Information on Master's Thesis - Master of Science "Social Work Research"
Institute of Social Work and Social Pedagogy
Information on Master’s Thesis
(M.Sc. – Social Work Research)
The Master’s Thesis will usually be written during the fourth semester. The seminars of the module "MA-SWR-8: Master’s Thesis" serve as a support format for all students to conceptualize their Master’s Thesis.
It is important to reflect that the Master’s Thesis is not solely a completed module, but also represents the thesis that you complete your degree program with. Therefore, please focus on a specific topic that you are really interested in and that you have possibly been interested in during a longer part of your studies. In the Master’s Thesis, you will get the opportunity to investigate this topic more carefully than before.
To have your Master’s Thesis supervised and graded, you are going to need a chief supervisor. Please contact your preferred chief supervisor no earlier than January 1 of the year in which you are scheduled to complete your studies and, ideally, no later than April 1 of that year. Ideally, you should do this with a brief written proposal (approx. 1 page) containing your initial ideas for a guiding research question for your Master’s thesis.
The following faculty are currently available as chief supervisors (alphabetical order):
| Name | Fields of Research and Expertise |
|---|---|
| Prof. Dr. Lars Alberth | Childhood sociology; (in-)visibility of children in families and institutions; victimization & child protection; social inequalities; pragmatist sociology of professions, organizations, & culture; bodies, emotions, and valuation in institutional contexts |
| Prof. Dr. Zoë Clark | |
| Dr. Iniobong Essien | Intergroup research; stereotypes and prejudice; discrimination; stigmatized groups; educational disparities in the context of racism |
| Dr. Hila Kakar | Social Pedagogy and Social Work; Trust, Flight, Migration and Social Inequality; Early Childhood Education and Child and Youth Welfare; Qualitative Social Research and Professionalisation in Social Pedagogy. |
| Prof. Dr. Anke Karber | Theory & practice in social work education, social pedagogical vocational training research, professionalisation & didactics in social work education & teacher professionalization, e.g. diversity & inclusion, school & teaching research in vocational training in social work |
| Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandermann | Child and youth care research, trust research, refugee studies, epistemology of social work |
| Dr. Vanessa Schwenker | Diversity, power, and social inequality, trust, vulnerability, and professional relationships, family and parenting research, migration, belonging, and social differentiation, processes of social positioning and subject formation, qualitative and interpretive research methods |
| Prof. Dr. Birte Siem | Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination, adultism, empathy and trust in client-provider relationships, diversity & inclusion |
| Dr. Laura Wenzel | Family research, parenthood and parenting research, i.e. in the context of (forced) migration, post-migration studies, trust and educational institutions, diversity, intersectionality, and social inequality |
| Prof. Dr. Maren Zeller | Diversity & inclusion, child & youth care, early childhood, emerging adulthood, young adults, refugee studies, history of social work, low-threshold social services, international social work/ one-stop-shop approach |
When specifying the topic for your Master's Thesis and contacting potential supervisors, please also take their fields of expertise into account. For guidance, we recommend visiting the respective personal pages on the institute's website!
In addition, you will need a second supervisor for your Master’s Thesis. You have the right to propose a candidate for this position. If you do not exercise this right, the institute’s administrative assistance will organize the second supervisor and inform you in good time.
Please note: If you need your master’s certificate for any application after your graduation by a certain time, we strongly recommend that you submit your master’s thesis at least 8 weeks before the application deadline. This time is necessary to enable the entire process from assessment to certificate issuance to be completed on time.
Please find further information on all formalities regarding your Master’s Thesis in the IFSP’s guideline on academic working on our website.