DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY - WELCOME TO THE - MRES/PHD ANTHROPOLOGY HANDBOOK 2019 - LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
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WELCOME TO THE
Department of
Anthropology
MRes/PhD Anthropology Handbook 2019
Dates for your diary 2019/20
LSE Welcome Events 2019 – All MRes students
Date Time What Where
From Monday, Main Welcome Week for new students Across campus
23rd September www.lse.ac.uk/yourFirstWeeks/
Monday, 3 – 4.30pm School welcome presentation for new MRes students Peacock Theatre
23rd September
Thursday, 3 – 3.30pm Registration for new MRes students* Hong Kong Theatre , CLM5
26th September www.lse.ac.uk/programmeRegistration
Friday, 11am – 1pm Departmental orientation for all new MRes students The Old Anthropology Library, OLD 6.05
27th September
* Upon successful upgrade at the end of your first year, you will be required to register, in person, as a PhD student at the PhD Academy.
In subsequent years, registration will be done automatically by the School on receipt of your annual progress report form showing adequate
progress. You should therefore ensure that this is completed by the deadline in late June each year. Students who have not submitted the form
will not be able to re-register for the following session.
MRes key dates
Date Term / week Term dates and MRes coursework submission deadlines
Monday, 30th September MT week 1 Michaelmas Term (MT) teaching starts
MRes students to submit a brief outline of their research project
Monday, 28th October MT week 5 AN471 1,000-word report deadline
Monday, 4th November MT week 6 MT Reading Week starts
Monday, 25th November MT week 9 AN471 1,000-word report deadline
Friday, 13th December MT week 11 Michaelmas Term ends
AN471 3,000-word essay deadline
Monday, 20th January LT week 1 Lent Term (LT) teaching starts
Deadline for 1st draft of Research Proposal
Monday, 24th February LT week 6 LT Reading Week starts
Monday, 23rd March LT week 10 Deadline for 2nd draft of Research Proposal
Friday, 3rd April LT week 11 Lent Term ends
Monday, 4th May ST week 1 Summer Term (ST) starts
AN472 2,500-word essay deadline
Due date for ‘extra’ course assessment essays
Monday, 1st June ST week 5 Due date for Research Proposals
Friday, 19th June ST week 7 Summer Term ends
Friday, 21st August Due date for late submission of Research Proposal
Contents
About Your Department 4 Student Services Centre 27
Our background 4
Key academic staff 5 Student Representation 28
Office hours 5
Quality Assurance 28
Departmental Office 5
Representation 5 LSE Services to Support You With Your
Staff-student liaison committees 5 Studies and in Your Career 29
Communication within the Department 6
Opportunities for PhD students 7 Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) 31
Allocation of studentships and teaching posts 8
Your Wellbeing and Health 32
Workstation for research students 8
Exams and Assessments 33
About the MRes/PhD programme 9
Supervision 9 Plagiarism 34
Overview of the programme and main requirements 9
Classification of your MRes degree 15 Results and Classification 34
Rough timeline of the programme 16
Fees and Finance 35
Yearly progress review 16
‘Third year’ progress review TO BE COMPLETED
16 LAST
Codes and Charters 36
Maximum period of registration and extensions 17
PhD thesis presentation and examination entry 18 Systems and Online Resources 37
Editorial help with your thesis 18
Assessment offences and plagiarism 18 Course Selection and Timetables 38
Good research practices 19
The LSE Academic Code 40
Ill health 20
Registration 20
Campus Map inside back cover
Key Information 25
Term Dates and LSE Closures –
Academic Year 2019/20 25
Registration 25
Your LSE Card 25
Inclusion Plans 25
Student Status Documentation 25
Interruption 26
Programme Transfer 26
Change of Mode of Study 26
Withdrawal 26
Regulations 26
studenthub.lse.ac.uk/welcome
2
Welcome to the LSE, and
the Department of Anthropology
This handbook is provided by the Department of Anthropology and is intended to give you some
useful information about our research programme, but obviously it is far from exhaustive. A
great deal of up-to-date material about LSE support services, registration, timetabling, and library
facilities is available on the general LSE web pages, so you would benefit from reading these.
One crucial element of this guidance is the School’s Ethics Code, which is available via the LSE’s
Ethics pages at lse.ac.uk/ethics. Note that the Ethics Code pertains to all members of the
School community.
If this is your first time as an LSE student and you need more general guidance, please be sure to
take a look at the School’s “Your First Weeks” web pages at lse.ac.uk/yourfirstweeks.
Please do familiarise yourself with the on-line resources and forms. For example, you will –
eventually! – need to know how to enter your PhD dissertation for examination. There is a very
useful step-by-step guide to this on the School’s website (more specifically, on the PhD Academy
web pages at lse.ac.uk/PhDAcademy), and the PhD Academy itself provides a dedicated space
and services hub for PhD students.
The Department of Anthropology web pages (lse.ac.uk/anthropology) provide information about
members of staff, our Monographs series, special events, etc. You will also find a complete list
of PhD projects supervised in the Department over the years – beginning in the 1920s-30s with
Raymond Firth, Edward Evans-Pritchard, Hortence Powdermaker and Fei Xiaotong.
Please bear in mind that the information given in this handbook about course requirements and
assessments is intended for guidance only. You should always confirm requirements by checking
the definitive versions of the rules in official School publications (normally the Calendar
lse.ac.uk/calendar) and if necessary checking with the PhD Academy (on the 4th floor of the
Lionel Robbins Building), with your supervisors, or with the Departmental Manager or a member
of her team.
As you’ll learn, ours is a relatively small department, and we maintain an informal, friendly and
supportive atmosphere for our students. If you do encounter problems – academic, financial, or
emotional – we hope that you’ll let us know at once. You can do this by telling your supervisors
(with whom you’ll have regular meetings throughout the year), by setting up an appointment with
the Doctoral Programme Director or Doctoral Programme Tutor, or by approaching any member
of departmental staff, including our very capable administrators.
If for any reason you would prefer to speak to someone outside the Department, you can instead
contact the PhD Academy.
