Designed as a seminar format, this course guides students in the transformation of their latent ideas into novel researchable dissertation projects. The course focuses on enhancing student knowledge and skills necessary to develop the many components of the dissertation in a coherent manner: introduction, literature review, theoretical or conceptual framework, research questions, methods, results and discussion sections. The seminar also addresses a number of dissertation research-related tasks such as creation of the dissertation committee, understanding research ethics and the institutional review board process, exploring dissertation funding and identifying needed resources, creation of realistic timelines for dissertation phases, and strategies for dissemination of work through conference presentations and publications. Each student will develop a complete draft of his/her dissertation prospectus and evaluate the proposed research in terms of its relevance for the field of social welfare, including relevance to the profession's mission to pursue social justice, the rigor of the proposed study, the originality of the research, and the feasibility of the overall proposal.

Note that this information may change at any time. Please visit the MyBU Student Portal for the most up-to-date course information.