Admission requirements
Course open to BDMS students (and BDMS exchange students) only.
Description
This course consists of a series of partly obligatory, partly optional lectures, seminars, excursions and visits organized in relation to the field of expertise of Book and Digital Media Studies. The programme is flexible, and may be subject to change as a result of current developments. In any case, a series of BDMS lectures and a three-day combined visit to the Gutenburg Museum in Mainz and the Frankfurt Buch Fair will be part of the programme, as is a one-day excursion to the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. Students may be requested to assist in the organisation of events. In the second semester students attend a cycle of workshops to prepare for and get started on the MA thesis.
Course objectives
- Introduction to theoretical concepts and practical applications in the field of book studies;
- Ability to reflect on relevant themes and issues in the field of book studies.
Time table
The timetable will be available by June 1 on the website
Mode of instruction
Combination of lectures, seminars, symposia, visits to exhibitions, excursions, background reading.
Course load
The course load of this course is 140 hours.
hours spent on attending lectures and seminars: 30
visits, excursions: 40
time for studying the compulsory literature: 30
time to write papers (including reading/research): 40
Assessment method
To finish the course successfully students have to write two short essays (2.000 to 3.000 words max., weight 50% each), each on a subject related to the course and in consultation with the course organizers. The first essay has to be handed in at the end of the first semester, the second at the end of the second semester. For the thesis workshops in the second semester students need to hand in additional assignments, which will not be graded. In addition, students will have to produce a dossier of five activities (lectures, visits to exhibitions, etc.) in which they have participated.
In the case of a fail, you are entitled to rewrite the insufficient essay.
the case of a fail, you are entitled to rewrite the final course essay (plus if course assignments were insufficient, an additional assignment).
To complete the final mark, please take notice of the following:
1) the final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average;
2) the final grade for the course is established by (i) determination of the weighted average combined with (ii) additional requirements. These additional requirements generally relate to one or more of the subtests which always have to be sufficient.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used to provide students with an overview of current affairs, as well as specific information about (components of) the course.
Reading list
Briggs, Asa, and Peter Burke, A Social History of the Media, from Gutenberg to the Internet (London: Polity Press, 2010);
Finkelstein, D., and A. McCleery (eds.), The book history reader (London: Routledge, 2002).
Registration
Enrollment through uSis is mandatory. If you have any questions, please contact the departmental office, tel. 071 5272144 or mail: ma-mediastudies@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Registration Studeren à la carte en Contractonderwijs
Not applicable
Contact details
Media Studies student administration, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102C. Tel. 071 5272144;
Coordinator of studies: Ms S.J. de Kok, MA, P.N. van Eyckhof 3, room 101b.