Master Thesis
Main language of instruction: English
Head instructor
Dra. María del Carmen MENDOZA - cmendoza@uic.es
Office hours
Teaching staff are available by appointment through email.
Thesis Supervisors:
Dr Carmen Mendoza Arroyo
Dr Raquel Colacios
Dr Pere Vall
Dr Apen Ruiz
Dr Lorenzo Chelleri
Dr Kathrin Golda Pongratz
Dr Hug March
Arch. Mbongeni Ngulube
Arch. Emili Hormias
Meetings with supervisors will be continuous during the course and scheduled individually with each student.
Students are required to produce an academic Master Thesis in the field of international cooperation, emergency architecture or sustainable development. An academic thesis links, in a more or less formal way, theory with methodology and evidence which is a case study related to the topic. The thesis presents a question or problem theorized in such a way that it generates a claim or argument (a hypothesis) attached to which are evidentiary needs on the one side, and a series of means (methods) for generating, locating and assessing evidence on the other.
Students must have a research topic and assigned supervisor in order to develop their final thesis.
Students are required to produce a Master Thesis in the field of international cooperation, emergency architecture and sustainable development that should reflect the multidisciplinary nature inherent in designing and managing urban and architectural projects. The thesis will be developed throughout the first two modules as specified in the thesis calendar and delivered before a final jury at the end of May.
Each student will have an assigned supervisor to guide their thesis development. All thesis supervisors are professors from the master’s program based in Barcelona in order to provide the students with continuous supervision, and are assigned according to the relevance of their background in relation to the different thesis topics.
Thesis development includes a Writing Workshop with Prof. Apen Ruiz geared to provide specific tools on how to write a master thesis. Attendance to the writing workshop is mandatory.
Students will acquire the necessary methodology and content in order to develop a thesis structure as:
THESIS STRUCTURE
-Thesis statement, hypothesis and objectives
-Background: Brief theoretical grounding of the thesis and main thesis question (derived from the literature and the gap found in the literature and from the research topic/problem)
-Literature review: the literature review should include the theoretical background needed in order to enhance the main argumentation of the thesis
-Methodology: How the research will be developed as well as the steps in order to accomplish the objectives
-Discussion and analysis of case study-results: you must develop the justification and points of analysis of the case study/ies related to the argumentation of the thesis. The thesis is NOT about the case study, but that the case study must be used in order to exemplify, and reinforce the argumentation of the thesis.
-Conclusions: You must go back and answer the thesis questions and hypothesis through the conclusion.
Students will have a course Writing Workshop which will teach them the research method as well as how to develop qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Students will have three group sessions with their supervisors and individual supervisions during the whole course.
Students will all attend during the year the course 'Writing workshop' which has its own calendar and submissions in order for the student to develop their thesis proposal and thesis development.
The students final grade will be made up by:
-The writing workshop course grade: 10%
-The Supervisors grade based on submissions: 50%
-The Final Jury grade: 40%