The Department of Sociology, Nagaland University, organised a one-day offline workshop on “Research Methodology: Strengthening Research and Dissertation Supervision” at the department’s conference hall on September 25, with 18 faculty members from sociology departments across colleges in Nagaland participating.
The workshop focused on addressing challenges faced by college teachers in supervising MA dissertations and strengthening research practices among postgraduate sociology students.
Department Head Prof. Toshimenla Jamir welcomed the participants and highlighted the need for detailed discussions on research formulation, fieldwork and academic writing at the master’s level.
The first session, led by Prof. Temjensosang, focused on formulating research topics and questions and framing them sociologically. Participants discussed identifying research problems that are specific, feasible and capable of addressing gaps in existing knowledge. The session also stressed aligning research questions, objectives, variables and theoretical perspectives while considering time and data constraints. The need to apply Eurocentric theoretical frameworks cautiously and adapt them to local contexts was also discussed.
Dr. Suraj Beri led the second session on literature review, problematisation and conceptual-theoretical frameworks. He discussed common weaknesses including summarising rather than integrating literature, and stressed identifying patterns, debates and gaps in existing scholarship.
The third session, conducted by Dr. Piethli K. Jimo and Dr. Yamsani Srikanth, involved participants working in five groups to develop research proposals covering problem statements, objectives, research questions, designs and methods.
Prof. Athungo Ovung discussed dissertation structure, university guidelines, referencing and plagiarism requirements, while Dr. Sandeep Gupta addressed common problems in dissertations and presented a supervisor checklist.
The workshop concluded with a doubt-clearing session covering mentoring, student allotment, internships and syllabus-related issues.
