Introductory description

You will opt to take this module in EITHER the Autumn Term OR the Spring Term. The topic must be agreed by the Director of Graduate Studies several weeks before commencement (by week 7 of Autumn Term for those who take it in Spring Term).

Students should not propose topics that are narrow. Proposals should instead address how the ISM will deal with a large question in the field (with an eye to covering a specific period, national/regional context, theoretical school, formal/analytic problem, methodological intervention, etc.). These parameters of the ISM are to be refined and agreed in the initial supervision.

A study plan should be decided by the tutor and student, and while it may be modified as the term progresses, a work plan should be agreed in the first meeting or directly following it. After the initial planning session, there should 4 tutorials over the course of the term. These tutorials will provide an opportunity to discuss and expand on the materials read/viewed by the student. The tutorial discussions should be full ranging and not limited to a discrete set of concerns. The student is expected to keep track of questions that continually arise and work towards responding to those questions as the term progresses.

The written work of the ISM consists of 4 pieces of work submitted across several months. These include an expanded bibliography and 2 short tutorial essays written during the term, each of which responding to a group of readings and tracking the guiding questions of the project. The fourth piece of work, the final research project, is typically a longer reflective piece of writing (4000 words) that supplies a sophisticated discussion of the ISM’s topic and its critical questions as they have evolved over the term. The essay may include a small piece of textual analysis as a brief test case, but this textual analysis should appear at the end and not be the primary focus of the essay. The final research project may make use of certain discussions from the earlier short essays, but it will not be pre-read or pre-marked by the tutor. These essays will be marked by the ISM tutor and a second marker, according to the general assessment criteria for MA work found in Appendix 7.Regular meetings are held with the tutor to whom you are assigned.

N. B, the ISM should not be understood as resulting in a shorter version of a dissertation, nor is it simply a group of tutorials working towards a final essay. The chosen subject of the independent study should also remain demonstrably distinct from that of the dissertation project.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Model for work plan

Week 2: Submit draft bibliography and viewing list to supervising tutor.

First tutorial to plan work plan, investigatory questions, and timings of future tutorials

Week 3: Submit revised bibliography/viewing list to tutor

Second meeting to discuss progress on readings

Week 4: Submit 1st short essay to tutor

Week 5: Third tutorial to discuss progress and review feedback on 1st short essay

Week 7: Submit 2nd short essay to tutor

Week 8: Fourth tutorial to discuss progress, review feedback on 2nd short essay, and plan final research project

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• By the end of the ISM, the student should demonstrate both a grasp of a body of readings on a particular topic and some meta-critical perspectives on the state of scholarship on this topic.

Research element

This module is self-directed study, with guidance from a supervisor in FTV.

Subject specific skills

This module develops skills of audio-visual literacy, through close textual and/or contextual analysis in relation to the moving image and sound. It may also develops understandings of historical, theoretical and conceptual frameworks relevant to screen arts and cultures.

Transferable skills

• critical and analytical thinking in relation
• independent research skills
• team work
• clarity and effectiveness of communication, oral and written
• accurate, concise and persuasive writing
• audio-visual literacy