Admission requirements
ArtWorks4Sustainability (previously called Searching for Sustainable Livelihoods: A Fieldcourse on Fieldwork in The Netherlands) is a 10 ECTS 200-level course, open to all majors. It runs through Block 4 with a two-week intensive field trip to Terschelling, The Netherlands following reading week. The specific dates are still to be determined, as they correspond with the Oerol festival, but are likely June 12-21. There will be a tuition fee for the field trip to cover lodging, food, and field activities but this will be as minimal as possible and should not hinder anyone from applying. Financial aid may be possible on a case-by-case basis. An information session will be organized at the end of Block 2. The course will count for Global Citizenship credits.
Admission to ArtWorks4Sustainability is by application only. When applying please provide the following:
Letter of motivation in which you briefly (max 1 page 1.5 spaced) explain your interest in the course, how it fits into your study plan, and what experience you have that you think help prepare you for this field course experience.
Your CV
Your transcript (print screen from Usis is fine)
Submit all documents via email to: lucfieldcourse@gmail.com; the deadline to do so is Thursday 1 January 2026, 23:59.
Description
Art can stop us in our tracks. A sculpture on the beach, a performance in the dunes, a song on the street, a mural on a building, can suddenly make us notice the relationships we are cultivating with our neighbors, the wind, water, soil, animals, and the many more-than-human forces that constantly shape our lives. Art not only points to these connections-it asks us to feel them, to reflect on them, and perhaps to imagine them differently.
This course takes art as both subject and method for exploring human–environment relations. Environmental anthropology offers two key lenses: ethnoecology, which helps us understand the many ways humans and non-humans inhabit and interpret the world; and political ecology, which traces how power shapes these relationships and their consequences. Art is uniquely powerful in both arenas. It gives us tools to step outside the confines of language and glimpse other perspectives-human and non-human alike. And as art activism, it enters the political field directly, stirring empathy, mobilizing publics, and challenging structures of power.
By combining environmental anthropology with art and activism, this course equips students to recognize, experience, and critically engage with the entangled relationships between humans, non-humans, and environments and to imagine how they might be transformed.
In Block 4, students will explore their own relationships to the environment in The Hague while experimenting with creative and analytical methods such as journaling, drawing, mapping, data visualization, music-making, and game design. These practices provide both theoretical grounding and practical tools for investigating human–environment relations.
On Terschelling, students will bring these skills into the field through a unique collaboration with the Oerol Festival (www.oerol.nl). Commissioned by Oerol, student teams will study selected artworks-engaging with the art itself, the artists, and the responses of audiences. Their findings will be shared in the third edition of ArtWorks@Oerol, a course-produced magazine that blends ethnography, art, and public communication. Visit (www.artworks4sustainability.com) to see previous editions of our magazine.
At the same time, students will develop essential fieldwork capacities: how to enter and navigate the field ethically, how to collect data responsibly, and how to use all their senses in observation. Reflective journaling and other practices of self-awareness will support them in processing their experiences, integrating insights, and learning from immersion.
Course Objectives
Content
Students will develop a critical understanding of how environmental anthropology, with emphasis on ethnoecology, political ecology, and multispecies ethnography, explores human–environment relations.
Students will explore how different perspectives—human, non-human, and cross-cultural—shape understandings of nature, livelihoods, and sustainability.
Students will learn how to access those diverse perspectives through artistic methods, drawing to see, talking to understand, and playing to embody.
Students will explore how artistic and activist practices can play an important role in re-shaping human-environment relations.
Skills
Students will work on building fieldwork competencies, including observation, self-reflection, and systematic documentation through field journaling.
Students will practice multi-sensory and creative methods such as drawing, mapping, and playful and participatory techniques to settle into the field.
Students will work collaboratively in a camping learning community, developing teamwork, adaptability, and resilience in field conditions.
Students will experiment with communicating scientific insights through artistic and design-based formats.
Timetable
Timetables for courses offered at Leiden University College in 2025-2026 will be published on this page of the e-Prospectus.
Mode of instruction
LUC Seminar course in Block 4.
Classes will meet in the usual manner and according to the timeslot
Fieldwork is an important part of this course to develop practical skills. The fieldwork will be conducted during and outside of class times.
Terschelling field trip (Summer break: very likely June 12-21):10 days of an intensive field trip to Terschelling, The Netherlands, in tents, which will comprise of classroom-type seminars, field-trips and project work during the Oerol festival.
Please note that if you cannot participate for this entire 10 days you are not eligible to take this course.
Assessment Method
Participation: 10%
Assignments: 5x18%
Reading list
Will be provided prior and during the course on an ongoing basis.
There is one book to order in time for when the course starts:
- Causey, A. (2017). Drawn to See: Drawing as an Ethnographic Method. University of Toronto Press.
Registration
Courses offered at Leiden University College (LUC) are usually only open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Leiden University students who participate in one of the university’s Honours tracks or programmes may register for one LUC course, if availability permits. Registration is coordinated by the Education Coordinator, course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact
Dr. Caroline Archambault, c.archambault@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
The deadline to apply is 1 January 2026, the same date course registration for Semester 2 will close.