Denisa Hilbertova Areas of thesis supervision: Modern Chinese and Taiwanese history, Contemporary Chinese and Taiwanese politics, territorial issues and society (please try to be as inclusive as possible) You will learn: how to do a history research (work with primary sources , oral history research, compilation, analytical and comparative and interpretative research, last three can be applied on political sciences, too) "Research in history involves developing an understanding of the past through the examination and interpretation of evidence. Evidence may exist in the form of texts, physical remains of historic sites, recorded data, pictures, maps, artifacts, and so on. The historian’s job is to find evidence, analyze its content and biases, corroborate it with further evidence, and use that evidence to develop an interpretation of past events that holds some significance for the present. Additional info, history research: * You will learn to locate primary sources (first-hand information such as diaries, letters, and original documents) for evidence or history witnesses * find secondary sources (historians’ interpretations and analyses of historical evidence) * verify factual material as inconsistencies arise" (Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age, Fifth Edition, by Diana Hacker and Barbara Fister, Bedford/St. Martin, 2010) * Learning Historical Research Learning to Do Historical Research: A Primer for Environmental Historians and Others by William Cronon and his students, University of Wisconsin A website designed as a basic introduction to historical research for anyone and everyone who is interested in exploring the past. * Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students by Patrick Rael, Bowdoin College Guide to all aspects of historical scholarship—from reading a history book to doing primary source research to writing a history paper. Maria Istvanova Areas of thesis supervision: Chinese linguistics, Chinese as a second language research, corpus linguistics and linguistic analysis, error analysis, translation studies You will learn: how to incorporate available software tools in linguistic research, discover the available Chinese learner corpora and discover what this discipline has to offer in the field of Chinese studies, acquire an interdisciplinary method in examining the Chinese language, learn more about the translation strategies and methods For getting a better idea about the possible topics concerned with the field of Chinese as a second language research and corpus linguistics: Key Issues in Chinese as a Second Language Research (Kecskes/Sun 2017) Corpus Linguistics in Chinese Contexts (Zou/Smith/Hoey 2015) Ondřej Vicher Areas of thesis supervision: 1) literature topics (from the earliest times to the Qing dynasty) 2) ancient history topics (especially the periods of the Han dynasty, Sanguo era, Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties) 3) lexicography (topics related to dictionary creation and lexical analysis) 4) translation studies topics (topics related to both prose and poetry translations as well as non-fiction and technical translations) Jakub Drábik Areas of thesis supervision: Modern Chinese and Taiwanese History, History of ideologies in the 20th Century, Wars and Conflicts in East Asia in 20th Century (Vietnam War, Second World War, Korean War, border conflicts), Military history, History of Ideas and Ideologies, Fascism studies, China during Cold War, Chinese leaders in 20th Century Dušan Vávra Areas of thesis supervision: Chinese thought and cultural history from antiquity to the present (especially antiquity and the period from the mid-19th century to the present). And basically any other topic that can be based on primary sources reading. I expect the students will read primary sources and base their thesis above all on that. I do not accept diploma projects based on field research. The primary sources can be of various kind. I encourage the student to choose a broad topic she/he is interested in and consult the choice of primary sources with me. Lu Wei-lun I. Overall message to students (from Wei-lun Lu): Dear students, you are absolutely free to be creative when approaching me to discuss your idea, as long as the thesis is about the study of language. If you do not have a concrete idea, feel free to consider the possibilities offered below. I supervise theses written in English or in Chinese (simplified or traditional). If you compare Chinese with another language, I can try to work with any language of the world with you 😊. II. Range of possible topics (just in case you ran out of ideas…): 1. Comparing similar words or idioms (the so-called near-synonyms) in Chinese Possible method: To build a representative language sample and study the sample (the so-called corpus-based research). Examples: https://is.muni.cz/th/l8pej/?lang=en (student thesis) https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/jp0vy/ (student thesis) https://www.jstor.org/stable/42889201?