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The Professional Project is an exercise that demonstrates a student’s professional skills relevant to Southeast Asia. In this option, each student develops an individual project under the guidance of a faculty member.  This faculty person acts as the chair of the student’s committee, which is composed of two additional faculty members. The student will conduct independent research and collect information from primary sources as necessary to carry out the project. Students choosing to do a Professional Project are required to take a research methods course or its equivalent in their first year of study.

The committee must be chosen by the end of the second semester of study and the project proposal, approved and signed by each committee member, must be submitted to the Program Director by the fifth week of the third semester of study. If these deadlines are not met, the opportunity to pursue this option will be lost.

The end product of a professional project should be a concise work of a quality suited to current professional standards – for example, a paper to be submitted for publication in a scholarly or professional journal or a grant proposal – as judged by the student’s committee. The project is formally approved at an oral defense organized by the student with all committee members in attendance when the draft project has been finished and tentatively approved by the project advisor. If a project involves interviews, surveys, or other kinds of research involving humans, one must also clear the proposal through the Institutional Review Board, which is housed in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Normally, this is done after the project proposal is approved by the student’s committee. Check the university Website for details.

A successful defense of the project, incorporating any changes required by the committee, completes the master’s program. The student must present the results of their project in a Southeast Asian Studies Colloquium and, if appropriate, present the results at a professional conference. With permission from the faculty project director, the student may enroll for up to five hours of INST 696 per semester; no more than a total of 10 credit hours may count toward graduation requirements. Grades of PR will be submitted until the project is completed; normally, a grade of CR will be given, but the committee does have the option of awarding a letter grade.

Required Forms

1. Capstone Requirement Approval – before end of 2nd semester of study
2. Professional Project Proposal – by the 5th week of the 3rd semester of study
3. Professional Project Evaluation – after final submission of project