I am planning to apply for PhD admissions in history soon and have been facing some doubts regarding the research proposal that should be submitted as a part of the applications. It will be really helpful if someone could clarify some of the doubts. My proposed area of research is colonial South Asia and some of the doubts are listed below: (Replies from South Asia experts and from any historian/graduate students will be hugely helpful. Thanks a lot in advance for your help.) (As for the choice of universities I am interested in universities in US, UK and India. Both UK and Indian universities require a research proposal at the time of application while US universities ask for a statement of purpose with a word cap of around 1000. I am more interested in knowing about longer research proposals with no/larger word limits compared to SOPs for US schools.)
1.How detailed and complete should be the proposal in terms of literature review, research questions, methodology and the set of sources that would be consulted? Am I expected to cover all the relevant literature and to be really precise about research questions and methodology? Am I expected to be familiar with the sources in detail or is it enough to list a set of potential sources and archives that would be used for conducting research? How specific should be the sources listed (for example: the archived materials from a particular government department or should I mention specific set of files)? 2. Am I expected to have a working hypothesis or is it alright to mention that the answers to research questions will be put forward after detailed analysis of sources? 3. Should the research questions be completely original or is it acceptable to mention that the objective is to build on existing work by widening the scope of enquiry and by looking for new and alternative explanations? 4. How to mention sources whose availability/accessibility is not confirmed when the proposal is being drafted (stuff that should ideally exist but might not have been preserved or is not in a readble state and the ones whose exact location haven't been traced yet)?
Hi there! It may be helpful to specify where you are planning on studying, as different university systems tend to approach these questions differently. It is also worth noting at the outset that these are questions that should also be directed towards the future supervisor, as they are much better placed to know the specific requirements and expectations of your proposal as it will actually be assessed.