Professor Laura Bear
Head of Department
LSE Department of Anthropology
3
About your Department
Our background (ii) Commitment, conviction and doubt explores the forms taken
by commitment – whether to received cosmologies, ontologies,
Anthropology has been taught at the LSE since 1904. Following the and religious faiths and/or to modernity, secularism, or non-religion.
arrival of Malinowski in 1910, the School became one of the leading Charles Stafford’s work in China views the current interest in ‘ethics’
centres for the development of modern social anthropology, and from alternative perspectives; Mathijs Pelkmans (on Post-Soviet
many of the key figures in this evolving tradition – including Raymond countries), Harry Walker (on Amazonia) and Michael Scott (on
Firth, Edward Evans-Pritchard, Hortense Powdermaker, Fei Xiaotong, Melanesia) have investigated and theorised affective states such
Edmund Leach, Lucy Mair, Jomo Kenyatta, Isaac Schapera, Maurice as happiness, wonder, irony and doubt. Fenella Cannell’s research
Freedman, Jean La Fontaine, Maurice Bloch, Alfred Gell, Jonathan on Mormonism in the US raises comparative questions about
Parry, Chris Fuller, Stephan Feuchtwang, Olivia Harris, John and Jean Christianity as well as exploring its relationship to social theory.
Comaroff, and others – were at the LSE as students or teachers.
(iii) Mind, learning and cognition centres on processes of childhood
To this day, we retain a strong commitment to the radical empiricism learning (in the work of Catherine Allerton, Rita Astuti and Charles
of anthropological research of the kind championed by Malinowski, Stafford); the self and conceptions of free will; affect and altered
Firth, and Powdermaker. We have also long critically considered states of consciousness (as with Nicholas Long’s research on
issues of decolonisation, colonial encounters, race, indigeneity hypnotherapy, trance), moral judgement, and human cooperation. We
and the politics of fieldwork. Such debates are intrinsic to the past, engage critically with psychology, cognitive science, and evolutionary
present and future of the discipline. We also acknowledge that as theory. We examine (as with Harry Walker’s ERC-funded project on
we teach, critique and suggest alternatives, we are simultaneously justice in Amazonia which analyses concepts of equality, fairness,
implicated in the structures of power within the university responsibility, and entitlement in comparative perspective) how
and beyond. evolved predispositions of the human mind (e.g., towards mutualism,
the sense of fairness, the perception of one’s agency) are shaped by
Embedded in the ethnographic tradition, and with research outputs specific historical and cultural circumstances. Our expertise dovetails
based primarily on long-term participant observation fieldwork, our with recent developments in the Department of Psychological and
interests are very diverse. We conduct fieldwork in many different Behavioural Science.
places (including India, Bangladesh, mainland China, Taiwan, Japan,
Caucasus, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Madagascar, (iv) Generative vitality provides new perspectives on kinship, gender
Amazonia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Melanesia, Germany, the and generative or productive processes, and forms of redistribution.
UK, the USA); and our projects address a wide range of concerns Alongside Fenella Cannell’s work on vital relations, this includes ritual
– including politics, inequality, development, disability, childhood, practices (as with Laura Bear’s work on intimate economies in the UK
religion and non-religion, and cognition. There are, however, several and India), conceptions about the generation – and the end – of life,
cutting-edge themes around which our departmental research the nature of parental responsibility and of childhood. Our research
coalesces and which unite sub-disciplinary concerns. These themes is rooted in households and local contexts but shows how these link
build on years (even decades) of research and are nourished to, and are productive of, global processes: it shows how the powers
by lively debates between colleagues. Overall they take forward of capitalism – both generative and destructive – produce and are
anthropology’s commitment to building a ‘big picture’ of humanity reproduced within family relations or other forms of solidarity, as
and our relationship with the wider world through comparison. Our with Clara Devlieger’s research on disability in the DRC. This research
approaches to exploring these themes are historically rooted and theme also enables us – as with Michael Scott’s work – to re-theorize
often involve cross-disciplinary collaboration. phenomena such as so-called cargo cults as attempts to access the
hidden generativity and vitality that lies behind any visible form of
(i) Inequality and wealth in a capitalist world interrogates the power and productivity.
interplay of hierarchy and egalitarianism (as in David Graeber’s
current project with David Wengrow on the Childhood of Man and (v) The state, its reach, and beyond: Our research on corporations,
his other work); of poverty and abundance, and the intersection of development (Katy Gardner in Bangladesh), legal and economic
class, caste, ethnicity, and gender in the creation of inequality (as bureaucracies (Andrea Pia, Laura Bear, David Graeber, and Deborah
seen in Alpa Shah’s ERC/ESRC project with Jens Lerche on Inequality James), speculation and prospecting (Gisa Weszkalnys in Sao
and Poverty). Within the rubric of anthropology of economy, Laura Tome), and related political/economic processes, seeks to explore
Bear’s work on Rebuilding Economics and Deborah James’ project a world where state powers are mediated through, contested or
on Ethnographies of Advice – both ESRC-funded – explore how buttressed by market relations. Citizenship and belonging, political
inequality is constituted in both core and more marginal sites of participation, changing systems of democratic choice and their local
contemporary capitalism, and how processes of development and meaning (as in Mukulika Banerjee’s research on elections in India),
speculation, debt, austerity and insecurity (and the aspirations to revolutionary struggle (Alpa Shah’s research on Naxalite Maoists in
modernity and wealth that underpin these) play out globally. Our India), transnational migration and the paradoxes and pain of being
expertise involves interests and projects shared with the International undocumented (as in Catherine Allerton’s research on Indonesian
Inequalities Institute (III) and a joint seminar with the Department of children left stateless in Malaysia) are key areas where our research
International Development. interrogates the reach and limits of state power.
4
These research interests are shared with colleagues in a number
of departments and research units across the LSE, including
International Development, Law, Psychological and Behavioural
Science, Social Policy, and the Centre for the Study of Human Rights.
We also have programmes of collaboration and exchange with
numerous overseas institutions.
The outstanding quality of our research outputs has been recognized
in the past Research Assessment Exercises; in the most recent
review, the Research Excellence Framework (published 2014), we
were ranked first of UK Anthropology departments for research
quality, with 73 per cent of our outputs being judged world-leading or
internationally excellent.
Returning from visiting relatives with a gift of live crabs. Betania, Masagascar 2013, Sean Epstein.
