Prospectus

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Research Preparation

Course
2021-2022

Admission Requirements

The following two categories of students are entitled to participate:

1. Bachelor students of CADS who have passed the following first-year courses:

  • Anthropological Research in Practice

  • Statistics in Practice

  • Academic Writing and (Re-)Presentation

  • Data Management and Research Ethics/Ethics in Contemporary Ethnographic Research

  • Academic Discourse

2. Archaeology students from the bachelor’s programme Heritage and Society who have successfully passed Social Scientific Research in Practice.

Language of Instruction

Lectures are given in English.
The exam can be taken in Dutch or English.

Course Description and Course Objectives

This course helps students to prepare for Fieldwork NL by helping students to make their research topics, questions, and theoretical problems materialize 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 epistemological concerns and related practices, toward familiarity with the spectrum of methodologies on which your research is located. This will help you learn to:
1. reflect on notions of method and methodology.
2. engage with methodological debates in cultural anthropology and development sociology, and expand your methodological vocabulary.
3. use research methods reflexively, by explicitly addressing their situatedness.
4. translate theoretically embedded research questions into a feasible project.
5. go beyond a ‘cookbook’ or ‘toolkit’ approach to methods.

Schedule

Dates and room numbers can be found on the website.

Mode of Instruction

Total 5 ECTS = 140 study tax hours (sbu)

  • lectures 10 × 2 = 20 hours * 1,5 = 30 sbu

  • literature ca. 770 pages = 110 sbu

Assessment Method

  • Mandatory participation in lectures

  • Written examination

Exam may be re-taken if results of the first attempt are deemed unsatisfactory (grade 5 or lower).

Registration in uSis

All participants must register in Usis for lectures and the exam. Students may register for the exam up to 11 calendar days before it takes place. Registration periods and further information about the procedure are given on the website on course registration.

  • The registration closes five days before the start of the course.

Brightspace

Brightspace is the digital learning environment of Leiden University. Brightspace gives access to course announcements and electronic study material. Assignments will also be submitted in Brightspace. Announcements about and changes to courses are given via Brightspace. Students are advised to check Brightspace daily to keep informed about rooms, schedules, deadlines, and all details regarding assignments. Lecturers assume that all students read information posted on Brightspace.

  • How to login

The homepage for Brightspace is: Brightspace

Please log in with your ULCN-account and personal password. On the left you will see an overview of My Courses.

For access to courses in Brightspace you need to be registered for those courses in uSis.

Course Literature

Rabinow, Paul. 1977. Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco. University of California Press.
Small, Mario Luis. 2017. Someone To Talk To. Oxford University Press.

Articles from electronic journals and encyclopaedias are available through the digital university library (to be announced).

Contact

Dr. Erik Bähre