Social Science Lab (Bachelor year 1)

Description

Science, society and self are fundamentally interconnected: each sphere both shapes and is shaped by the other spheres. The Social Science Lab explores this relationship through interdisciplinary, interactive, and playful education.

In this orientation course, we train the theoretical and practical skills needed to simultaneously address personal, societal and scientific challenges. The goal is not only to understand complexity, but also to enhance our individual and collective capacity to respond to it in a conscious and ethical manner.

Part One: Self
We begin with the self, recognizing that self-awareness is the foundation of personal and professional development. Through introspective exercises, we explore questions such as: What do I deeply care about? What are my biases? How can I listen more deeply to others? How can compassion be a guiding principle for action in my own everyday life?

Part Two: Science
The second part examines major principles in the social sciences: interdisciplinarity, reflexivity, and praxis. By positioning ourselves along an agree–disagree spectrum, we reveal our methodological similarities and differences. We create a mind map from different disciplinary perspectives on a newspaper article of the 2021 Dutch curfew riots and reflect on where we find connections between disciplines. To train our ability to communicate about the power dynamics in knowledge-making processes in an accessible way, we create a short children’s TV episode on the topic. We engage with scholars from different schools of thought to explore how social theory can inform real-world action.

Part Three: Society
Finally, the course turns to society, engaging with professionals who tackle complex, interconnected challenges such as wellbeing, governance, and artificial intelligence. Rather than passively listening, students actively engage in dialogue with these practitioners, collaboratively making sense of complexity and exploring how theory and practice intersect on the ground.

The problems of the day are complex and interwoven, calling for holistic analyses and ethical solutions. The Social Science Lab therefore offers students the theoretical and practical tools to experiment with more transformative ways of thinking, doing, and being.

Course objectives

Through this course, we strive to achieve that students are able to:

• identify and explain three concepts that illustrate the interconnected and interdependent relationship between science, society and self;

• explain the meaning, opportunities, and challenges of major principles in the social sciences: interdisciplinarity, reflexivity, praxis;

• develop a well-reasoned argument on how science, society, and self can solve complex and interwoven problems;

• apply tools for ethical leadership at home, at work, and in society at large: sourcing inner capacity for strategic action, deep listening, feedback for growth.

Course material

The course material includes social science texts from a range of academic disciplines, as well as films and leadership tools. The primary textbook is An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Research by Keestra et al. (2022). Students are expected to engage with the material before each session. Additional details about the course material are available on Brightspace.

Mode of instruction

Students are expected to invest approximately 140 hours for this 5 ECTS course by:

• attending 13 sessions (participation is mandatory) – 35 hours

• engaging meaningfully with the course material – 65 hours

• working on the individual reflective assignments – 15 hours

• working on interdisciplinary group assignments – 25 hours

Students can miss two sessions of the Social Science Lab, except for the first (Embracing Confusion) and last (Synthesizing Knowledge) session.

Assessment methods

Assessment consists of three individual assignments and three group assignments, and various in-class activities. To encourage students to go outside of their comfort zone and experiment with doing things differently, all assignments are assessed on a pass/fail basis.

3 Individual reflective assignments
Prior to the plenary sessions, students answer reflective questions about the course material and themselves to enhance the transformative potential of the plenary sessions.

3 Interdisciplinary think-and-do tank assignments
Students are placed in an interdisciplinary think-and-do tank, and as a group:

• watch and reflect on a courtroom drama, then submit a report that summarizes their reflections on bias and leadership

• engage in a debate with another think-and-do tank to strengthen argumentation and public speaking skills

• design and deliver a group presentation where you develop a well-reasoned argument on how science, society, and self can solve complex and interwoven problems

Language

The English language is used during the sessions and in the think-and-do tanks. If students prefer to be placed in a Dutch speaking think-and-do tank, we should be able to make this work. Individual assignments can be submitted in English or Dutch.

Timetable

The plenary sessions start at 18:00 (no academic quarter).

The sessions “Sourcing Inner Capacity for Strategic Action” and “Designing and Delivering a Presentation Workshop” are offered multiple times so that students can choose a timeslot that fits their regular bachelor schedule. The presentation rehearsals of the interdisciplinary think-and-do tanks will take place during the week of Monday, 4 May to Friday, 8 May. Specific rehearsal timeslots will be provided to students during the course.

Sourcing inner capacity workshops (participate in one)

Designing and delivering a presentation workshop (participate in one)

Registration

Students apply for this orientation course by filling out the application form of the Honours College track Science, Society and Self. Spots are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Students will hear within one week whether they got accepted to the Social Science Lab.

Contact information

If you have any questions for clarity, please contact the course coordinator at
j.p.r.buijs@fsw.leidenuniv.nl