5
The PhD community is very social and I enjoy
the mix of students, from different countries and
walks of life. It is an intellectually stimulating
environment, with lots of interesting speakers
coming to our seminars. My thesis supervisors
are also great; they are always encouraging and
give me lots of useful feedback on my work
Itay Noy, MPhil/PhD Anthropology
6
Key academic staff Departmental Office
The department’s administrative team are normally in the office
Head of Department between 9:30 and 5:30, Monday to Friday. As far as possible, the
Professor Laura Bear (L.Bear@lse.ac.uk) is the Head of Department. administrators operate an “open door” policy: if one of is not available,
the others will try to help.
Doctoral Programme Director
Yan Hinrichsen
Until the end of Michaelmas Term, Professor Charles Stafford
(C.Stafford@lse.ac.uk) is the Doctoral Programme Director (DPD), Departmental Manager
with overall responsibility for the programme, including admissions, The Departmental Manager co-ordinates the administration of the
funding and induction. Dr Mathijs Pelkmans (M.E.Pelkmans@lse. MRes/PhD in Anthropology. She will be one of your key points of
ac.uk) will take over from him in Lent Term. contact within the Department throughout your studies and is happy
to help with any queries you may have at any point in the programme.
Doctoral Programme Tutor OLD 6.03, 020 7955 7202
Dr Fenella Cannell (F.Cannell@lse.ac.uk) is the Doctoral Programme Y.Hinrichsen@lse.ac.uk
Tutor (DPT), with particular responsibility for student progression and
welfare.
James Johnston
Administrative Officer (Exams and Assessments)
Chair of Examiners
OLD 6.04A, 020 7852 5037
Dr Michael Scott (M.W.Scott@lse.ac.uk) is the Chair of Examiners
J.E.Johnston@lse.ac.uk
and Dr Mukulika Banerjee (M.Banerjee@lse.ac.uk) is the Deputy
Chair of Examiners. Dr Banerjee has a specific responsibility to look
after postgraduate issues. Maryam Bi
Administrative Officer (Quality Assurance and Study Abroad)
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Representative
OLD 6.04A, 020 7107 5867
Dr Clara Devlieger (C.Devlieger@lse.ac.uk) is the Department’s EDI M.Bi1@lse.ac.uk
Representative. The Department is concerned to promote equality
and to foster an environment in which forms of discrimination
(including, but not limited to, race, gender and sexuality) are not Renata Todd
tolerated. If you have questions or concerns about these or related Communications and Administration Officer
issues, please contact Dr Devlieger. All discussions will be held in the
strictest confidence. OLD 6.04A, 020 7852 3709
R.Todd@lse.ac.uk
Please check the departmental website for a full list of academic
staff, their research interests, and contact details: www.lse.ac.uk/
anthropology/people
Office hours
All members of LSE teaching staff hold weekly term-time office
hours. During these times, teachers will be available to meet to
answer particular questions about the courses they teach, to get
additional guidance and support, or to discuss more general issues.
You can book appointments through Student Hub.
7
Communication within the Department Change of address
and within the School If you change your term-time or permanent address, or your phone
number, you must inform the School. This change can be done by
you, using LSE for You. Your address is protected information and will
Email not be disclosed to a third party without your permission unless it is
Please bear in mind that email is used in the Department and for reasons of official School business. It is important that you keep
throughout the School as the standard form of communication. It us informed of your private address and telephone number.
is therefore essential, once you have set up your LSE email address,
that you check it regularly. In the field
During term-time, most changes in lectures and seminars will be While you are in the field, contact with the Department may be more
emailed to students, and your supervisor will expect to be able to difficult than at other times. We therefore ask you to ensure that
communicate with you via email (e.g., to organise meetings). Of before you leave for the field, you inform the Office, your supervisors,
special relevance to PhD students is the fact that we use email to and the Doctoral Programme Director of your field contact details, as
communicate about two extremely important matters: well as those of your next of kin.
• the annual review of research student progress;
• the annual allocation of departmental grants and teaching posts.
If you fail to respond to emails about the former by submitting a
progress report, this may jeopardise your ongoing registration at the
LSE. If you do not submit an application for the latter, you will not
be considered for funding or for work as a teaching assistant. We
recognise that during fieldwork students may have limited access
to email. If this is the case, you must ensure that your supervisors
are aware of this beforehand so that special arrangements for
establishing and maintaining contact with you can be made.
Appropriate use of email
The department, and all its staff, receive a high volume of email and
ask that you bear the following guidelines in mind when using email:
• Please make use of the subject field, and give a clear and concise
description of the content of your message e.g., “Request for
meeting on Thursday 5 May”.
• Do not mark your email as urgent unless it really is!
• Email should be used to arrange meetings with your supervisor, and
for requests for information that only require a brief response (a
few lines). We expect you to attend office hours if you would like to
discuss academic material; emails asking staff to summarise entire
classes/lectures will not receive a reply.
• We try to reply to individual emails within five working days.
Please do not expect an immediate reply. If your enquiry is urgent,
please attend office hours, call the department or come to the
departmental office.
Members of the department can always be contacted during their
office hours.
If you want to set up a different time for a meeting, contact the staff
member via email. Contact details can be found on the Departmental
Staff web page: www.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/people
8Opportunities for PhD students Workstation for research students
We are constantly seeking to improve the opportunities given to our KGS B.03 is an office which contains workstations for Anthropology
PhD students in the area of professional development. For example: research students. Entry to the room is controlled by swipe card. If
your ID card does not allow access to the building or the room, please
• In recent years, we have increased the use of pre-doctoral Graduate contact the Departmental Manager who will make the necessary
Teaching Assistants in the Department. These GTA posts (normally arrangements with Security. There are about a dozen desks and PCs
taken up in the post-fieldwork phase of the programme) give our for use by Anthropology research students. If you are unable to log in,
students the chance to gain teaching experience, and to cite this you should contact the Departmental Manager who will liaise with IT
experience on their CVs when applying for academic posts or other to allow access.
jobs after completion of the PhD.
