*This is a compulsory module for students registered on the MA Legal and Political Theory programme and is not available as an optional module.

Peer-assisted learning is an innovative and distinctive component of the MA in Legal and Political Theory. It offers you an interactive introduction to cutting-edge research in legal and political theory, and prepares you to produce independent research of your own.

Guest-speaker colloquia are held in the Department of Political Science and the Faculty of Laws: world-leading legal and political theorists, and philosophers, are invited to present a current piece of work.

In Term 1 the “Political Theory Colloquium” is convened. As a student on the MA, you will be given priority to ask questions and engage in discussion with the speakers. Peer-assisted preparatory seminars take place before the colloquium, to help you prepare questions you can ask the speaker. 

In Terms 2 and 3, the “Colloquium in Law, Politics and Philosophy” is convened by a team from the Institute for Law, Politics and Philosophy. Again, in term 2 you receive peer-assisted preparatory seminars before each session and have the opportunity to ask questions of the speaker. Also in Term 2 there are research design seminars, in which students are trained in the general skills they will call upon when planning their 10,000-word dissertation.

The guest-speaker colloquia, the peer-assisted preparatory seminars, and the research design seminars are all compulsory for MA LPT students.

As a whole, PAL aims to encourage and foster discussion between students; to immerse you in the latest cutting-edge academic research; to give you the opportunity to engage in face-to-face dialogue with leading researchers; to increase your confidence in engaging in high-level academic debate; and to train you to design and present you own independent research projects, preparing you for the 10,000-word dissertation. This exposure to current academic work allows you to better assess the current state of debate on an issue, suggesting research areas that may be explored further in the dissertation.

At the end of the module, you will write a critical essay based on one of the papers discussed in the guest-speaker seminars; you are expected to submit an essay proposal in advance so that you can receive formative feedback before you write the assessed essay. In addition, you are expected to produce a research design for your MA dissertation so that you can receive formative feedback before you give an oral presentation of your dissertation project (assessed). 