Capstone Project

Colloquium

The colloquium is the final class for students completing the MA degree. The colloquium (POL 695A) is a one-unit class in which you will develop a portfolio that overviews your academic achievements.

There are two broad goals for this project:

  1. Consider and synthesize what you've learned in the program, including how your studies have added to your knowledge of international security topics, your overall world view, and your how education can contribute to your professional advancement.
  2. Provide you with tools to advance in the professional world, including writing a professional bio, updating your resume, providing writing samples, and producing an (optional) personal website that can be shared with employers.

Alternative Option: Thesis

Select students may be interested in pursuing a thesis project in place of the portfolio. As the thesis option is considered a deviation from the normal ISS plan, students must seek approval from the program administrators before they can pursue the thesis option. The thesis is worth 4 units; as a result, students need to complete only 30 units of substantive course work. 

The thesis is a minimum 25-page (6,500 words) academic research project, with at least 15 different scholarly or refereed sources. To be eligible for a thesis, students must: 

  • Have a GPA of 3.8 or higher after taking a minimum of 9 courses in the ISS program
  • Gain approval from one of the ISS faculty to be a thesis adviser
  • Have the adviser and project approved by the program director

A successful thesis proposal should include the following elements: 

The question to be asked in the paper (see below)

A 1-2 paragraph statement of the significance of this question for the study of international security such as what theoretical questions, debates or controversies will answering your question help to resolve? if it’s not obvious, a BRIEF explanation (just 1 or 2 sentences) of why answering your question is of substantive or policy importance

  • Your proposed answer to the question (necessarily preliminary, but you must have an informed hypothesis at this time)
  • A list of major alternative hypothesized answers to the problem, which you will generate by drawing on common sense and on political science/international relations theories you encountered in other ISS courses. 
  • An explanation of how you will evaluate the merits of your own proposed answer versus the competing hypotheses:
  • What evidence (data) would support or refute your argument, and competing hypothesis? Try asking yourself, “what evidence in the world would convince me that my theory is wrong?” 
  • A bibliography indicating where you will get the primary and secondary data that you need to test your argument against alternative hypotheses (the bibliography is not included in the page limit) 

Your research question should address something that is PUZZLING, and should generally be phrased as WHY question:  We expect (based on the following theories or patterns) to see this, but we see that; WHY do we see this rather than that?  

Once approval is granted, the thesis committee will be made up of the student’s faculty advisor along with the ISS Director: Prof. Kurzer.