There is a tea point in KGS B.03. Everyone is jointly responsible for
• We have increased the use of postdoctoral LSE Fellows – in keeping the area clean and tidy. There are lockers available for use by
recent years there have typically been two to three such Fellows Anthropology students in the adjacent room KGS B.07. Contact the
in our Department at any given time. These posts offer significant Departmental Manager to be allocated a locker.
opportunities to new PhDs because they give young academics
a chance to gain teaching experience while also allowing time for MRes/PhD students also have access to the PhD Academy’s
research and writing. dedicated space and services hub on the 4th floor of the Lionel
Robbins Building.
• We strongly encourage our students to participate in the
comprehensive training and support activities provided by the LSE’s The main Library offers extended opening hours and computer
PhD Academy and Teaching and Learning Centre, including those facilities – from 8am until midnight for much of the year, and 24
related to personal and professional development. MRes students hours a day around exam time; for further details see
are also encouraged to use the LSE LIFE facilities. www.lse.ac.uk/library.
If you have further suggestions for ways in which we could support
your professional development, please contact the Doctoral
Programme Director.
Allocation of studentships and
teaching posts A family returns home by canoe. August 2013, Chambira River,
Peru. Photo by Harry Walker.
Every year, the Department of Anthropology allocates a limited
number of studentships and teaching posts to research students.
The decisions relating to these studentships and posts are taken by
the Research Student Finance Committee.
We try to provide support (in the form of studentships and/or work
opportunities) to as many of our research students as possible.
However, we also have to take difficult decisions based on our view
of the relative strengths of competing applicants. Inevitably, some
students will be disappointed.
Needless to say, it is in your interest to make your application
as strong as possible. You may wish to seek advice from your
supervisors and the Careers Service about applying for studentships
or jobs, including advice about writing CVs and personal statements.
You should receive notification of any relevant deadlines by email,
together with details of how to apply for each award or post.
910
About the MRes/PhD programme
In 2015/6 we introduced the MRes/PhD programme and all students Note that we normally expect members of staff to carry on their
who started in or after that year will be on the new programme. supervisory duties even when they are on sabbatical or research
Any students who registered before 2015, whether they began their leave. If a supervisor is carrying out fieldwork and is unable to remain
doctoral training at LSE on the MPhil/PhD Anthropology or on the in regular email contact with his/her students, s/he will make the
MSc Social Anthropology (Research), will continue their registration necessary arrangements (e.g., ensuring that the other supervisor
on the MPhil/PhD. The pre-field information in this handbook has takes full responsibility) in consultation with the student.
been written with the MRes/PhD intake in mind, and the post-field
elements for both programmes have now been integrated and are The exact number of supervision meetings is a matter decided
the same. between you and your supervisors, as is the agenda and format
for individual meetings. As a guide, however, for students in the co-
The PhD programme has long been a central element in the life supervisors system, the norm is to hold about 5 meetings per year
of the Department of Anthropology, and we are very proud of the with each supervisor for a total of about 10 meetings. For students
achievements of our graduates. Given our relatively small size (by in the lead supervisor and advisor system, the norm would be to hold
comparison with other LSE departments), we have a large PhD about 8 meetings per year with their lead supervisor and about 2
cohort – with around 10 completions per year. meetings per year with their adviser, again for a total of about
10 meetings.
This accomplishment is perhaps even more impressive when it
is considered that virtually all of our doctoral students engage As noted above, it is your responsibility to keep in regular touch with
in very complex research projects, normally involving long-term your supervisors during fieldwork.
fieldwork (generally between 18 and 24 months) overseas, which are
sometimes undertaken under rather difficult circumstances. Recent Arrangements for supervision sometimes change during the course
projects have been conducted in Mali, Madagascar, Ethiopia, China, of a PhD. For example, an arrangement that started off as a co-
Moldova, Scotland, the Palestinian West Bank, Sri Lanka, Brazil, South supervision might naturally transform itself into a situation where
Africa, Tanzania, India, Ukraine, and Pakistan among others. Topics one supervisor will take on primary responsibility, or vice versa; or a
for research have included religion, apprenticeship, kinship and student – for reasons related to his or her research – might want to
gender, art, development, law, ethnic conflict, and migration. request new supervision arrangements.
One measure of the success of our PhD programme is the fact that The main thing, of course, is to ensure that adequate supervision
our students have been very successful in securing both academic is being provided. When problems arise, they can almost always be
and non-academic employment in the UK and overseas. resolved through discussion within the Department.
If you have any concerns about your supervision arrangements,
which cannot be discussed directly with your supervisors, you should
Supervision discuss them, in the first instance, with the Doctoral Programme
Director and then with the Head of Department or, alternatively, you
The relationship with your supervisors is arguably the most important
should contact the PhD Academy. You can also highlight any issues
aspect of your Doctoral programme of study. It is thus important
in the annual progress form that you are required to submit to the
that you understand what you can expect from this relationship, even
DPT each summer.
though, given the nature of intellectual work, it is probably unwise to
be too prescriptive.
On admission to the Department, all research students are assigned
two supervisors.
Depending on circumstances, supervision arrangements follow one
of two systems:
• The first system consists in full co-supervision, which means
that you should expect to receive equal input from both of your
supervisors (note, however, that this does not mean that you should
expect to receive feedback from both supervisors on every piece
of work that you submit; in other words, co-supervision is meant to
involve some division of responsibilities rather than
their duplication).
• The second system consists in one “lead supervisor” and one
“advisor”, which means that you should expect to receive most
guidance and feedback from the lead supervisor, while the advisor
will have more of a backup role. In practice, this is a very rare
arrangement and almost all of our students will have full
co-supervision.
