new competitors in the TV landscape such as streaming companies?” 

But my supervisor didn’t like it and told me to write this instead:

“What societal remit should PSBs (public service broadcasters) fulfill in an increasingly innovative and competitive media landscape?” 

Now, I kid you not, I understood the question only weeks after I had gotten my final mark.

I had no clue what I was writing about until after I had finished writing it.

Instead of focusing on what TV stations did to survive, my supervisor wanted me to focus on what was public TV stations’ role in society.

Instead of asking “what do you do to survive”, it was asking “why do you even exist?”.

That guy was smart.

Next up, you’ll have to formulate hypotheses (some people work without them as I did).

Hypotheses are answers you believe you will find. They are based on the current literature.

When you write hypotheses, it will help you later on to structure your questionnaire into different parts so that you can answer your research question.

While I’m not a fan of hypotheses because it gives you more work, I do admit it eases your task.

Ask your supervisor.

For my second thesis, I did the exact same thing as for the first one, but with Airbnb’s and hotels instead of TV and Netflix.

I could have also chosen Uber and taxis, but that looked more like a done deal since they are the same service.

Hotels and Airbnb still differ to some extent.

The research question was:

How do high-end hotels use innovative strategies to overcome challenges and be more competitive in the hospitality business?

My third thesis was written in the context of a master’s in political science and EU studies.

“How does the EU Commission use data throughout the policymaking process?”

As you can see, the second and third research questions suck. They are badly phrased.

Since a thesis is built on a research question, a bad research question will give a bad thesis.

Don’t do what I did. Do it better. Do it simpler.

Getting your research question is the most difficult and critical step of any research work .

Once you got it, you just need to put your brain on “pause” for one or two months, and follow the plan.

Theses in the humanities and social sciences are not about thinking, but about writing what people tell you to write.

Once I got my RQ (research question), I could write my introduction: for the first thesis, I wrote about the challenges of TV, then of public TV, then about the specific challenges that these streaming newcomers represented for public TV, then I introduced my RQ.

Afterward, I presented an outline of how I researched the problem (technically, an intro is the last thing you write, so if you write it first, write in the past tense) and what research method I used.

And boom. I got my intro.

Don’t forget to add the “academic relevance” (why your research is academically interesting) and the “societal relevance” (how it can be applied to society).

Next up is the theoretical framework, also called “literature review”.

The literature review consists of reading a bunch of academic papers and make them  speak to each other .

What you need to write is who says what about what and who agrees with who or contradicts who.

You’d think that writing a thesis is about writing, but it’s not.

It’s mainly about reading, then rephrasing whatever you read ( that’s one of the reasons why science stagnates , it has too many protocols and people are mostly concerned about what has been written instead of writing new stuff, but that’s a topic for another time).

So, reading then re-writing about 20-40 academic papers will do for your theoretical framework.

“40?! But Auré, how could you remember what you read?”

I didn’t, because I never read them entirely.

Here’s why.

First of all,  time is important  (remember that at the end of the article).

You’ll most likely die before you turn 80 because of the micro-plastic in your body and the low-quality air you breathe, so you want to maximize your time spent doing cool stuff, not writing papers no one gives a crap about.

When you read an academic paper, you want to focus on three parts only : the abstract, the introduction, and the conclusion/discussion.

The rest has not been written for you and you can ignore it.

Here’s what I did. I read the paper, then write a summary on a word document that I called “sources”.

This document was my database containing everything I had read.

If I didn’t remember where I had read a particular piece of information, all I had to do was a quick search in my database, and boom, I got what I wanted.

Sometimes, I’d just copy-past the abstract or the conclusion and add some keywords to find them easily in the database.

Since I often had +- 50 sources for my theoretical framework, this database was huge.

Once you established your database with the academic papers, you can start writing your TF (theoretical framework). Basically, you should define and explain all the concepts of your RQ.

For my first thesis, I explained the evolution of the TV landscape, then explained Netflix and all of the issues and strategic problems they caused for public TV (well, “explained” is a big word, you’re not allowed to explain, only to rewrite what other people had already written for you).

For my thesis on data and the EU Commission, I explained the entire policymaking process, defined “data”, and defined the few evidence-based policymaking strategies that I could find (research was lagging, I couldn’t find much).

Once you got your RQ, your introduction, and TF in order, congratulations!

You’ve done about 69% of the thesis.

I have no clue about theses in engineering or math, but theses in humanities and social sciences can choose between quantitative research (numbers) or qualitative research (people).

Needless to say,  you should never go for quantitative research. 

Here’s why:

1. You need a lot of respondents: every year, Facebook is assaulted with “hey, I’m writing a thesis for my master in gender studies, can you please fill up this short survey that will only take 5 minutes of your time? Thaanks!!”

Students often need to find 100-250 respondents for their results to be valid, and that’s when you realize that your 1000 friends on Facebook are completely useless when you can’t even get 20 people to fill up your survey.

A girl I know was smart. She paid a company whose job is to find respondents and got her results within 2 days.

Trust me, you don’t want to waste time and alienate your Facebook friends, nor do you want to pay to find people.

2. Analysis is hard: dunno which software you’ll have to use, but if you’re not in love with statistics, the analysis of your data will be difficult. You’ll have to perform regression analysis and who knows what else.

Let’s not even speak of results interpretation.

A girl I knew paid a guy in Bangladesh to analyze the results for her.

That only cost her 25€, but still.

