Please note: This course description is provisional and still subject to changes.
Admission requirements
Admission to the Research Master Archaeology programme.
Description
This course is meant to assist students in transitioning to an early career academic. As such we will focus on training skills that are needed for an academic career, including grant writing, presentation skills, and peer evaluation. We will build these skills through exploring major themes and questions in archaeological science, where specific topics can be self-chosen, but will be framed in the big schemes in archaeological theory and science, such as human migration, paleoclimate, technological innovation and invention or management of resources.
Course set-up
Bi-weekly meetings with the instructor will be alternated with individual work on selecting a relevant topic and writing a grant proposal, after which this proposal is peer-reviewed within the group and presented to the ‘evaluation committee’ consisting of the entire course group.
Course objectives
Students will learn to:
- Critically assess a topic’s current state-of-the-art, identifying gaps and research opportunities;
- Generate a research idea and approach to analyzing it;
- Introspection about your personal profile and vision, building a strong application CV;
- Prepare a research proposal following the format of a funding body such as the NWO PhD in the Humanities grant;
- Critically and constructively assess their peers’ grant applications, following a formal “peer review” format;
- Incorporate evaluations into a revised application and present this (updated) research proposal, following the interview style of a major funding body.
- Defend the research proposal in a mock grant interview
Timetable
Course schedule details can be found in MyTimetable.
Log in with your ULCN account, and add this course using the 'Add timetable' button.
Mode of instruction
Flipped classroom: the students gather knowledge before class and evaluate their knowledge during the classes. Hands-on exercises are at the core of personal work and group presentations. The instructor functions as a coach for the students.
Assessment method
Pass/fail assignments preparing aspects of the grant proposal;
Active participation in group discussions (10%);
Revised draft of the grant proposal (50%);
Grant proposal interview (40%).
Retakes for the assignments are not possible.
Assessment deadlines:
The dates of exams and retakes can be found in MyTimetable. The deadlines of papers, essays and assignments are communicated through Brightspace.
The submissions will have strict deadlines, to be announced.
Reading list
Guidelines for applications on:
https://www.nwo.nl/ https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/ https://erc.europa.eu/homepage
Literature defined per subject matter chosen.
Registration
Enrolment for all components of your study programme through MyStudymap is mandatory. This applies to both compulsory elements and elective credits. If you are not enrolled, you may not participate.
General information about registration can be found on the Course and exam enrolment page.
Contact
For more information about this course, please contact Dr Wei Chu or Dr. G.L. (Gerrit) Dusseldorp.
Remarks
Compulsory attendance.