11Ethics, Risk, and Safety in the field Guidance on ethics, including the School’s policy can be found at:
info.lse.ac.uk/staff/divisions/research-division/research-policy/
We recognise that there are risks to researchers’ health and safety, research-ethics
and ethical considerations when carrying out fieldwork. The School
and the Department take these issues very seriously, and training The Association of Social Anthropologists’ ethical guidelines for good
and support will be provided in a variety of ways. The specifics will research practices can be found at:
depend on your field location and research project, but at a minimum, www.theasa.org/ethics/guidelines.shtml
both will be covered in AN471 Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
for Anthropologists to help you begin to think about issues that may Please read these and discuss any additional ethical dimensions
arise in the field and to plan for them. Ethical dimensions will be arising from your fieldwork with your supervisor(s), including how you
discussed with peers, along with all other aspects of the research intend to resolve any ethical problems which may arise.
proposal, in AN472 Evidence and Arguments in Anthropology and
Other Social Sciences. You will of course, as in other areas of your The Information Security site provides free anti-virus software for
doctoral training, also benefit from the experience and guidance of staff and students to use on personal devices, and information on
your supervisors. subjects including data encryption and keeping your data safe:
info.lse.ac.uk/staff/divisions/dts/services/infosec
The School’s Health and Safety team will provide support in
identifying risks and carrying out an assessment before you leave The PhD Academy’s events and training page can be found here:
for the field, and can assist if issues arise while you are in the field. info.lse.ac.uk/current-students/phd-academy/events-courses-
The Research Ethics, Security, and Information Security teams and-training
can also provide advice before you set off, for example on specific
security concerns, or data encryption. The PhD Academy puts on a The Student Counselling Service provides individual counselling and
range of training activities, which can include sessions on First Aid or other services on campus and sometimes also remotely for students
Complex Environments, and you are encouraged to take up relevant carrying out fieldwork:
opportunities during the MRes year. Counselling services, should they info.lse.ac.uk/current-students/student-services/student-
be needed, can be provided through the Student Counselling Service, counselling-service
or the Health and Safety team in the case of crisis response support.
This list of resources is not intended to be either comprehensive or
The Health and Safety team’s Overseas Travel site includes prescriptive. MRes students who are carrying out projects that raise
information on risk assessments, a form with which to notify an unusually complex issues in relation to risk and/or ethics are strongly
intention to travel overseas, and much more: encouraged to begin working through these issues from the start
info.lse.ac.uk/staff/divisions/Risk-and-Compliance-Unit/Health- of their MRes registration, seeking specialist help and support as
and-Safety/Overseas-Travel-Homepage appropriate.
‘Young Vezo boy with seabirds he just caught from the sea. Madagascar 2017,
Rita Astuti.
12Overview of the programme and main The Research Proposal
requirements The Research Proposal will be the main focus of your research
preparation, both in terms of your specialist programme of reading
In simple terms, our MPhil/PhD and MRes/PhD programmes are and methodological training.
designed around three phases: pre-fieldwork (or research training),
fieldwork, and post-fieldwork (or writing up). The Research Proposal is to be a scholarly piece of work that clearly
sets out your research questions, identifies the evidence you will
You will receive much more information about these phases during need to answer them, and discusses in detail the methods that you
the first year, and the information provided below is simply intended will employ to meet your research objectives. The proposal must
to give you a general idea of how things will proceed. contain a systematic review of the ethnographic and theoretical
literature relevant to your research project and is to make a case
for its anthropological relevance and potential contribution. Details
Pre-fieldwork should be given of the location of the proposed fieldwork and of the
measures taken to prepare for it (e.g., language and other training,
The pre-fieldwork phase focuses on methods training, on the
applications for financial support, government permission, affiliation
preparation of a comprehensive research proposal, on language
to overseas universities, etc.).
training where relevant, and on the setting up of practical
arrangements for fieldwork.
The proposal must not exceed 10,000 words in length, excluding
bibliography. It should be properly presented and carefully checked
Briefly, in your first year:
for typographical and other errors, containing adequate references
1. You take AN471 Qualitative and Quantitative Methods within the text, and a bibliography. Students are advised to use a
for Anthropologists; standard method for setting out both references and bibliography
such as that used in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
2. You take AN472 Evidence and Arguments in Anthropology and
Other Social Sciences;
A proposal which does not meet these criteria will not be passed.
3. You attend, and write assessment essays for, an “extra” lecture
course in general social anthropology (see guidelines below); As with all the other work you will produce during your programme
of study, in writing your Research Proposal you should be aware that
4. You attend the Department’s weekly Seminar on Anthropological plagiarism is a very serious offence (see below).
Research (AN500 the “Friday seminar”);
Style
5. You follow a specialist course of reading as agreed with your • Margins should be 2.5 cm all round.
supervisors (AN442);
• Chapters should always begin on a new page.
6. You work towards and submit your Research Proposal –
AN443 (see further guidelines below regarding submission and • Section headings must be clearly indicated or numbered in a
examination of the Proposal); consistent way.
7. You continue with research preparation work during July, August, • Spacing may either be one-and-a-half, or double.
and September, and submit a (compulsory but not assessed)
report of your summer activities prior to upgrade and • Font size should normally be 11pt.
commencing fieldwork.
• Binding and plastic covers are discouraged. Please ensure your
If needed, it is up to you to arrange language training that is relevant proposal is securely stapled.
to the field work you intend to carry out. The language classes can
consist of course(s) at the LSE Language Centre or elsewhere, or • Printing should be double sided if possible.
private tuition depending on the availability of classes / teachers and
Samples of recent successful Research Proposals are available
your language needs. The Department will reimburse up to £750 per
on Moodle.
student. Receipts must be submitted to the Departmental Manager
by the end of the pre-field year (normally 30th September in the year
after you first register). If you are unsure whether the training you
wish to undertake is eligible for reimbursement or if you will not be
able to book classes until after the 30th September cut-off, please
contact the Departmental Manager as it may be possible to consider
special arrangements.
13Submission deadlines for the Research Proposal Use of past Research Proposals
During the pre-fieldwork phase of the programme, you must complete Each year the Department chooses a selection of high quality
and submit outline, draft and final versions of your Proposal proposals to make available to future first year students. These
as follows: proposals may be made available in print or electronically. They
are only ever made available to staff and current students of the
1. At the beginning of the Michaelmas Term (Monday, 30th
Department. If you do not wish your proposal to be included in the
September 2019), you will submit a rough outline of your research
Department’s archive you must notify the Departmental Office
project, and preferably a title, to your supervisors and to the teacher
upon submission.
of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods (AN471).
