MAIS 700 Capstone Course: Integrating your MA-IS Studies and Research

MAIS 700 will provide students with an alternative way to complete their MA-IS studies. MAIS 700 is a grouped study reflection on the way the student's understanding and practice of interdisciplinarity has developed throughout the course of their MA-IS studies. Rather than the one-on-one focus of MAIS 701, in which students work singly with a supervisor, MAIS 700 will allow students to interact with and receive feedback from their peers, and to hear about others’ experience of their paths through MA-IS.

The main elements for the course will be the following:

• a short reflective essay (1000 words) early in the course on the way your MA-IS studies have produced a sense of the strengths and challenges of integrative and interdisciplinary approaches to your areas of interest and focus
• readings in weeks 1 to 8 in the literature of interdisciplinary theory and practice, accompanied by conference board discussions of issues and questions arising from the readings
• weeks 9 to 11 will focus on small group peer review of final paper outlines; outlines will then be shared with the class as a whole for additional discussion
• weeks 11 to 14 will be given over to work on final papers (4000 words); students will be encouraged (not required) to write for submission to the MA-IS Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, or other publication venues
• like 701 Final Projects, 700 essays will be uploaded to the Digital Thesis and Project Room (DTPR), under their own category

In their final papers, students will be encouraged to explore integration and interdisciplinarity in relation to topics in their areas of special interest and experience.

As a capstone course, MAIS 700 will provide a new kind of opportunity to reflect on student's intellectual development and on how their thinking and understanding have developed throughout their MA-IS studies.

Before commencing MAIS 700, the completion of both core courses is required, as well as completion of all the courses to be applied toward your focus area(s), and your electives as outlined in your study plan.