Remark
The evening sessions will take place on Wednesdays, 17.15 – 19.00 hs. in the Pieter de la Court building (Wassenaarseweg 52) in room 1A27.
Admission requirements
Admission to the MA Middle Eastern Studies (research) or the MA Asian Studies (research). Students interested in this course, but not a student from the MA Middle Eastern Studies (research) or the MA Asian Studies (research) are requested to contact the study co-ordinator, or the convener of the course, Dr. E. Bähre before registering for the course.
Description
This course helps Research MA students make research topics, questions, and theoretical problems materialise in tangible research activities. How can you make ideas work? What will you actually be doing in your project? How do you explicitly shape relationships between theory on the one hand, and everyday research practices, on the other? The course will address important epistemological concerns and related practices, toward familiarity with the broader spectrum of methodological approaches on which your research is located.
The course will have sessions on key notions and sessions on key methods taught by scholars in among others history, visual studies, literary studies, anthropology, and archaeology. Key notions and key methods present different dimensions of a fluid discussion, not pigeonholes. The key methods seminars will be jointly for the research MA students of this course and PhD students, allowing for more interaction and the building of a strong research climate.
Course objectives
The objectives of this course are to:
1. Gain insight into the theoretical and historical background of research methods used in Area Studies, and their relation to regional expertise, place, language, discipline, and positionality.
2. Learn to engage with methodological debates in Area Studies, among others by expanding once methodological vocabulary.
3. Learn how to use research methods reflexively by explicitly addressing their situatedness.
4. Learn how to translate theoretically embedded research questions into a feasible research project.
5. Learn why and how to go beyond a ‘cookbook’ or ‘toolkit’ approach to methods.
6. Learn to critically examine publications and data generated by neighboring fields of enquiry, in terms of area and/or discipline and/or thematics.
Timetable
Note: the evening sessions will take place on Wednesdays, 17.15 – 19.00 hs. at room 1A27, Pieter de la Court building, Wassenaarseweg 52.
Mode of instruction
*Seminar
Attendance and participation are obligatory.
Course Load
A brief calculation of the course load, broken down by:
Seminars: 32 hours
Studying literature: 210 pages= 30 hours
Assignments, papers and presentation, including research: 78 hours
Assessment method
Five assignments / papers and presentation: 100%.
Details on the assessment and grading will be provided on blackboard.
To complete the final mark, please take notice of the following:
1) the final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average
Blackboard
Blackboard is used for communicating grades and information on the course structure and assignments. The readings and links to online sources will be available on blackboard.
Reading list
Readings and links to online resources will be made available on blackboard.
Registration
Students are required to register through uSis. To avoid mistakes and problems, students are strongly advised to register in uSis through the activity number which can be found in the timetable in the column under the heading “Act.nbr.”.
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Studeren à la carte nor Contractonderwijs is possible for this course.
Contact
Remarks
Students with disabilities
The university is committed to supporting and accommodating students with disabilities as stated in the university protocol (especially pages 3-5). Students should contact Fenestra Disability Centre at least four weeks before the start of their courses to ensure that all necessary academic accommodations can be made in time conform the abovementioned protocol.
Academic Integrity
Students are expected to be familiar with Leiden University policies on plagiarism and academic integrity. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. If you submit any work with your name affixed to it, it is assumed to be your own work with all sources used properly indicated and documented in the text (with quotations and/or citations).