2. At the beginning of the Lent Term (Monday, 20th January 2020),
you will submit (through Moodle) the first draft of the Research
‘Extra’ lecture course
Proposal. This will be presented at the Evidence and Arguments In your pre-fieldwork year, you must take an ‘extra’ lecture course, to
(AN472) Seminar during Lent Term, and you will receive feedback the value of one unit, normally from among the Department’s
through discussion with other students and the convenor main courses:
of the Seminar. You should attach your draft ethics and risk AN402 The Anthropology of Religion,
documentation as annexes to your draft proposal.
AN404 Theory and Ethnography,
3. By the beginning of week 10 of the Lent Term (Monday, 23rd AN405 The Anthropology of Kinship, Sex and Gender,
March 2020), you will submit (through Moodle) the second draft of AN451 Anthropology of Politics (H),
the Research Proposal. You will discuss this advanced draft with AN456 Anthropology of Economy (1): Production and Exchange (H),
your supervisors; it is recommended that, whenever possible, you
AN457 Anthropology of Economy (2): Transformation and
meet your supervisors in a joint supervisory meeting and that this
Globalisation (H)
meeting takes place before the end of the Lent term. You should
attach the latest draft of your ethics and risk documentation as AN479 Anthropology of Law (H).
annexes to your draft proposal.
(H) indicates a half unit. The chosen course(s) must not be the same
4. You must submit three paper copies of the final Research Proposal as those already taken as part of an MSc or BA/BSc degree. If you
to the Departmental Office (OLD 6.04A) and an electronic copy have already taken all of the courses above, or very similar ones, you
via Moodle on the Anthropology Pre-field Research Students will be asked to take another social anthropology course or courses
page (moodle.lse.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1502) by Monday, to the value of one unit.
1st June (or Friday, 21st August if you have an extension).
Submissions will be considered incomplete if not accompanied by Please note that the point of this requirement is to ensure that all
your Ethics Form. students who earn a PhD in our programme have a solid grounding in
the basics of Anthropology. This means that you may be required to
5. Vivas will take place by Friday, 26th June (or Friday, 18th take a lecture course which is not directly related to your
September for late submissions). research interests.
Late submission The choice of the ‘extra course’ must be made in consultation with
With the agreement of your supervisors and the DPT, you may be your supervisors and the Doctoral Programme Director. You should
given an extension to submit your final Research Proposal by the inform the Doctoral Programme Director of your choice by the start of
extended deadline of 21st August 2020. Such extensions will only be week 3 of the Michaelmas Term.
approved in exceptional circumstances.
Note that some students may have received an offer with the
Research preparation additional requirement that they should take ‘extra’ lecture courses to
You are required to continue with research preparation work (e.g., the value of two units, in which case all of the above will apply to the
intensive language training) during the months of July, August, and choice of both of their units.
September, until you are formally upgraded to PhD registration at
the end of September. You must submit a report of your summer
activities to the Departmental Programme Tutor (copy to the
Departmental Manager) by email by the middle of September before
the formal upgrade happens. You must wait until you are formally
upgraded at the end of September before commencing
fieldwork proper.
For part-time students, all the above regulations apply, except that
the deadline for the submission of the final Research Proposal will
be extended by 12 months. Part-time students will be expected to
submit both drafts of the research proposal in the first year
of registration.
14Pre-fieldwork assessment The examination of your Research Proposal can lead to four possible
outcomes:
The MRes or ‘pre-fieldwork’ year outlined above is assessed by:
1. Pass. A proposal is passed if it earns a mark of 60% or over;
1. Coursework for each of the full unit courses AN471 and AN472
(worth one unit each); 2. Minor corrections. These will be requested when the examiners
feel that there are particular and limited omissions, or errors of fact
2. An examination (to include a viva) of the Research Proposal (which and/or presentation in a proposal which is otherwise of a good
counts for two units); standard. The necessary corrections will normally be made within
a period of three or four weeks of receipt of the examiners’ report.
3. An Assessment Essay for the “extra course”.
A requirement for minor corrections does NOT constitute a referral,
and will be entered as a Pass on your record;
The mark required to pass upgrade to the PhD is 60% in each of
the above. 3. Referral. A referral indicates that the examiners judge that the
proposal contains weaknesses likely to inhibit or prevent the
AN471 Qualitative and Quantitative Methods for Anthropologists effective conduct of the research, and which will take longer than
AN471 is assessed by a 3,000-word essay (worth 30%), two 1,000- 3-4 weeks for you to amend or correct. The examiners will give
word reports (each worth 15%), an assigned presentation (worth very specific indications in their report of the changes which they
15%), and seminar participation (worth 25%) in the MT. require, and must provide a realistic time-frame for such changes.
The deadline set will depend on the amendments required. A
The two reports are to be submitted by 12 noon on Monday, 28th referral will be reviewed by the Doctoral Programme Director. Note
October (week 5) and 12 noon on Monday, 25th November (week that if your proposal is referred, you cannot proceed to fieldwork
9). The deadline for the essay is the last day of MT, Friday, 13th until your resubmission has been examined and passed;
December at 12 noon. The essay and reports are to be submitted
on Moodle. 4. Fail. A proposal will be failed by the examiners if it earns a mark of
50% or lower. If the proposal is failed, you are normally not allowed
AN472 Evidence and Arguments in Anthropology and Other Social to continue your programme of study at the LSE.
Sciences
AN472 is assessed by an essay (50%, 2,500 words), a presentation
(25%), and class participation (25%) in the LT.
The deadline for the essay is at the start of ST, on Monday, 4th May at
12 noon, and needs to be submitted on Moodle.
The assessment of the Research Proposal
The Research Proposal examination includes an oral examination
(viva), which will take place after the examiners have read the
proposal and written their independent reports, within a month of the
relevant submission deadline.
The examiners will be your two supervisors and one other member
of staff (the ‘external examiner’ in what follows), who will be selected
each year by the Doctoral Programme Tutor in consultation with the
Chair of Examiners. After the viva, the external examiner will produce
a joint report, which will detail the outcome of the examination (see
below). You will be sent a copy of the joint report.
The viva is a formal examination, which will give you the opportunity
to discuss your research project and respond to the examiners’
criticisms and suggestions. You should be prepared to give a
brief overview of your project, highlighting its objectives and the
contribution you hope it will make. The viva will last about one hour.
