Prospectus

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Practising International Studies

Course
2021-2022

Admission requirements

This course is only available for students in the BA International Studies programme.

Description

Practising International Studies is an academic collaborative project course where teams of students reflect and analyse societal issues presented by organisational partners that operate in international environments. These leaders appeal to student teams to use their area-specific and multidisciplinary background in International Studies as well as their research capabilities to provide them with novel and critical insights to assist their future decision-making.

This course teaches students to merge their International Studies background with practice. Students learn to, conduct holistic research using their multidisciplinary grounding, that is, historical, cultural, economic and political—as taught from a Humanities perspective, and area expertise, to finally balance globalisation and contextualisation to further progress on contemporary societal challenges.

Course objectives

This course aims to:

  • apply theories, key concepts and ideas from International Studies as practical tools of critical reflection and analysis;

  • further develop research skills including problem definition, formulating research questions, critical review of academic literature, building theoretical frameworks and applying case study research methods;

  • provide a guided academic consultancy sequence through peer review and learning (i.e. receiving and giving constructive feedback to team members) and integrating feedback from research coaches;

  • build teamwork competencies through authentic dialogues, the ability to brainstorm, listen, debate and integrate diverse perspectives through group work and collaboration;

  • further build skills to write, present and defend research findings in a professional, and structured way;

  • prepare students to engage with the complexities, challenges and opportunities of the contemporary world as encountered by international organisations and their leaders;

  • bridge the theory-practice gap by advancing research of societal relevance.

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

(Guest-) Lectures, project tutorials, workshops, presentations.

All sessions are mandatory. For teams to function effectively, all student consultants should be actively involved in all the components of the course, contribute to group discussions and thereby be represented in the decision-making and consultancy deliverables. Make sure you are accountable and inform both your team and coach if you cannot make it for a good reason.

Assessment method

The course uses a combination of individual and group assessment of a series of components and deliverables throughout academic consultancy process, such as team agreement, peer review, individual portfolio, final group report and consultancy pitch.

Further specification of these components to be announced in the syllabus.

Reading list

To be announced.

Registration

The method of registration for this course will be announced later.

Contact

Remarks

All other information.