Admission requirements
Admission to the MA International Relations.
Description
The complexity of the world we inhabit requires us to approach processes of change in global politics through multiple lenses and multiple contexts. This course is designed as a post-graduate level introduction and survey to the theory and practice of international relations (IR) from a broad and inclusive humanities-based perspective.
As a discipline IR expanded significantly in the second half of the twentieth century, and it did so largely within social science. Historians, philosophers, cultural and regional experts and other ‘humanists’ however have been reflecting on issues of international cooperation and conflict for a very long time. Such approaches, moreover, have undergone an important renaissance in recent years. In this course we especially focus on the broader relationship between IR and humanities.
A humanities-based approach focuses on how international relations shapes social conditions and systems of meaning across and within countries. The appreciation of how understandings of self, other, and the world are generated, sustained or transformed are essential. We therefore research global processes from a diversity of viewpoints—cultural, historical, religious, philosophical, ideological—whether in isolation or as assemblages, cognizant that human understanding shapes ways of seeing and acting in the world. We consider this as not just a pedagogical choice but also a practical need. Humanities-based IR recognizes the normative implications of the study of global affairs, and it raises pertinent questions about policy relevance.
This reading-intensive course constitutes two components: lectures (during bloc 1) and seminars (during bloc 2). More information on the seminars will follow in due course.
During the lecture series, we introduce our HBIR approach that reflects on many of the complex challenges which the current world order presents. We will engage with scholarly debates and the practical implications involving a humanities-based approach to global politics today. We will draw insights from how other disciplines have reflected on questions relevant to IR and global politics. We will also discuss how IR as a discipline is understood and negotiated in different parts of the world.
During the seminars, students are prompted to expand on the topics discussed in the lectures. Based on academic texts and other relevant primary and secondary sources students will engage critically with the ways in which scholars in different disciplines as well as thinkers in different parts of the world have made sense of international affairs, and how they have learned from each other. Students will develop their critical thinking capacities and improve their ability to research, articulate, report, and defend their position (while evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of contrasting perspectives).
Course objectives
Course objectives
To introduce students to the approaches and perspectives of a humanities-based IR.
To discuss the intertwining between IR and humanities disciplines.
To reflect on alternative critical perspectives on the theory and practice of IR from around the world.
Students who finish this course are expected...
To gain knowledge of the descriptive and prescriptive approaches and perspectives of humanities-based IR as a field of academic inquiry.
To acquire the ability to locate their area of interest within the discipline.
To reflect on the complex relationship between IR as a scholarly discipline and as a ‘real-world’, practical activity.
To develop their writing and oral communication skills that are crucial for professional careers
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Lecture 6
Seminar 6
Assessment method
Assessment
Class participation– 20%
Individual Assignement: Research Reflective Exercise – 40%
Group Work: Policy Paper and Presentation: 40%
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average.
Resit
A re-sit is available to students whose grade of the examined self-reflective paper is insufficient (lower than 5.5). It is not possible to re-sit any other graded part of the course or to re-sit a pass grade.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
We urgently advise all students, but especially those who do not have previous academic training in International Relations, to acquaint themselves before the start of the course with the major theoretical approaches to the study of international relations. Among the introductory texts, we especially recommend the latest edition of:
Dunne, T., Kurki, M., Kušić, K., & Smith, S. (Eds.). (2024). International relations theories: Discipline and diversity (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga
Remarks
Not applicable.