-> quantitative research is dumb.

Qualitative research is much better (if you don’t know what it is, google it).

Whether you interview people (5-15) or do content analysis, you are the master of your time.

I did interviews for my three theses and never regretted it.

The only annoying thing was transcribing them, but it gets faster as you progress and gain skills.

In order to avoid interviews that are too long, don’t hesitate to interrupt your respondents if they give answers not relevant to your research.

The next part of your thesis is the “research method”.

I am not sure if what I’m about to tell you is correct. The three research method sections I wrote were done differently according to the wishes of my three supervisors.

Make sure to always follow the guidelines you are given since they are the requirements on what you will be judged on.

For the first thesis, I had to write a mini-theoretical framework about the research method, basically explaining what is qualitative research, in which context it is used, and why it was suitable for my work.

For the second thesis, I had to add a small part on  how  I had conducted my research.

For the third thesis, I had to scrap this research explanation structure to explain the steps I had taken instead.

I believe the third one is the best.

If you haven’t done so yet, now is the time to create the questionnaire you will use for your interviews.

The questionnaire should whether answer your hypotheses (or your theoretical framework) and overall, answer your RQ.

Count around 5-10 questions.

Be specific in what you’re asking, and don’t hesitate to elicit more answers if your respondents remain vague and elusive.

One easy way is to ask your supervisor if they don’t know anyone to interview. Usually, people in small industries know each other.

If they don’t, you’ll have to find respondents by yourself.

Contacting people by email is best.

If you’re a girl, you’ll have more success contacting men.

If you’re a guy, you’ll have to offer value in exchange for the time you’ll spend interviewing the person.

Start your email by briefly introducing yourself, then introduce your research project.

Ask if you can interview them, by Skype or in real life, whatever suits them best.

Don’t forget to add that you will share your results with them (they usually give you an interview because of that specifically).

If they answer they can’t give you an interview, ask them if they know anyone else.

Find below an email template I sent to people I wanted to interview for my first thesis,

“Dear Mister X,  

My name is Auré.

I am a communication and media student at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. I am currently writing my thesis on the innovative strategies that public service broadcasters have implemented/are implementing in order to overcome the challenges of the media landscape.

In order to do so, I’m currently interviewing media innovation experts/managers from public service broadcasters.

Would it be possible for me to interview you? 

I would be happy to come to Brussels to do so, or to do it over Skype, whatever suits you best.

I would of course be happy to share the results of my research with you, once it is completed. 

Looking forward to hearing from you, 

Best regards,

Auré”

Tip! Sending emails manually is a waste of time. There are many free email software out there you can use to send a high number of personalized emails easily (I use Zoho Campaigns, but use the one most adapted to your needs.)

Also, the Chrome extension Email Hunter will automatically capture any emails you run across on the web, and hunter.io enables you to find the email of an important person.

The second way to find respondents is to ask for names at the end of each interview . If you manage to find one respondent that gives you the name of one other respondent that gives you the name of etc, you will easily find all respondents you need.

As such, finding 3-4 respondents should be enough, as these people will likely help you find more people.

When I wrote my political science thesis, I only found 3 respondents myself, and the 9 others had been introduced to me by the 3 original respondents.

Don’t underestimate people’s willingness to help you. 

We’re all humans and as humans, we are wired to enjoy helping others. It’s important to frame your work as  you helping them  rather than the opposite since you are the one tackling a problem  they have.

No one has ever said no to free value.

Send as many emails as you can. I must have sent about 50 emails for my first thesis, more than 200 for my second thesis, and about 40 for my third thesis.

Writing a thesis is not hard. Like all things of value, it just takes time.

Side note: some industries have professionals that are sick and tired to answer students’ questions (marketing). Avoid well-known industries and choose a rare topic where experts are seldom interviewed.

Once you have all of your interviews and transcripts, you can do your analysis. First, I made a list of all the concepts I had asked questions. Then, I assigned a color to each of them.

Then, I’d read all the transcripts and highlight the corresponding concepts to the right color.

That made the organization easy when I had to write the results section.

When I wrote my first thesis, my supervisor told me to “make experts speak to each other”.

Basically, I had structured the section like I had structured the TF. Who says what, about what, and who contradicts who and why.

Afterward, I had written a conclusion and that was it.

For my second thesis, I was told to add a summary of the main findings. For my third thesis, my supervisor screwed me up (no, not in that way).

As I had finished a nice-looking analysis that had taken me two full weeks, she told me it wasn’t “enough”. My research also had to include content analysis.

So I went back to my computer, looked for content, and analyzed it. I subsequently presented the findings according to the hypotheses I had developed in the research question part.

The summary of the findings was included in the conclusion part.

The conclusion is the easiest part. If it doesn’t include the “summary of the main findings”, it usually includes the following: recommendations, limitations, and suggestions for future research.

Recommendations are the part where you can freely express yourself without having to cite anyone else.

It’s you, as an expert, advising people that have the problems you researched.

Limitations are the problems with your thesis or the reasons why people that read it shouldn’t believe what you wrote.

The suggestions are what you think should be researched next.

To summarize, here’s how your thesis should look like:

1. Introduction part: introduce the topic with some background information and present your RQ, research method, possible hypotheses, academic and societal relevance.

2. Theoretical framework: the academic knowledge onto which your RQ is built.

3. Methodology: what methods you used, how (and why).

4. Your results: the part where you answer your RQ whether through your hypotheses or the structure of the TF.

5. Your conclusion: the part where you give your main findings, recommendations, limitations, and suggestions for future research.