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents (my work) 2. Comparing a word or a grammatical construction in Chinese with that in another language (the so-called translation equivalent research) Possible method A: To build a representative language sample in each language and to study them (corpus-based). Examples: https://is.muni.cz/th/vshtd/?lang=en (student thesis) https://is.muni.cz/th/xoql5/?lang=en (student thesis, on dish names in Chinese and Czech) Possible method B: To find a world masterpiece translated from or into Chinese, and to study part of the masterpiece (the so-called Multiple Parallel Text approach). Examples: https://is.muni.cz/th/iejtp/?lang=en (student thesis) https://benjamins.com/catalog/cogls.00060.lu (my work) https://benjamins.com/catalog/cogls.00054.kno (my work) 3. Discourse analysis of a representative sample of language (corpus-based) that involves a concept or phenomenon that is exclusively Chinese Method: Corpus-based. Examples: https://is.muni.cz/th/rfjqd/?lang=en (student thesis) https://is.muni.cz/th/zrxug/?lang=en (student thesis) https://is.muni.cz/th/y0x8i/?lang=en (student thesis) 4. Linguistic creativity (jokes, puns, humor, poetry) that involves the Chinese language as the medium of representation Examples: https://benjamins.com/catalog/rcl.00058.lu (my work) https://is.muni.cz/th/wcf1t/?lang=en (student thesis, on homophones in Chinese) https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/k9sik/?lang=en (student thesis) 5. If none of the topics suits your need/interest, feel free to take a look at my list of publications on ResaerchGate for inspirations. Those works of mine mentioned above are also available on ResearchGate. 6. If you are interested in the application of technology in Chinese teaching, I am currently running an interdisciplinary project on VR Theater in Chinese (https://www.muni.cz/en/research/projects/71037). The thesis can be an application of this monograph (https://www.muni.cz/en/research/publications/2391018) in the context of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. (updated 3 Oct 2024) III. Note: As you create your thesis proposal, the following points are what to keep in mind. A. Linguistic phenomenon to study: Your thesis needs a well-defined scope. Be as focused as you can. Don’t just say “synonymy” but “the synonymy of Chinese classifiers”. You may as well be more specific and say “the synonymy of the Chinese classifiers 棵 and 株”, and so on. The more precise, the better. B. Representativeness of the language sample analyzed: Convince me and the thesis reviewer of the rigor of your data sampling process. If you want to study Chinese political/education/media discourse, make sure that the sampling of your data gives your research sufficient validity. If you study persuasive/poetic/humorous effects in Chinese, give a clear account of where your data came from and how that can be representative of the Chinese way of argumentation/aesthetics/social interaction. C. Potential value of the research: Justify why your thesis is worth a read. There may have been a lot of research done in your field, but you must convince me and your thesis reviewer of the value of your research. Therefore, try reading extensively in the field to identify issues that is worth exploring. Typical questions to think about: What has been done on the topic, and what is still lacking? D. Existing works that may be useful to your research: Please do a quick search online and find out what existing works may be useful and relevant to your research. E. Hypothesis and expected results: Based on your understanding of the gap in the current literature (Section C above), hypothesize what you think you can find in your language sample. Also say (in a preliminary fashion) how you think your finding can fill the gap in the field. F. Justification of your choice of supervisor: Please let me know in what way my research profile (expertise) makes me a good candidate to supervise your thesis. Be specific and try to identify relevance between my publications and your proposed research. Do not just say “because you are a linguist”. Yu-min Chang Areas of thesis supervision: Studies on Pre-Qin Chinese thought, cognitive metaphors in ancient Chinese, the structure of ancient Chinese texts, and secondary meanings in ancient Chinese. Zuzana Pospěchová Areas of thesis supervision: phonetics and phonology, prosody, linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics Jana Vávrová Mašková Any field research; there will probably always be a need for a consultant on the topic. External supervisors (MU or non-MU)-- updated 4 October 2024 The student is free to approach any MU employee or any non-MU scholar as the supervisor, but in that case, you need to inform Wei-lun Lu in advance (as the guarantor of the course KSCA200). Be noted that you should do that only if you know that person's working style well. Within the study program/department, it is usually easier for the guarantor to step in to help the student should a problem arise between her/him and the supervisor. But if a supervisor is outside of the Chinese Department, that person is not within the official reach of the guarantor. Therefore, having an external supervisor can be intellectually advantageous, but that might come with a risk. That said, I do not mean to discourage you and we can always sort things out together 😊—updated 8 October 2024