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Topics: TBA
Disciplines: TBA
Admission requirements:
This course is an (extracurricular) Honours Class: an elective course within the Honours College programme. Third year students who don’t participate in the Honours College, have the opportunity to apply for a Bachelor Honours Class. Students will be selected based on i.a. their motivation and average grade.
Description:
This course explores our relation to nature, combining tools and insights from disciplines
such as environmental science, biology, law and philosophy. The course will cover various aspects of the unfolding climate and ecological crises to reveal the complexity of the problem explain what makes it so hard to address, and explore potential solutions. The course will be organized around several key topics, which will likely include: global warming, biodiversity, waste, intergenerational justice and political power. Each topic is introduced by a keynote lecture, followed by student presentations. We will close the course with a Film Festival.
Course objectives:
TBA
Programme and timetable:
The exact dates of the meetings: TBA
Programme:
Session 1:
Introduction
Session 2:
Topic 1: Climate change
Session 3:
Topic 2: Biodiversity
Session 4:
Student presentations & discussion
Session 5:
Video workshop
Session 6:
Topic 3: Waste and pollution
Session 7:
Topic 4: Environmental history OR economics OR techno-solutionism
Session 8:
Student presentations & discussion
Session 9:
Topic 5: Justice & future generations
Session 10:
Topic 6: Non-western environmental thought
Session 11:
Student presentations & discussion
Session 12:
Topic 7: Behavior
Session 13:
Topic 8: Power and resistance
Session 14:
Student presentations & discussion
Session 15:
Filmfestival
Presentation:
Presentations are prepared and delivered by teams of students from different disciplines. At the first meeting, students register their preferences for presentation topics. Subsequently the lecturer assigns students to presentation teams based on preferences and spread of disciplines. The presentation team is responsible for running a 45-minute discussion session about that week’s topic. The format is flexible: use the time in a way that you think is most productive.
For example, you could give a presentation of 30 minutes, leaving 15 minutes for discussion at the end, or have a more interactive discussion throughout.
Presentations must contain the following elements:
1. Make an argument, provoke a discussion. Select one or two claims, arguments or
problems in the literature that you think are particularly important and/or fit for
discussion, and present these in your own words. Important: be selective in what you
include in your presentation. Do not try to summarize everything that is in the
readings but include only that which is needed to give context to the point you are
focusing on. You are free (and even encouraged) to use extra readings as you see fit.
2. Illustrate your argument by discussing an original example, analogy, case study (etc.),
for example by using a news item, a video fragment, or something you found in extra
readings.
3. Raise two or three critical questions with regard the claims in your presentation, or
consider potential objections. Choose them in such a way that they can serve as the
basis for a class discussion.
Final Project:
Teams of students make a short film about one of the topics discussed in this course. Detailed instructions for the final project and for making a video will be discussed in a workshop. The projects are presented at a closing event.
The assignment for the film project is flexible: it allows you considerable creative freedom to choose a format (e.g. a video essay, documentary, interview, site visit, even a fictionalized story).
But there are a few side constraints:
The film needs to engage substantially with an aspect of the theme of the course (the climate and ecological crisis). (The topic may be different from
your presentation.)The film should include some originally filmed material; it should not rely
exclusively on stock footage (you can borrow equipment—ask how this works
at the workshop!)How long should the film be? It depends on what you want to do or get
across, but also pragmatic considerations like workload. 10 minutes is typically fine. Substantially longer films are allowed (for example, for an in-depth interview you might need more time), but I’d recommend not going over 30 minutes.Most importantly: it should be thought-provoking: provide insights, arguments,
or raise questions we would not otherwise encounter in the course. (And yes,
fun is allowed too!)
Work plan & reflection report:
After the video workshop, each group develops a work plan, in which they outline the steps needed to develop their final film project and propose a division of tasks among the group members.
In the individual reflection report, due at the end of the course, you reflect on whether and how your views on the climate and ecological crisis have changed throughout the course, and on how your academic skills developed in this course.
A template for the report will be provided in Brightspace.
Location:
TBA
Reading list:
TBA
Other possible literature will be announced in class or via Brightspace.
Course load and teaching method:
This course is worth 5 ECTS, which means the total course load equals 140 hours:
Assessment methods:
The assessment is based on:
Presentation;
Final video project;
Work plan & reflection report;
Participation.
The assessment methods will be further explained in the first session of the class.
Brightspace and uSis:
Brightspace will be used in this course. Upon admission students will be enrolled in Brightspace by the teaching administration.
Please note: students are not required to register through uSis for the Bachelor Honours Classes. Your registration will be done centrally.
Application process:
Submitting an application for this course is possible from Monday, 27 October 2025 up to and including Sunday, 16 November 2025 23:59 through the link on the Honours Academy student website.
Note: students don’t have to register for the Bachelor Honours Classes in uSis. The registration is done centrally before the start of the class.
Contact:
Thomas Fossen: t.fossen@phil.leidenuniv.nl