Congratulations! You know now how to write a thesis.

If you’re interested in having a look at how the final result looks like, you can download below the three theses that I’ve written.

Obviously, I had to take down names and personal details.

Here are some tips to make the process of writing a thesis easier.

Don’t Focus on the End-Goal – Focus on the Next Step Instead

First of all, take your eyes off the “final moment” when you’ll “be free”.

When Dilma Roussef was getting tortured, she’d think “one more minute, all it takes is one more minute” not to give up.

She could handle 20-25 minutes this way.

You should do the same: only look at what remains to do for the day.

You’ll reach the end before you know it.

Writing a thesis is like sex: you’ll go nuts if you always do the same thing at the same place at the same time.

Go write at the library, in a café, at your friends’ house, change rooms in your apartment and  never write in the room where you sleep. 

On Procrastination

Procrastination is what happens when doing something is more costly than not doing it.

When you enjoy what you do, you don’t procrastinate.

So make sure you find actual, meaningful reasons to write your thesis. Or choose a topic that’s fun to write.

Another way to look at it is to think about  why  you are studying/what are the perks you’ll get once you finish your studies.

It motivates and breaks procrastination.

“What?? But I already don’t have enough time, why would I load up on activities too?”

Technically, writing a thesis would take about one month if you wrote 6-8 hours/day every day, but no one does that nowadays because we’re all lazy and unfocused.

Let me tell you a story.

When I was a kid, I was doing music, sport, and theater. I’d perform best when I “didn’t have enough time” because I didn’t have time to procrastinate which forced me to create a schedule to be on time.

Hence, I was on time. Had I had a week to write something, I would have written it last minute because “I have the entire week, why bother now?”, but since I had many activities, I didn’t procrastinate.

People that procrastinate are those that have time to do so, hence, they end up wasting it.

If I told you that a bomb will explode in a month if you don’t finish on time, trust me, you will.

So the best way to finish on time is to give yourself just enough time to finish.

Load up on activities so that it stresses you out a bit  before  you run out of time to finish your work.

Sometimes, I get paid 10€/hour, sometimes, 15€/hour. That’s what my time is currently worth.

If I spend one hour on Instagram, I’ll “lose” 10€.

Once you realize that time is the scarcest commodity on earth, you stop wasting it.

You’ll End up Dying at Some Point…

This thought scares the hell out of me.

Not dying per se, but not having had time to do all I want to do.

It’s when I realized I wasn’t immortal that I started being productive and stopped losing time like I did when I was a teenager.

Contemplating your own death is a formidable motivational experience.

Use Parkison’s Law

Parkinson’s law says that an assignment will take you the time you allow yourself to take to complete it.

Should you decide to write your thesis within a month, you will.

This law though, is tricky. You may decide upon a period of time that will end up being bigger than needed.

For example, I had given myself until the 15th of May to finish the thesis but was done by the 22nd of April.

While I did use Parkinson’s law as a safety, I didn’t plan my work around it. I worked let’s say…reasonably.

I could have worked faster, but I didn’t want to because we were in lockdown and I had enough working 4-6 hours per day on my piece.

I used to be a last-minute guy until I realized that the ultimate last-minute moment is not the deadline: it’s death.

That was a life-changing realization. Also, as life got more and more complex, I realized I wanted to enjoy full brain capacity and that couldn’t be done if I had a list of things to do in the back of my mind.

If you are a last-minute person, then simply move back in time your deadline and make your own.

If you have a week to write something and think it will take two days, make sure you load up your week with activities two days from now.

Not only you’ll do more stuff, but you’ll have more time and will feel more productive, happy, and energetic.

Personally, the best periods of my life were the ones where I was working 10-14 hours a day.

But well, not everyone is crazy like that.

Photo by Vadim Bozhko on Unsplash

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How to Write a Master's Thesis

• Yvonne N. Bui - San Francisco State University, USA
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“This is the best textbook about writing an M.A. thesis available in the market.” 

“This is the type of textbook that students keep and refer to after the class.”

Excellent book. Thorough, yet concise, information for students writing their Master's Thesis who may not have had a strong background in research.

Clear, Concise, easy for students to access and understand. Contains all the elements for a successful thesis.

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NEW TO THIS EDITION:             

• Concrete instruction and guides for conceptualizing the literature review help students navigate through the most challenging topics.        
• Step-by-step instructions and more screenshots give students the guidance they need to write the foundational chapter, along with the latest online resources and general library information.          
• Additional coverage of single case designs and mixed methods help students gain a more comprehensive understanding of research methods.           
• Expanded explanation of unintentional plagiarism within the ethics chapter shows students the path to successful and professional writing.       
• Detailed information on conference presentation as a way to disseminate research , in addition to getting published, help students understand all of the tools needed to write a master’s thesis.    

KEY FEATURES:  

• An advanced chapter organizer provides an up-front checklist of what to expect in the chapter and serves as a project planner, so that students can immediately prepare and work alongside the chapter as they begin to develop their thesis.
• Full guidance on conducting successful literature reviews includes up-to-date information on electronic databases and Internet tools complete with numerous figures and captured screen shots from relevant web sites, electronic databases, and SPSS software, all integrated with the text.
• Excerpts from research articles and samples from exemplary students' master's theses relate specifically to the content of each chapter and provide the reader with a real-world context.
• Detailed explanations of the various components of the master's thesis and concrete strategies on how to conduct a literature review help students write each chapter of the master's thesis, and apply the American Psychological Association (APA) editorial style.
• A comprehensive Resources section features "Try It!" boxes which lead students through a sample problem or writing exercise based on a piece of the thesis to reinforce prior course learning and the writing objectives at hand. Reflection/discussion questions in the same section are designed to help students work through the thesis process.

