General provisions

The course is included in the Master's Programme in Religion in Peace and Conflict.

Entry requirements

50 credits within the Master's Programme in Religion in Peace and Conflict

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide a deeper and specialised knowledge of religious and ethically based peace and justice movements. The course strengthens the ability to apply scientific theory and method in an independent analysis of a specific problem concerning religious and ethically based peace and justice movements.

Through the course, the student will reinforce the skills needed to independently write a scientific work.

After completing the dissertation, the student is expected to be able to:

• with a very high degree of independence define, design and carry out a research task related to religious and ethically based peace and justice movements;
• critically relate to and apply different scientific and philosophical theories and methodological approaches in the field of the dissertation;
• produce a longer, well argued and well written text in English;
• defend the dissertation in a scientific way and constructively challenge the work of a fellow student.

Content

The course consists of a longer dissertation worth 30 credits. The student will independently formulate a problem and decide on research material, a theoretical approach and a methodology. Regular supervision will be offered during work on the dissertation. The essay will be discussed at a joint seminar for students writing a Master ' s dissertation within the programme.

Instruction

The course is a distance-learning course. Instructions takes the form of individual supervision.An Internet connect computer is essential.

Assessment

The project work will be debated at the dissertation seminar for Religion in Peace and Conflict. If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Other regulations

The subject of the dissertation will be chosen in consultation with the examiner, and consideration should be given to the literature courses in religious and ethically based peace and justice movements which were taken as part of the Master's programme. When choosing a subject for the dissertation, consideration should also be given to the student's main field of study at Bachelor's level.

Please note that the stated teaching methods may be replaced by self-studies if there is a very low number of students.

Transitional provisions

Students retain the right to be examined on the course according to this syllabus for 3 semesters after their course instance has ended. Normally, instruction will be given according to the latest version of the course syllabus only.