Reviewing a Research Field

This course trains you in writing an advanced review of theory and evidence on a topic related to peace and conflict research. The review demonstrates to what extent you are able to identify the most important works, trends and debates within a certain field, and asses the current state of knowledge. Such a review is typically a starting point in academic research but the skills acquired in this course are also useful in many professional activities involving analytical tasks. Summarizing, identifying and delimiting the boundaries of knowledge are key skills when preparing strategic documents, when deriving policy recommendations and when deciding between various policy options. The course provides you with the opportunity to acquire skills in how to independently assess the state of knowledge within a given field of research. Supervision sessions and assignments will assist you in identifying and analysing a specific field of research. Throughout the course you acquire skills in summarizing and presenting theories and results, including being able to identify and to critically scrutinize the basic assumptions within a field of research. In addition, you will develop skills in how to make literature searches using various databases and in how to best present your literature review for various audiences.