Sample Materials & Chapters

1: Overview of the Master's Degree and Thesis

3: Using the Literature to Research Your Problem

For instructors

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MA Thesis Requirement

MAPSS is a one-year degree program. Students are expected to complete all program requirements, including the MA thesis, and graduate by the June or August following their September matriculation.

MAPSS Thesis

The MAPSS thesis is the centerpiece of your MAPSS degree. Regardless of the path you choose to take after MAPSS, the ability to plan and execute a research project is a crucial skill.

MAPSS theses are of two types, academic and professional. For both types, a thesis proposal must be approved by the primary reader by January 31. The proposal lays out the scope and nature of the work to be done on the thesis.

MAPSS-Econ students may be permitted an extension to the January 31 deadline, because of disciplinary differences in securing primary readers for the MA thesis.

Whether you produce an academic or professional thesis, you will submit a draft of your paper to your primary and secondary readers by the deadline specified in our graduation guidelines . You will revise the paper based upon the feedback you receive from your reader(s) and submit a final version that will be graded and evaluated.

The academic thesis is an article-length piece of original research and writing, modeled on a professional journal article for the discipline in which you choose to specialize. Most will be 30 to 50 double-spaced pages. The goal is to advance a scholarly conversation in your discipline, by means of an original contribution that improves our understanding of your research question in conceptual and empirical ways.

The primary reader for the academic thesis is a member of the Social Science Division faculty or any other person with a doctorate and an appointment at the University whom you can interest in your project. Your preceptor will serve as the second reader.

Your thesis will be evaluated based upon the interest of your question, the relevance of your research design, the quality of your data, the sophistication of your analysis, the strength of your presentation, and the significance of your findings.

For those who apply to PhD programs after MAPSS, the academic thesis is critical to the success of your application, demonstrating your ability to develop and execute a graduate-level research project. For those who go on to positions outside the academy, the academic thesis is an important part of your resume, showcasing your graduate-level research skills, methods training, and professional writing.

The professional thesis applies social scientific knowledge and research methods to a concrete problem. This option is designed for those who know from the outset that they wish to use their MAPSS thesis as an opportunity to position themselves for a career outside the academy. It is also for those who decide during their MAPSS study that they wish to pivot from a scholarly focus to a professional one. Please note, however, that if you are part of the Education and Society (EDSO), Quantitative Methods and Social Analysis (QMSA), or Geographic Information Sciences (GIS) interdisciplinary programs, the professional thesis may not be an option.

Like the academic thesis, the professional thesis is a demonstration of the skills learned in your coursework at UChicago. And like the academic thesis, the professional thesis is based upon a solid grounding in the scholarly literature, with data that has been rigorously analyzed to reach a set of conclusions.

The difference between the academic and professional thesis is in the kind of contribution your project makes. While the academic thesis intervenes in a scholarly conversation, the professional thesis speaks to an audience outside the academy.

There are numerous forms a professional thesis might take depending upon your aims. It might take the form of an article proposing a solution to a problem faced by a specific organization; a market analysis for a firm; a grant proposal for a non-profit; a policy brief for a legislator or agency leader; an evaluation report on a new mathematics curriculum; a curation of a museum exhibition; a storyboard for a documentary film; or other projects as approved by your primary faculty reader.

If you choose to complete a professional thesis, we strongly recommend that you register for the Graduate Practicum in the Social Sciences in the winter or spring quarter. One of the benefits of this course is that it provides a structured opportunity to identify a community partner with whom you might work and whose organization might benefit from your project.

Your preceptor will serve as the primary reader for the professional thesis, and the project must meet their expectations. The length will vary depending on the kind of project you undertake.

Your preceptor will ask that you provide at least one or two examples for the kind of project you intend, and will confirm that a project of that kind is viable for our MA degree.

To get the most out of the project, we encourage you to secure a secondary reader elsewhere on campus or a secondary reader outside the University who is knowledgeable about your thesis topic and the kind of project you wish to complete.

No matter what form your thesis submission may take, it must be accompanied by a supplemental report consisting of the following two components:

• Literature Review (7-10 double-spaced pages): A critical literature review demonstrating your use of the relevant academic literature on applied problems. Your review should discuss current scholarly understandings of your research question, the disagreements/tensions in that literature, what parts of the research question remain unsettled or poorly understood, what you learned in the aggregate from those scholarly discussions, and how it informed your research.
• Evaluation of the Research Design (7-10 double-spaced pages): A detailed discussion of your data, data collection procedures, and methods of analysis. This discussion should include considerations of the strengths and weaknesses of your research design and what other methods might have been employed.

Policy Last Revised: May 30, 2023

Students who do not have an approved proposal within 9 months of matriculation, or who have not completed the MA thesis within 15 months of matriculation, will be automatically assigned a MAPSS faculty reader for the MA thesis. Those persons will no longer be eligible to work with anyone outside of MAPSS on the MA thesis.

All part-time or Reduced Course Load (RCL) students will be assigned a MAPSS faculty reader for the MA thesis.

