Discipline and Place in the Social Sciences and the Humanities

Admission requirements

• The course is specifically designed for PhD candidates and Research MA students registered at LeidenGlobal partner institutions, but students from other institutions are also eligible to attend. All students should first consult with their advisors before applying.

• In 2020/2021 the course will be given online.

• Please register before 12:00 PM on Monday 10th of September 2020. Applicants will learn of their admission status no later than 15th of September 2020 and receive the programme and literature. Admission is at the discretion of the LeidenGlobal executive committee.

Description

Central questions
The course will engage with many sub-disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. Each session a guest lecturer from one of these fields, will speak to important aspects of his/her discipline. Coherence is ensured by overarching themes we ask each of the lecturers to address – themes that will then be discussed extensively in class by the course coordinator. These themes include:

• Decolonising curricula

• What defines today’s field of inquiry?

• How does this field relate to realities, representations, and issues of place?

• Diversity in approaches to knowledge

• The situatedness of scholarship, as reflected in things like: - the history of the field and the questions it asks - the trajectory of the individual researcher - the nature of the data - issues of theory and methodology - institutional and socio-cultural contexts

• Positionality, i.e. imagining, timing, and placing others and selves

• Language

• Translation: interlingual, intercultural, intermedial, interdisciplinary, etc

• Objects and agency

• Scholarship and activism

• Public understandings of scholarship and societal issues, and their interaction.

‘Discipline’ and ‘place’ mean many things to many people. Disciplinarily, thematically and regionally defined fields of inquiry are not mutually exclusive or antagonistic, and stand to benefit from interaction. The course does not underwrite any single definition or inventory of disciplines or places, be this linked to particular points in time and space, scholarly method, political persuasions, or other coordinates. Rather, it offers an entry point for a debate on where we find ourselves that retains its relevance today in novel, striking ways.

Programme

Course objectives

‘Discipline and Place’ is a lecture series offered to PhD and Research MA students at Dutch Universities and LeidenGlobal partner institutions in the Fall of each year. It gives them an opportunity to reflect on the broader field of the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH, in European parlance) –including Archaeology and Law – and to position their own research accordingly. Ideally, students will participate in this course early on in their scholarly training, but applications by students at all stages of their research careers are welcome. The scope of the series stimulates trans regional and trans disciplinary dialogue, in line with developments in scholarship worldwide.

A complementary seminar series entitled “Methodologies in the Social Sciences and Humanities” is offered in the Spring.

Timetable

Most sessions are held from 5.00 to 6.00 pm, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, online via Kaltura/MS TEAMS. The first session (introduction) starts on September 17th. The course coordinator will be present at each online session and will moderate the discussion.

Mode of Instruction

• The course will be coordinated and moderated by Elena Burgos Martinez.
  Each speaker will have a pre-recorded lecture/ films of max 30 minutes, which has to be watched prior to the session. The online sessions will convene twice a week for max of 60 minutes from mid-September to mid-November.

• Speakers also assign an article as preparatory reading (available through open access or the Leiden University digital library), accompanied by one or several questions for students to bear in mind while reading, and one or several propositions for structuring in-class discussion. Assignments are selected for (i) relevance to the speaker’s own research, (ii) relevance to the central questions of this course, (iii) significance, and (iv) accessibility to a student audience of widely varying background and specialization. Rather than highly specialized studies, these are big-picture texts that speak to the development of the field in question at large, even if they do so through case study material. Speakers may engage with these texts in class, and/or use them as starting points for taking the discussion further.

• During the course, students will work towards a ‘think piece’ (2,000 words) written for their supervisors, in which they reflect upon the course. The final session will include a discussion of key points from these draft papers.

• Students are expected to attend all sessions. Incidental exemptions may be requested from the course convener at info@leidenglobal.nl

Assessment method

During the course, students will work towards a ‘think piece’ (2,000 words) written for their supervisors, in which they reflect upon the course. The final session will include a discussion of key points from these draft papers. No grade or credits will be given.

Reading list

Speakers assign an article as preparatory reading (available through open access or the Leiden University digital library).

Registration

Please register before 12:00 PM on Monday 10th of September 2020. Applicants will learn of their admission status no later than 15th of September 2020 and receive the programme and literature. Admission is at the discretion of the LeidenGlobal executive committee.

Contact

Elena Burgos Martinez LeidenGlobal

Remarks

LeidenGlobal is a collaborative effort by the following academic and cultural institutions:

• Leiden University

• African Studies Center Leiden (ASC)

• International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)

• Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO)

• Roosevelt Institute of American Studies (RIAS)

• Royal Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV)

• National Museum of Antiquities (RMO)

• Museum Volkenkunde

Jointly, the expertise of the scholars associated with these institutions extends to many parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, North America, and Russia and the Caucasus, through fields of enquiry and themes ranging from archeology to international relations, and from temple iconography to new media. As such, Leiden offers a truly global perspective.

LeidenGlobal aims to raise the visibility and the impact of academic and cultural scholarship and events for a wider audience, and to build partnerships with the media, government, the corporate sector, and NGOs; and to strengthen local collaboration in scholarly endeavors such as grant applications and graduate training.