Class Dissertation Project

This curricular unit provides students of the Master's in Production and Sound Technologies with theoretical and practical skills aimed at preparing the final master's thesis project. Based on the emergence of the concept of sound and its technologies, the UC intends to contribute to the evolution of the areas of sound studies in the Portuguese academy. Understood as preparatory work for the completion of the thesis, the discipline introduces students to the problems and methodologies specific to this field of research, in an interdisciplinary perspective.

Focused on the preparation for the master's thesis, the curricular unit develops in a tutorial way, organized as a permanent dialogue between each student and the respective teacher / supervisor. 

Part I: Fundamentals 

1. What does it mean to investigate? What is a thesis for?

2. Introduction to sound research

3. Disciplinarity and multidisciplinarity
4. Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity 

5. Sound studies, artistic research and practice-based research

Part II: Deepening: theory and practice 

1. Choice and organization of bibliographic sources

2. The index

3. Records and notes
4. The state of the art 

5. Research methodologies

6. General work plan

Part III: Research 

1. Open issues in the current context
2. Individual research and preparation for the final work 

Tutorial teaching / individual monitoring. Weekly presentation by students of problems and progress in research. Class discussion of all research topics, including textual references, sound and/or technological instances, that will allow analytical or illustrative roots to be developed by the student. 

Bull, M., Cobussen, M. (Eds) (2021) The Bloomsbury Handbook od Sonic Methodologies. Bloomsbury Academic 

Creswell, J. (2014) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. Sage Publications, Inc. 

Eco, U. (2015) How to write a thesis. MIT Press 

Frodeman, R., Klein, J. & Mitcham, C. (2010) The Oxford Handbook Of Interdisciplinarity. Oxford University Press 

Hannula, M., Suoranta, J. & Vadén, T. (2014) Artistic Research Methodology: Narrative, Power and the Public. Critical Qualitative Research. Peter Lang. 

Kittler, F. (1999) Gramophone, film, typewriter . Stanford University Press.
Peters, P., Borgdorff, H., & Pinch, T. (2019) Dialogues between Artistic Research and Science and Technology Studies. Routledge
Sterne, J. (Ed.) (2012) The Sound Studies Reader . Routledge.