The SLL Research Committee is an interdisciplinary consultative body which deals with various matters pertaining to research in the department.
One of its main tasks is to review postgraduate research proposals (MA, PhD) and provide departmental approval (sometimes conditioned on minor or major revision) before these proposals can be submitted to faculty, with the relevant “Proposal Approval form”, for final approval.
The SLL Research Committee currently comprises the following members, covering a selection of the disciplines represented in the department:
- Associate Professor Markus Arnold markus.arnold@uct.ac.za (HOD, chair);
- Associate Professor Clive Chandler clive.chandler@uct.ac.za
- Dr Anita De Melo anita.demelo@uct.ac.za
- Dr Tessa Dowling tessa.dowling@uct.ac.za
- Dr Sonja Loots sonja.loots@uct.ac.za
- Associate Professor Pasquale Macaluso pasquale.macaluso@uct.ac.za
- Dr Rethabile Possa rethabile.possa@uct.ac.za
- Dr Gesa Singer gesa.singer@uct.ac.za
Information for PG research students / supervisors and procedures to follow:
- A major part of formalizing your research is the elaboration of a research proposal (see faculty guidelines), which is the result of thorough and critical engagement around the topic. This may require various revisions of the proposal over several weeks or months, in close correspondence with the supervisor.
- Once the research proposal has been finalised – after 3-6 months into registration (MA); by the end of the first year of enrolment (PhD) – it should be submitted to the SLL Research Committee chair to both director.languagesliteratures@uct.ac.za and markus.arnold@uct.ac.za
- The average turn-around time to receive feedback from the SLL research committee is three weeks. Specific cases may require longer engagements.
- NB. If no feedback is received after three weeks, the supervisor should enquire about the progress in order to avoid delays or communication issues.
- After the review process, feedback will be sent to the supervisor only who will share the comments and potential requests for revision with the student. Such feedback commonly includes a) General comments; b) Specific comments in the document; c) Editorial revision and/or correction in the document (via “track-changes”).
- Three different outcomes can be expected:
- Proposal approved without (or with only minor, e.g. editorial) revisions
- Proposal approved on condition that major revisions are effected
- Proposal not approved in its current state
- Depending on the outcome, the student may need to revise the proposal with the support of the supervisor and based on the feedback of the Committee
- NB. Some of the feedback may be essential for revisions, some may be useful for the fine-tuning of the research at later stages of the work.
- After the revision, the student will a) complete and sign the “Proposal Approval form”, b) seek approval/signatures from the supervisor and the HOD and c) send the form and proposal to the Faculty Postgraduate Office (hum-postgrad@uct.ac.za)
- For transparency and possible follow-up, the supervisor must be copied into this correspondence.
Further information can be found on the space Postgraduate Studies of the Faculty of Humanities.