Admission requirements
This is an Honours Elective module meant for second and if places available third year students of the Honours College FSW programme, Science & Society track. You have to participate in at least one Honours Elective module in your second year.
Skills
The 'shared transferable skills’ predominantly covered in this course are shown in bold:
| (Meta-)cognitive (Researching) | Interpersonal (Collaborating) | Intrapersonal (Reflecting) |
|---|---|---|
| Analysing | Oral communication | Independent learning |
| Generating solutions | Written communication | Resilience |
| Project-based working | Presenting | |
| Digital skills | Societal awareness |
Other skills coverd in this course:
Combining theoretical knowledge and practical experience
Combining general and personal perspectives
Description
Polarisation, stigmatisation, and exclusion are urgent social themes, which effect each of us in our interpersonal relations. This course brings together macro-social knowledge and your personal experiential knowledge. You will be challenged to build your understanding of polarisation on literature study and on an interview with someone who can be regarded to bear a stigma.
Polarisation and stigmatisation are based on emodied way of seeing each other. Some ways of seeing approach the other as an object, whereas other ways allow space for the other to be or become more of a human person. Our understanding of what it means to be part of our society is based on an image of who ‘we’ are, and what a good life comprises. While this image allows us to live and act together, it simultaneously excludes other ways of living and other understandings of what makes a good life.
How can we understand and study the effect of this societal imaging on interpersonal relations? How can issues of diversity have such an influence on persons’ self-understanding and on interpersonal relations? What are the effects of polarisation, and how can negative effects be mitigated? And how can we prevent research to fall victim to the same effects?
The course will allow students to explore their personal gaze in relation to stigmatised groups. Students will be challenged to develop experience-based learning skills and make appropriate use of literature. With this knowledge, students will be able to study more specific issues regarding diversity and polarisation in courses they elect to follow later in the Honours programme. Another goal is to provide students with knowledge and insights with which they will be able to understand and analyse contemporary (political) discussions on diversity and polarisation.
Course objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, students will:
Have increased their dialogical skills
Be able to judge processes of polarisation and exclusion from the different social position
Be aware of their potentially biased perception
Be able to combine theoretical knowledge and personal experiential knowledge
Have reflected on what they consider the value of experiental knowledge to be for their future career in for instance research or policy making
Timetable
| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 6-10-2022 | 17:00-19:00 | Wijnhaven, The Hague | room 217 |
| 20-10-2022 | 17:00-19:00 | Wijnhaven, The Hague | room 217 |
| 3-11-2022 | 17:00-19:00 | Schouwburgstr., The Hague | Living Lab |
| 17-11-2022 | 17:00-19:00 | Schouwburgstr., The Hague | Living Lab |
| 1-12-2022 | 17:00-19:00 | Schouwburgstr., The Hague | Living Lab |
| 15-12-2022 | 17:00-19:00 | Wijnhaven, The Hague | room 318 |
Language
English
Mode of instruction
The course consists of five interactive meetings and one meeting for final presentations. In the course you will combine theoretical and empirical ways of learning.
Before the first meeting, you will read relevant introductory literature containing inspiring perspectives on diversity and polarisation. In the first meeting, you will be challenged to critically examine these perspectives. You will form a group of four students.
In between the meetings, you will conduct a very short field research of a controversial topic within the field of diversity and polarisation among a societal group of your own choosing. Based on an interview with someone from this group you will investigate the effects of polarisation in practice.
In the meetings you will 1) be guided through this investigation, 2) learn theoretical insights on the topic. You will present your findings in an academic blog series or an academic mini movie. In the meetings you will discuss issues of representation: how can you secure a both academically and ethically sound representation of your research findings?
In the final meeting, you will present your blog series or your movie to your instructor.
The course will give room to and require your personal involvement, allowing you to explore your personal motivation for doing socially engaged research.
Assessment methods
The assessment methods will look as follows:
Before the first seminar, you will read relevant introductory literature containing inspiring perspectives on diversity and polarisation. In the first seminar, you will be challenged to critically examine these perspectives. You will form a group of four students.
In between the seminars, you will conduct a very short field research of a controversial topic within the field of diversity and polarisation among a societal group of your own choosing. Based on an interview with someone from this group you will investigate the effects of polarisation in practice.
In the seminars you will be guided through this investigation, 2) learn theoretical insights on the topic. You will present your findings in an academic blog series or an academic mini movie. In the seminars you will discuss issues of representation: how can you secure a both academically and ethically sound representation of your research findings?
In the final seminar, you will present your blog series or your movie.
The course will give room to and require your personal involvement, allowing you to explore your personal motivation for doing socially engaged research.
The assessment methods will be further explained in the first session of the class.
Reading list
On the cultural and historical nature of seeing
Sigurdson, Ola, “Heavenly Bodies: Incarnation, the Gaze, and Embodiment in Christian Theology”, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016, pp 151-181
On the image(s) of the Netherlands “Thinking of the Netherlands.” Den Haag: Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau, 2019. https://www.scp.nl/english/Publications/Publications_by_year/2019/Thinking_of_the_Netherlands.
On society and social subgroups
Schinkel, Willem. “The Moralisation of Citizenship in Dutch Integration Discourse.” Amsterdam Law Forum 1, no. 1 (2008): 15–26. http://amsterdamlawforum.org/article/view/56/77
Other possible literature will be announced in class or via Brightspace.
You are explicitly invited to introduce literature from your studies to the reflection process.
Registration
Registration via the catalogue number.
You can register for the Elective Honours Modules via uSis until five days before the start of the course.
Courses starting in semester 1: registration opens July 12/13, 2022.
Contact information
Dr. Rob van Waarde (r.van.waarde@fsw.leidenuniv.nl)
News article
Former students reflected on the course in this interview.