In all cases, when a MAPSS reader is assigned, that person will be the sole reader of the MA thesis. The student may no longer formally work with an advisor from outside of the MA program. If a student has a continuing relationship with an advisor from outside of our MA staff, and that person is willing, they may serve in an informal capacity and offer occasional advice on particular sections of the paper. But that person will not submit a grade or thesis evaluation, and they will not be recorded as an official reader of the MA thesis. 

Your MAPSS reader will provide comments on your proposal and first draft, and submit an evaluation and letter grade for your final draft.

When working with a MAPSS reader, as an extended student 12 months past your initial matriculation, please allow a minimum of 5 weeks for comments after you submit your proposal, after you submit your first draft, and after you submit your final thesis. We will endeavor to get back to you sooner if we can, but our priority will be for current full-time students in the program.

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While Sandel argues that pursuing perfection through genetic engineering would decrease our sense of humility, he claims that the sense of solidarity we would lose is also important.

This thesis summarizes several points in Sandel’s argument, but it does not make a claim about how we should understand his argument. A reader who read Sandel’s argument would not also need to read an essay based on this descriptive thesis.  

Broad thesis (arguable, but difficult to support with evidence) 

Michael Sandel’s arguments about genetic engineering do not take into consideration all the relevant issues.

This is an arguable claim because it would be possible to argue against it by saying that Michael Sandel’s arguments do take all of the relevant issues into consideration. But the claim is too broad. Because the thesis does not specify which “issues” it is focused on—or why it matters if they are considered—readers won’t know what the rest of the essay will argue, and the writer won’t know what to focus on. If there is a particular issue that Sandel does not address, then a more specific version of the thesis would include that issue—hand an explanation of why it is important.  

Arguable thesis with analytical claim 

While Sandel argues persuasively that our instinct to “remake” (54) ourselves into something ever more perfect is a problem, his belief that we can always draw a line between what is medically necessary and what makes us simply “better than well” (51) is less convincing.

This is an arguable analytical claim. To argue for this claim, the essay writer will need to show how evidence from the article itself points to this interpretation. It’s also a reasonable scope for a thesis because it can be supported with evidence available in the text and is neither too broad nor too narrow.  

Arguable thesis with normative claim 

Given Sandel’s argument against genetic enhancement, we should not allow parents to decide on using Human Growth Hormone for their children.

This thesis tells us what we should do about a particular issue discussed in Sandel’s article, but it does not tell us how we should understand Sandel’s argument.  

Questions to ask about your thesis 

• Is the thesis truly arguable? Does it speak to a genuine dilemma in the source, or would most readers automatically agree with it?  
• Is the thesis too obvious? Again, would most or all readers agree with it without needing to see your argument?  
• Is the thesis complex enough to require a whole essay's worth of argument?  
• Is the thesis supportable with evidence from the text rather than with generalizations or outside research?  
• Would anyone want to read a paper in which this thesis was developed? That is, can you explain what this paper is adding to our understanding of a problem, question, or topic?
• picture_as_pdf Thesis

How to Write a Social Science or Humanities Thesis/Dissertation

Writing a thesis/dissertation is a huge task, and it is common to feel overwhelmed at the start. A thesis and a dissertation are both long pieces of focused research written as the sum of your graduate or postgraduate course.

The difference between a thesis and a dissertation can depend on which part of the world you are in. In Europe, a dissertation is written as part of a Master’s degree, while a thesis is written by doctoral students. In the US, a thesis is generally the major research paper written by Master’s students to complete their programs, while a dissertation is written at the doctoral level.

The purpose of both types of research is generally the same: to demonstrate that you, the student, is capable of performing a degree of original, structured, long-term research. Writing a thesis/dissertation gives you experience in project planning and management, and allows you the opportunity to develop your expertise in a particular subject of interest. In that sense, a thesis/dissertation is a luxury, as you are allowed time and resources to pursue your own personal academic interest.

Writing a thesis/dissertation is a larger project than the shorter papers you likely wrote in your coursework. Therefore, the structure of a thesis/dissertation can differ from what you are used to. It may also differ based on what field you are in and what kind of research you do. In this article, we’ll look at how to structure a humanities or social science thesis/dissertation and offer some tips for writing such a big paper. Once you have a solid understanding of how your thesis/dissertation should be structured, you will be ready to begin writing.

How are humanities and social science thesis/dissertations structured?

The structure of a thesis/dissertation will vary depending on the topic, your academic discipline, methodology, and the place you are studying in. Generally, social science and humanities theses/dissertations are structured differently from those in natural sciences, as there are differences in methodologies and sources. However, some social science theses/dissertations can use the same format as natural science dissertations, especially if it heavily uses quantitative research methods. Such theses/dissertations generally follow the “IMRAD” model :

• Introduction

Social science theses/dissertations often range from 80-120 pages in length.

Humanities thesis/dissertations, on the other hand, are often structured more like long essays. This is because these theses/dissertations rely more heavily on discussions of previous literature and/or case studies. They build up an argument around a central thesis citing literature and case studies as examples. Humanities theses/dissertations tend to range from between 100-300 pages in length.

The parts of a dissertation: Starting out

Never assume what your reader knows! Explain every step of your process clearly and concisely as you write, and structure your thesis/dissertation with this goal in mind.

