Tag(s)
Depends on the Research Clinic, see below.
Admission Requirements
Academic writing (or equivalent)
Other requirements may be in place for specific research projects, please check each project outline separately.
Description
This course introduces students to academic research, from start to finish, by engaging them in ongoing research projects of LUC staff members. Students are invited to participate in the various stages of a project, from the set-up or the application for research grants, over the gathering of data and the drafting of findings, to the final polishing of a text and preparing it for publication.
Course Objectives
After having successfully completed this course, students will have gained a better idea of how to:
formulate research questions and structure a collective project;
draft and revise an academic text of high quality;
cooperate in a research team.
As such, this course provides excellent preparation for students’ Capstone projects as well as later academic research at graduate or post-graduate level.
Research Clinics
Tags: International Development (ID), Policy Science (PSc), Psychology (Psyc):
- Institutions and Violence (Project leaders: Dr. B. Zicha, Dr. S. McKeown, and Dr. D. Ehrhardt)
Tags: Sustainability (S):
Method Development and Validation to Detect and Quantify Microplastics (Project leader: Dr. T. Bosker)
Floods and muds along the Mississippi (Project leader: Dr. P. Hudson)
Tags: Human Interaction (HI), World Politics (WP):
The European Union as a community of culture (Project leader: Dr. C. Stan)
Shaping the political communities of the 21st century: Multicultural stories from Brazil and China (Project leaders: Dr. Y. Hwang and Dr. D. Vicherat Mattar)
Reducing Prejudice through Imagining Intergroup Contact (Project leader: Dr. S. McKeown)
Tags: Global Justice (GJ):
Autonomous Weapons and Responsibility in International Law (Project leader: Mr. D. Saxon)
Right to Housing: Good Intentions or Hard Law? (Project leader: Dr. F. Baetens)
Application
Students are invited to select up to three projects in which they would like to participate, as well as rank them in order of preference. Also, they are requested to submit a 250 word explanation of how they intend to offer added value to the project (for example, because they speak a specific language relevant to the field of research or because they have taken one or more courses dealing with issues that the project relates to). Please submit the preferences together with the brief motivation to course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl).
Based on students’ preference and their qualification, the course convenor will assign each student to a project, in consultation with the project leaders. Should this not be possible (for example because the student has only indicated a preference for one particular project for which there are many applicants), the course convenor will contact the student, who will then be offered a choice among the remaining positions, or, opt to take another course.
Mode of Instruction
Each student is expected to meet with her/his project leader at least once per week to discuss her/his progress, receive feedback on earlier work, ask questions and outline further assignments.
Individual project leaders may require additional meetings during which students can be asked to give presentations to all project participants. Project leaders may also ask students to attend specialist lectures, seminars or conferences – insofar as relevant for the project.
Plenary meetings are organized to explain the set-up of the course and to prepare students for the writing of their final report. The preliminary dates of these meetings (to be confirmed) are: Wednesday 5 February (13.00-15.00), Wednesday 5 March (13.00-15.00) and Wednesday 19 March (13.00-15.00). In addition, appointments with the course convenor for individual feedback can be scheduled.
Important: students are expected to keep a log of their activities, detailing per hour spent on the project what (s)he has accomplished.
Assessment
To be confirmed:
Participation during research clinic meetings: 10%
Weekly assignments: 40%
Keeping a research log: 10%
Writing a report on the content and relevance of the research project for society: 40%
Participation during the research clinic meetings and the weekly assignments are evaluated by the project leader.
The research log and the final paper are assessed by the course convenor.
Contact Information
f.baetens@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Weekly Overview
Please check the individual project outlines for an overview of topics.
Preparation for first session
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