15The assessment of the ‘extra course’ mark is not achieved, the student must resubmit the essay(s) within
4 weeks. If the mark is not achieved on the second occasion or the
The ‘extra’ lecture course is assessed by means of written work, not essay(s) are not resubmitted on time, the student will be reported
by examination. Students are required to write either two assessment to the Research Students Progress Committee, which will decide on
essays of not more than 3,000 words each (covering material from what action to take.
each term of their chosen course(s), or one essay of not more than
6,000 words. The topic or topics must be chosen in consultation with Essays can be submitted before the deadline and, in this case, they
the course teacher(s). The 6,000 word essay does not need to focus will normally be marked within one month (if this falls in term time).
on the course as a whole; ie, it can focus on one term or even one
week, so long as it is agreed with one of the course teachers. The
essay must not overlap significantly with the research topic of the Late submission of assessed work
PhD (although it can of course relate to it) or with the
research proposal. If you believe you have a valid reason for being unable to submit any
assessed work on time, you must inform the Doctoral Programme
Please bear in mind that in order to meet the ‘extra’ course requirement Tutor (copying your email to the Departmental Manager) BEFORE
you must attend lectures, participate in seminars, and do the reading the deadline and provide evidence (e.g., Doctor’s note, Police crime
for the course. If you submit an essay without attending, you will not number, etc.) to back up your claim.
receive credit for it.
Valid grounds for late submission include certain serious illnesses
The essay(s) must be submitted by midday on the first day of requiring medical attention, serious personal difficulties and serious
the Summer Term (Monday, 4th May 2020) via Moodle to the unforeseen circumstances.
Anthropology Pre-field Research Students page available at moodle.
lse.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1502
The essays are marked by the relevant course teachers. The marks
should be available within a month. The pass mark is 60% (defined
as the average mark of two essays or the mark for one essay). If this
16Classification of your MRes degree Upgrade to PhD and permission to undertake
fieldwork
The MRes follows the School’s normal regulations for taught masters
Students are normally upgraded to PhD registration at the end of the
programmes, including calculation of the award of degree and the
MRes year, having successfully completed the components of their
effect of Bad Fails. Refer to the Calendar for further details: info.lse.
pre-fieldwork training and assessment (as set out above and in the
ac.uk/Staff/Divisions/Academic-Registrars-Division/Teaching-
LSE Calendar).
Quality-Assurance-and-Review-Office/Assets/Documents/
Calendar/SchemeTaughtMasters.pdf
Before you are allowed to proceed to your field site, you must
complete the Application to Undertake Fieldwork form, and this
In certain circumstances the Anthropology Department acts
in turn requires you first to have obtained Health and Safety, and
according to local rules, set by the Department. These are as follows
Research Ethics approval. The fieldwork form and evidence of both
and should be read in conjunction with the above Scheme:
of the aforementioned approvals will need to be counter-signed
1. Candidates (with no failed courses) falling on the Distinction/Merit by one of your supervisors and the Doctoral Programme Director
borderline (Scheme para 3.3.2): before being sent to the Chair of the School’s Research Degree Sub-
Committee for approval. The fieldwork form requires you to indicate
(c) Students with marks of a Distinction grade in courses to the the planned location(s) and dates of your fieldwork. Note that if you
value of 2.5 units and a mark of a Merit grade in a course of 0.5 later decide, in consultation with your supervisors, that you need to
unit value will obtain an overall classification of a Distinction; extend the period of fieldwork, you will need to request permission by
submitting another application form and risk assessment. The form
(d) Students with marks of a Distinction grade in courses to the also requires you to provide your contact details and those of your
value of 2.0 units and marks of a Merit grade of at least 65 in next of kin.
courses to the value of 2.0 units
The Application to Undertake Fieldwork form is available at info.lse.
OR ac.uk/current-students/phd-academy/phd-journey/a-z-guidance
with marks of a Distinction grade in courses to the value of 2.0 You will have drafted answers to the Department’s Research Ethics
units, marks of a Merit grade in courses to the value of 2.0 units, Questionnaire alongside your Research Proposal. The Ethics form
and an overall aggregate mark of at least 275 will obtain an overall can be found in the Anthropology Department’s Pre-field Research
classification of a Distinction. Students (moodle.lse.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1502)
Moodle page.
2. Candidates (with no failed courses) falling on the Merit/Pass
borderline (Scheme paragraph 3.3.4): If you intend to carry out fieldwork overseas, you must notify
the Health and Safety team of your travel plans by completing
(h) Students obtaining marks of a Distinction or Merit grade in the Travel Notification Form (lseapps.secure.force.com/
courses to the value of 2.5 units will obtain a Merit; form?formid=217808). You will be required to complete a Risk
Identification Form (info.lse.ac.uk/staff/divisions/Risk-and-
(i) Students obtaining marks of a Distinction grade in courses to Compliance-Unit/Assets/Documents/Health-and-Safety/Fieldwork-
the value of 1.0 unit and marks of a Merit grade in courses to the overseas-travel-offsite-activities/Risk-Identification-Form.docx)
value of 1.0 units will obtain a Merit if they also obtain marks of and an Overseas Travel Risk Assessment form (info.lse.ac.uk/staff/
55%+ in the remaining two units. divisions/Risk-and-Compliance-Unit/Assets/Documents/Health-
and-Safety/Fieldwork-overseas-travel-offsite-activities/Formal-
Upgrade to the PhD is conditional on obtaining a Merit (60%), or Risk-Assessment-v5-Oct2018.docx).
higher, overall and in each of AN471, AN472, the Research Proposal,
and in the ‘extra course’. If your field location is in the UK, you must still obtain approval from
the Health and Safety team. You should email them on Health.and.
A Pass (50%) in each component is enough to pass the MRes and get Safety@lse.ac.uk with an outline of your proposed fieldwork and they
awarded that degree, but this is not sufficient for upgrade to the PhD. will advise you on your next steps.
You will not be allowed to start fieldwork until all the forms outlined
above have been submitted and approved. The approvals can take
a number of months, especially in more complex cases, so you are
advised to begin completing the forms in good time.
Before leaving for fieldwork, you must also go to the PhD Academy
(normally in mid- to late-September) to register formally as a
PhD student.