As you prepare your topic and structure your social science or humanities thesis/dissertation, always keep your audience in mind. Who are you writing for? Even if your topic is other experts in the field, you should aim to write in sufficient detail that someone unfamiliar with your topic could follow along. Never assume what your reader knows! Explain every step of your process clearly and concisely as you write, and structure your thesis/dissertation with this goal in mind.

While the structure of social science and humanities theses/dissertations differ somewhat, they both have some basic elements in common. Both types will typically begin with the following elements:

What is the title of your paper?

A good title is catchy and concisely indicates what your paper is about. This page also likely has your name, department and advisor information, and ID number. However, the specific information listed varies by institution.

Acknowledgments page

Many people probably helped you write your thesis/dissertation. If you want to say thank you, this is the place where it can be included.

Your abstract is a one-page summary (300 words or less) of your entire paper. Beginning with your thesis/dissertation question and a brief background information, it explains your research and findings. This is what most people will read before they decide whether to read your paper or not, so you should make it compelling and to the point.

Table of contents

This section lists the chapter and subchapter titles along with their page numbers. It should be written to help your reader easily navigate through your thesis/dissertation.

While these elements are found at the beginning of your humanities or social science thesis/dissertation, most people write them last. Otherwise, they’ll undergo a lot of needless revisions, particularly the table of contents, as you revise, edit, and proofread your thesis/dissertation.

The parts of a humanities thesis/dissertation

As we mentioned above, humanities and some social science theses/dissertations follow an essay-like structure . A typical humanities thesis/dissertation structure includes the following chapters:

• References (Bibliography)

The number of themes above was merely chosen as an example.

In a humanities thesis/dissertation, the introduction and background are often not separate chapters. The introduction and background of a humanities thesis/dissertation introduces the overall topic and provides the reader with a guide for how you will approach the issue. You can then explain why the topic is of interest, highlight the main debates in the field, and provide background information. Then you explain what you are investigating and why. You should also specifically indicate your hypothesis before moving on to the first thematic chapter. 

Thematic chapters (and you can have as many of them as your thesis/dissertation guidelines allow) are generally structured as follows:

• Introduction: Briefly introduce the theme of the chapter and inform the reader what you are going to talk about.
• Argument : State the argument the chapter presents
• Material : Discuss the material you will be using
• Analysis : Provide an analysis of the materials used
• Conclusion : How does this relate to your main argument and connect to the next theme chapter?

Finally, the conclusion of your paper will bring everything together and summarize your argument clearly. This is followed by the references or bibliography section, which lists all of the sources you cited in your thesis/dissertation.

The parts of a social science thesis/dissertation

In contrast to the essay structure of a humanities thesis/dissertation, a typical social science thesis/dissertation structure includes the following chapters:

• Literature Review
• Methodology

Unlike the humanities thesis/dissertation, the introduction and literature review sections are clearly separated in a social science thesis/dissertation. The introduction tells your reader what you will talk about and presents the significance of your topic within the broader context. By the end of your introduction, it should be clear to your reader what you are doing, how you are doing it, and why.

The literature review analyzes the existing research and centres your own work within it. It should provide the reader with a clear understanding of what other people have said about the topic you are investigating. You should make it clear whether the topic you will research is contentious or not, and how much research has been done. Finally, you should explain how this thesis/dissertation will fit within the existing research and what it contributes to the literature overall.

In the methodology section of a social science thesis/dissertation, you should clearly explain how you have performed your research. Did you use qualitative or quantitative methods? How was your process structured? Why did you do it this way? What are the limitations (weaknesses) of your methodological approach?

Once you have explained your methods, it is time to provide your results . What did your research find? This is followed by the discussion , which explores the significance of your results and whether or not they were as you expected. If your research yielded the expected results, why did that happen? If not, why not? Finally, wrap up with a conclusion that reiterates what you did and why it matters, and point to future matters for research. The bibliography section lists all of the sources you cited, and the appendices list any extra information or resources such as raw data, survey questions, etc. that your reader may want to know.

In social science theses/dissertations that rely more heavily on qualitative rather than quantitative methods, the above structure can still be followed. However, sometimes the results and discussion chapters will be intertwined or combined. Certain types of social science theses/dissertations, such as public policy, history, or anthropology, may follow the humanities thesis/dissertation structure as we mentioned above.

Critical steps for writing and structuring a humanities/social science thesis/dissertation

If you are still struggling to get started, here is a checklist of steps for writing and structuring your humanities or social science thesis/dissertation.

• Choose your thesis/dissertation topic
• What is the word count/page length requirement?
• What chapters must be included?
• What chapters are optional?
• Conduct preliminary research
• Decide on your own research methodology
• Outline your proposed methods and expected results
• Use your proposed methodology to choose what chapters to include in your thesis/dissertation
• Create a preliminary table of contents to outline the structure of your thesis/dissertation

By following these steps, you should be able to organize the structure of your humanities or social science thesis/dissertation before you begin writing.

Final tips for writing and structuring a thesis/dissertation

Although writing a thesis/dissertation is a difficult project, it is also very rewarding. You will get the most out of the experience if you properly prepare yourself by carefully learning about each step. Before you decide how to structure your thesis/dissertation, you will need to decide on a thesis topic and come up with a hypothesis. You should do as much preliminary reading and notetaking as you have time for.

Since most people writing a thesis/dissertation are doing it for the first time, you should also take some time to learn about the many tools that exist to help students write better and organize their citations. Citation generators and reference managers like EndNote help you keep track of your sources and AI grammar and writing checkers are helpful as you write. You should also keep in mind that you will need to edit and proofread your thesis/dissertation once you have the bulk of the writing complete. Many thesis editing and proofreading services are available to help you with this as well.

