Admission requirements
Admission to the MA Asian Studies (research). Other students are kindly referred to the course description of the regular MA course.
Description
I want to tell you about that lagoon
that lucid, sleepy lagoon lounging against the sunrise
men say that one day
that lagoon will devour you
they say it will gnaw at the shoreline
chew at the roots of your breadfruit trees
gulp down rows of your seawalls
and crunch your island’s shattered bones
they say you, your daughter
and your granddaughter, too
will wander rootless
with only a passport to call home …
Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner (Marshallese poet and educator)
From the Indian Ocean to Taiwan; from the Philippines to Tonga, this course covers the study of intersectional ecofeminism (ecofeminism in critical perspective) as a network of knowledges connecting people across the globe. Through the study of poetry, films, and paintings, we will explore the ways in which a variety of island ecofeminists have approached ecological crisis as social crisis. Thus, together we will position the notions of environmental racism and environmental justice in critical island perspectives. We will start with a review of the herstories of ecological feminisms: its tensions with environmental ideologies blind to histories of racial, ethnic, sexual and gender oppression and its conversations with feminist social and political ecology (including power dynamics and hierarchies between different realms of knowledge). This course centres around ecofeminism ethics and embodiment, in opposition, resistance, conversation and connection to environmental institutions and organisations. Here, the ecofeminist’s body becomes a living archive where stories of oppression are centred. Here, Asia travels across oceans, materialising as collective forms of ecological contestation through literature and art.
Course objectives
After successful completion of this course, students are able to:
Knowledge
Historically situate existing and new knowledges and allow new perspectives and approaches to critically inform opinions.
Describe, discuss and think critically about key debates and perspectives concerning intersectional ecofeminism as it is applied to the understanding of and as a response to: crisis, migration, activism, environmental theory, etc.
Assess the interrelatedness and mutually constitutive nature of politics, society, identity and ecology in a variety of island contexts across the world.
Construct and develop their own arguments as a response to urgent socioenvironmental matters in the world.
Critically situate scholarship and deconstruct biases (both personal and professional) and power relations which have also played an important role in defining and developing fields like environmental studies, ecology, geography and anthropology.
Broaden knowledge of ‘the environment’ by bringing perspectives and paradigms from the social sciences and humanities into existing knowledge stemming from the natural sciences.
Skills:
Academically engage with the environmental theory of non-academic contexts and contribute to the advancement of epistemic diversity.
Analise academic literature pertaining to the themes discussed in the weekly seminars.
Formulate original arguments, in discussion and in writing, question and write an academic essay on a subject of choosing related to the course content.
Communicating opinions in an academic manner and with the assistance of existing relevant literature.
Assess the validity and reliability of research and literary sources beyond the politics of institutionalising knowledge.
Critically approach contemporary issues and the constitutive biases of primary and secondary sources, as well as media sources.
Be comfortable when in conversation with a wider array of sources of knowledge: poetry, film, paintings.
Timetable
The timetables are avalable through My Timetable.
The deadline(s) in MyTimetable is/are set for administrative purposes only. The actual date(s) will be communicated by the lecturer(s) in Brightspace.
Mode of instruction
Seminar.
The course is conducted in seminar-style meetings, which will take place once a week. This requires thorough preparation through the study of the compulsory readings and active engagement on the part of the students. Every week, students will need to complete compulsory readings and complete these with suggested further readings. In addition, they will have to show critical engagement with readings by submitting a short summary of the readings before the session. Class meetings will include short lectures, moderated plenary, and group discussions led and moderated by students. The attendance of classes is compulsory.
Assessment method
Academic integrity
Students should familiarize themselves with the notion of academic integrity and the ways in which this plays out in their own work. A good place to start is this page. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students may not substantially reuse texts they have previously submitted in this or other courses. Minor overlap with previous work is allowed as long as it is duly noted in citation. For information on plagiarism (in the context of academic writing at large), see clips 4-5-6 in this series of video clips.
Students must submit their assignment(s) to Brightspace through Turnitin, so they can be checked for plagiarism. Submission via email is not accepted.
ChatGPT: What is possible and what is allowed? Dos and Don'ts.
Assessment and weighing
| Partial Assessment | Weighing |
|---|---|
| Web post | 25% |
| Introduction and moderating of a debate | 35% |
| Reflective essay | 40% |
Web post
Students will submit a web posting of no more than 300 words summarising the main ideas of the day’s readings. Each student has to submit 9 web postings out of 12 sessions (excluding our intro session, our concluding session and the session they introduce/moderate). This will be submitted on to the Brightspace> Tools> Discussion (25%).
Debate
Each student will introduce and moderate a debate that relates to the week’s topics. Each debate will start with a brief introduction of no more than 15 minutes (the use of supporting visual material is recommended) to then moderate a subsequent debate (discussion questions will be presented to the audience). This will be organised with the course convener during the first week of the course. (35%)
Reflective essay
Students are required to write a final reflective essay of 3000 words (excluding references/bibliography) further developing any of the topics and/or queries from the debate they had moderated in class (or, after consultation, a different topic).
This final reflective assignment consists of a 3,000-word essay in which the author a) presents and justifies the context, rationale and focus of the essay; b) critically discusses relevant sources (academic and semi-academic) beyond those on the course syllabus; c) discusses insights gained from the sources reviewed and how these connect to their own journeys through knowledge and research interests, d) reflects on their own biases and the impact these have in our own learning processes and e) develops the above points convincingly through a coherently structured and referenced essay which proves competence in academic English.
The final mark for this course is formed by the weighted average.
In order to pass the course, students must obtain an overall mark of 5.50 (=6) or higher for the course as a whole and a passing grade for each component.
The course is an integrated whole. All assessment parts must be completed in the same academic year. No partial marks can be carried over into following years.
Resit
Only if the total weighted average is insufficient (5.49 or lower) and the insufficient grade is the result of an insufficient mark for the reflective essay, a resit is possible in the form of a paper (40%). If the web post is also insufficient the resit paper will replace the web post and paper (60%).
In those cases the lecturer of the course may assign a (new) topic and give a new deadline.
A resit of the other partial assessments is not possible.
Inspection and feedback
Feedback will be supplied primarily through Brightspace. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the assessment results, a review will be organized.
Reading list
The list of required readings (accessible via Leiden University Library) will be published on Brightspace before the semester starts.
For the Research MA students additional reading will be determined by the convener at a later stage taking into account the students’ fields of interest. Extra sessions will be organized to discuss this extra literature.
Registration
Enrolment through My Studymap (Login | Universiteit Leiden) is mandatory.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office Herta Mohr