17Change of research plans and fieldwork requirement After fieldwork
Not surprisingly, the research plans of students often change, During the post-fieldwork phase of the programme, you return to the
especially during the ‘pre-fieldwork’ and ‘fieldwork’ phases of LSE where your primary task is to write up your dissertation under the
the programme. guidance of your supervisors.
Please note, however, that very significant changes to plans – You also attend, and make regular contributions to, three seminars.
including significant changes of topic or research site – must be These are currently as follows:
formally approved by the Department’s Research Student Progress
1. The weekly Thesis Writing Seminar (AN503), at which students
Committee and may require completion and examination of a new
present draft dissertation chapters to others in their cohort;
Research Proposal.
2. Advanced Professional Development for Anthropologists (AN505).
Bear in mind that admission to the MRes/PhD (or previously to the This includes fortnightly seminars for discussion of recent
MPhil/PhD) programme is made on the grounds that your proposed developments in social theory, and twice-termly seminars on
research can be adequately supervised within our Department. issues surrounding professional development for early career
Significant changes of plans can, of course, alter the situation anthropologists;
– making it difficult for us to supervise you and/or making your
proposed research unsuitable for our research programme. 3. The weekly departmental Research Seminar on Anthropological
Theory (AN500).
You are asked to note in particular that MPhil/PhD and MRes/PhD
students in our Department, with only very few exceptions, conduct 4. You must attend AN503 for a minimum of four terms (unless you
long-term ethnographic fieldwork. Indeed, our entire programme is are ready to submit your dissertation earlier) and AN505 for a
built around the premise that fieldwork will be conducted. If you are minimum of three terms; you are required to attend AN500 until
unable or unwilling to meet the fieldwork requirement, you should you complete the programme.
discuss this with your supervisors and with the Doctoral Programme
Director as soon as possible. Many students also focus more closely on issues of professional
development at this stage of their time at the School, and begin to
make applications either for postdoctoral fellowships or for jobs
Fieldwork (inside and outside of academia). As you will learn during your first
The fieldwork phase of our programme – about which you will learn a year of study, the LSE has comprehensive support services in these
great deal during your first year of study – normally consists of 12-24 areas (in particular via the Teaching and Learning Centre info.lse.
months of participant observation research. During fieldwork, you are ac.uk/staff/divisions/Teaching-and-Learning-Centre), and your
expected to maintain regular (preferably monthly) contact with your supervisors will work closely with you in considering your
supervisors by letter, Skype and/or email, and you continue to receive career options.
support and advice from the Department.
Comprehensive guidance on a wide range of issues relating to
fieldwork (including everything from ethics to how to conduct
household surveys) is provided through the AN471 Qualitative and
Quantitative Methods seminars, and during your meetings with your
supervisors in the first year of registration.
The Health and Safety team will issue you with a travel insurance
cover note once they are satisfied with your Risk Assessment.
18Rough timeline of the programme ‘Third year’ progress review
Obviously the circumstances surrounding individual projects School regulations require that students are reviewed more formally
conducted by anthropology MRes/PhD students vary, but for most at the end of their third year of registration. However, because of
full-time students: the extended period of fieldwork conducted by students in our
• The pre-fieldwork phase is completed in one year, unless the Department, this timing is not feasible. Therefore, in agreement with
research proposal is referred; the PhD Academy, this review will take place during the third term
after you have returned from fieldwork (during the sixth term if you
• The fieldwork phase is completed in 1-2 years, with an average are part time), though it may exceptionally take place outside of the
fieldwork duration of about 18 months; School’s normal timeframe.
• The post-fieldwork (ie, thesis-writing) phase is completed in
The review will establish whether:
18-24 months.
1. you should be allowed to progress and be re-registered;
2. you should apply for an extension to the maximum period of
registration (see below);
Yearly progress review
3. your registration should be terminated.
Every year after you have been upgraded to PhD registration, you
will be asked to complete a Progress Report Form; each of your
For the review, you will be required to submit the chapters you have
supervisors will also be asked separately to complete a similar form.
drafted since your return from fieldwork and a Third Year Review
The form will be sent out to you by email towards the end of the
Form (which will be sent to you). The review will consist of an oral
Summer Term.
examination (viva), which will take place after the examiners have
read your written submission and have written their independent
The Progress Report Form will give you the opportunity to assess
reports. The examiners will be your two supervisors and one other
your progress, to set out your working schedule for the future and to
member of staff (the ‘external examiner’ in what follows), who will be
comment on the support you are receiving from your supervisors.
selected each year by the Doctoral Programme Tutor in consultation
Similarly, your supervisors will give their assessment of your progress
with the Chair of Examiners.
and potential.
The viva is a formal examination, which will give you the opportunity
The form is examined by the Doctoral Programme Tutor (DPT). If
to discuss your own assessment of your progress to date, the quality
the DPT is one of your supervisors, the form will be reviewed instead
of your writing, and your work plan looking ahead. You should be
by the Doctoral Programme Director or the Head of Department. If
prepared to explain, reflect on and summarise your work and the
the DPT is satisfied by your progress, s/he will sign off the form and
directions of your thesis. Before the viva, think about how you would
recommend to the PhD Academy that you should be re-registered. If
highlight the key aspects of each of your chapters and how you see
the DPT has any concerns, s/he will take your case to the Research
them fitting into the overall structure of your dissertation. You should
Students Progress Committee for discussion.
be ready to respond thoughtfully on the basis of your research to the
examiners’ questions, criticisms and suggestions. The viva will last
The Research Students Progress Committee consists of the Doctoral
about one hour.
Programme Tutor, the Doctoral Programme Director, and the Head
of Department.
After the viva, the external examiner will, in consultation with
your supervisors, write a joint report detailing the outcome of the
Depending on the circumstances of your case, the Committee might
examination, providing an assessment of your progress, and making
call you and/or your supervisors for an interview, or might write
recommendations as outlined above.
to you detailing a particular course of action (e.g., requesting the
submission of your thesis outline, a sample of writing, a detailed
The examiners’ report will be sent to the Research Students Progress
schedule of work, etc.).
Committee, which will meet to consider its recommendations and will
make a final decision.
After this process, the Research Students Progress Committee will
either recommend to the PhD Academy that you be re-registered or
that your registration be terminated.
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