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What are the parts of a social science thesis/dissertation? +

A social science thesis/dissertation is usually structured as follows:

How long is a typical social science thesis/dissertation? +

What are the parts of a humanities thesis/dissertation +.

Humanities theses/dissertations are usually structured like this:

• Thematic Chapters

What is the typical structure of a thematic chapter in a humanities thesis/dissertation? +

A thematic chapter in a humanities thesis/dissertation is structured like this:

How long is a typical humanities thesis/dissertation? +

A typical humanities thesis/dissertation tends to range from 100 to 300 pages in length.

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Prize-Winning Thesis and Dissertation Examples

Published on September 9, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on July 18, 2023.

It can be difficult to know where to start when writing your thesis or dissertation . One way to come up with some ideas or maybe even combat writer’s block is to check out previous work done by other students on a similar thesis or dissertation topic to yours.

This article collects a list of undergraduate, master’s, and PhD theses and dissertations that have won prizes for their high-quality research.

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Award-winning undergraduate theses, award-winning master’s theses, award-winning ph.d. dissertations, other interesting articles.

University : University of Pennsylvania Faculty : History Author : Suchait Kahlon Award : 2021 Hilary Conroy Prize for Best Honors Thesis in World History Title : “Abolition, Africans, and Abstraction: the Influence of the “Noble Savage” on British and French Antislavery Thought, 1787-1807”

University : Columbia University Faculty : History Author : Julien Saint Reiman Award : 2018 Charles A. Beard Senior Thesis Prize Title : “A Starving Man Helping Another Starving Man”: UNRRA, India, and the Genesis of Global Relief, 1943-1947

University: University College London Faculty: Geography Author: Anna Knowles-Smith Award:  2017 Royal Geographical Society Undergraduate Dissertation Prize Title:  Refugees and theatre: an exploration of the basis of self-representation

University: University of Washington Faculty:  Computer Science & Engineering Author: Nick J. Martindell Award: 2014 Best Senior Thesis Award Title:  DCDN: Distributed content delivery for the modern web

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University:  University of Edinburgh Faculty:  Informatics Author:  Christopher Sipola Award:  2018 Social Responsibility & Sustainability Dissertation Prize Title:  Summarizing electricity usage with a neural network

University:  University of Ottawa Faculty:  Education Author:  Matthew Brillinger Award:  2017 Commission on Graduate Studies in the Humanities Prize Title:  Educational Park Planning in Berkeley, California, 1965-1968

University:  University of Ottawa Faculty: Social Sciences Author:  Heather Martin Award:  2015 Joseph De Koninck Prize Title:  An Analysis of Sexual Assault Support Services for Women who have a Developmental Disability

University : University of Ottawa Faculty : Physics Author : Guillaume Thekkadath Award : 2017 Commission on Graduate Studies in the Sciences Prize Title : Joint measurements of complementary properties of quantum systems

University:  London School of Economics Faculty: International Development Author: Lajos Kossuth Award:  2016 Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Title:  Shiny Happy People: A study of the effects income relative to a reference group exerts on life satisfaction

University : Stanford University Faculty : English Author : Nathan Wainstein Award : 2021 Alden Prize Title : “Unformed Art: Bad Writing in the Modernist Novel”

University : University of Massachusetts at Amherst Faculty : Molecular and Cellular Biology Author : Nils Pilotte Award : 2021 Byron Prize for Best Ph.D. Dissertation Title : “Improved Molecular Diagnostics for Soil-Transmitted Molecular Diagnostics for Soil-Transmitted Helminths”

University:  Utrecht University Faculty:  Linguistics Author:  Hans Rutger Bosker Award: 2014 AVT/Anéla Dissertation Prize Title:  The processing and evaluation of fluency in native and non-native speech

University: California Institute of Technology Faculty: Physics Author: Michael P. Mendenhall Award: 2015 Dissertation Award in Nuclear Physics Title: Measurement of the neutron beta decay asymmetry using ultracold neutrons

University:  Stanford University Faculty: Management Science and Engineering Author:  Shayan O. Gharan Award:  Doctoral Dissertation Award 2013 Title:   New Rounding Techniques for the Design and Analysis of Approximation Algorithms

University: University of Minnesota Faculty: Chemical Engineering Author: Eric A. Vandre Award:  2014 Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics Title: Onset of Dynamics Wetting Failure: The Mechanics of High-speed Fluid Displacement

University: Erasmus University Rotterdam Faculty: Marketing Author: Ezgi Akpinar Award: McKinsey Marketing Dissertation Award 2014 Title: Consumer Information Sharing: Understanding Psychological Drivers of Social Transmission

University: University of Washington Faculty: Computer Science & Engineering Author: Keith N. Snavely Award:  2009 Doctoral Dissertation Award Title: Scene Reconstruction and Visualization from Internet Photo Collections

University:  University of Ottawa Faculty:  Social Work Author:  Susannah Taylor Award: 2018 Joseph De Koninck Prize Title:  Effacing and Obscuring Autonomy: the Effects of Structural Violence on the Transition to Adulthood of Street Involved Youth

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From nitrogen to activism: Unveiling Dalhousie’s 2024 Doctoral Thesis Award winners

Stephen Oshilaja - April 16, 2024

Dalhousie doctoral graduates Joseph Bedard and Tari Ajadi have been named the 2024 recipients of the Dalhousie Doctoral Thesis Awards, an annual honour that recognizes dissertations that have made significant and original contributions to the academic community and Canadian society.

