This course opens up a dedicated space and specialized guidance to help students to responsibly integrate their intellectual pursuits with social and artistic projects as they complete their Master's Research Project (MRP). DRA1005H is a required course for all students who are pursuing the MRP option and is dedicated to specialized training that addresses the various methodologies, ethical considerations, and delivery systems of practice-based/arts-based research.

Here, students engage with the theories and praxis of world-class researchers who base their research in artistic practice — either as research methodology or as a medium through which to disseminate findings. The course will also afford students the space and opportunity to test the applicability of these methods to their own research and to apply the training in academic research and composition, which they have received within the larger MA program, to their MRP.

The MRP is the culminating output for DRA1005H and for the successful completion of the MRP option within CDTPS's MA program. It consists of original research and original creation. For the MRP, students will consult research and literature within a field of study in order to embody and create questions within that field of study through a performance or other creative output (i.e., performance, written play, script, installation, novella, short story, graphic novella, workshop-creation, concept album/sonic-novella, or other digital outputs including archives of exploratory work.) The MRP will also include a written reflection on the creative process and relevant findings (7,000 to 8,000 words, excluding endnotes, appendices, and works cited pages).