The awards, presented by the Faculty of Graduate Studies for more than 25 years now, recognize exceptional theses submitted by PhD students.

Dr. Bedard’s ground-breaking research in the Department of Chemistry centered on making plastics out of nitrogen and phosphorus. He hopes his work lays the foundation for the development and commercialization of atmospheric nitrogen-derived plastics, but also that it challenges basic assumptions in the way chemicals that can be used as building blocks for synthetic materials are identified.

“Joe took on the most ambitious project in our group with global impact and systematically developed the tools needed to tackle it,” says Dr. Saurabh Chitnis, who served as his doctoral supervisor. “His curiosity, enthusiasm, and persistence are models for all graduate students undertaking high-risk, high-reward research. I am thrilled to see it recognized in this way and to have been part of his scientific journey.” 

Dr. Bedard was also recently crowned the winner of Falling Walls Lab Pitches competition in Berlin , Germany, for his presentation “Breaking the Wall of Alternative Plastics.”

Dr. Ajadi’s thesis sheds light on the remarkable efforts of African Nova Scotian community organizations and activists in shaping policies related to health and policing, historically and in the present. He hopes his work informs future attempts at transformational change that will and are currently unfolding by chronicling some of the successes (and failures) of the past. The work also pushes back against the erasure of Black political organizing in contemporary discussions around Canadian politics.

"Tari’s research on African Nova Scotian activism in policing and public health is path-breaking in the field of Canadian political science,” says Dr. Kristin Good, his former supervisor in the Department of Political Science .

“His work is conceptually and methodologically innovative in its exploration of African Nova Scotians’ long history of resistance to structural racism and of community organizing in Halifax, conceptualizing its organizations and networks as part of a competing racial order united by a commitment to self-determination and driven by an ethic of care. Methodologically, his work breaks new ground by including autoethnography as part of his toolkit, which allows him to reflect upon his personal experience as an activist in the analysis. I learned a lot from supervising Tari’s thesis and look forward to following his academic career.”

As this year’s winners, Drs. Bedard and Ajadi will also be Dal’s nominees for the CAGS-ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award, which will be awarded by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) later this year.

For more insights into their impactful work, explore the Q&A below.

Dr. Joseph Bedard, Chemistry PhD

My thesis is concerned with making synthetic polymers (i.e. plastics) out of nitrogen and phosphorus. Right now, about 85% of the plastics we make are derived from petrochemicals. As our society is shifting away from fossil fuels towards alternative energy sources, we also must consider alternative materials sources as well. The work in my thesis is an entrant into the arena of non-petroleum-based plastics. I discovered a way to convert chemicals, derived from the nitrogen in our atmosphere, into polymers and networks with an incredibly unique molecular structure (nitrogen and phosphorus cages), the likes of which had not been discovered before. My thesis details the exploration of the fundamental properties for these new materials, as well as the physical properties of the plastics I can make from them. 

What impact do you hope to make with your research?

My hope is that the work I have done during my PhD not only lays the groundwork for the development and commercialization of atmospheric nitrogen-derived plastics, but also really encourages a paradigm shift in terms of the way we identify the chemicals that can be used as building blocks for synthetic materials. From a more zoomed-in perspective, I'm looking forward to seeing the chemistry research community build further on the concept of stringing together molecular cages to make polymers, and ultimately, materials. 

Tell me about a defining moment you had at Dalhousie.

In the fourth year of my PhD, through the encouragement of my principal investigator, prof. Saurabh Chitnis, I entered a regional competition called Falling Walls Lab Atlantic. I did not know too much about it at the time, but as I prepared my 3-minute pitch for the competition, I was encouraged to really think about the potential societal impact of my research. It is not often that synthetic chemists working on innovative, fundamental projects think about our work on such a scale. Doing so allowed me to realize that my research was actually a lot closer to having a material impact on our society than I'd thought. I went on to finish runner-up in the Atlantic competition and got a chance to go to Berlin to compete in the international competition, which I was lucky enough to end up winning. 

What are you doing now?

Right now, I have moved to Montreal, where I have traded the Maritime fog for the city smog (Willy's poutine holds up pretty well!). I am currently exploring opportunities that align best with my expertise and passion for chemistry and "big bet" science.

Dr. Tari Ajadi, Political Science PhD

My doctoral thesis is about the incredible work that African Nova Scotian community organizations and activists do (and have done, historically) to transform policy related to health and policing. It argues that Black organizers in Halifax engage in “worldmaking” via centuries-long lineage of resistance, institution-building, and advocacy. This worldmaking moves towards the idea of self-determination: being able to decide for oneself the trajectory of one’s community. As part of this lineage, organizers foster a distinct political identity that can facilitate solidarity across difference despite the significant barriers they may face in transforming the status quo.

I hope to inform future attempts at transformational change that will and are currently unfolding by chronicling some of the successes (and failures) of the past. I also intend to push back against the erasure of Black political organizing in contemporary discussions around Canadian politics.

The defining moments of my time at Dalhousie were the everyday acts of kindness and care that my close friends and mentors showed me throughout the years I spent at Dal– these moments have shaped who I am today. 

What are you doing now? 

I am an Assistant Professor in Black Politics at McGill University.

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