Research School Courses
While most coursework on your degree programme is provided within Leiden, there exist National Research/Graduate Schools in the Netherlands in various fields where research students come together from different faculties or institutions to further their knowledge and skills. The Graduate Schools offer courses on both methodology and area specific knowledge. Many researchers in the Faculty of Humanities are members of a research school related to their area of expertise. The Research School courses provide PhD and Research Master students with the opportunity to come into contact with/meet fellow PhD and Research Master students from other universities, in addition to the exposure to a broader range of research(ers) and academia in general.
Graduate Schools often do not specialize in Latin America, but rather create an opportunity to explore similar concepts in a different context. Doing courses in a Graduate School is also an excellent opportunity to look at research from a more interdisciplinary perspective.
There are different ways to obtain credits in a Graduate School: courses that run for a block or semester, summer- or winter schools and sometimes even research internships. Students may take courses at more than one Graduate School, provided that the courses are relevant to the individual programme.
Doing a block or semester course is advised as these always give credits based on academic work. Summer and winter schools often only offer credits based on attendance. At least some of the credits for the Graduate School requirement need to be obtained based on academic output.
The credits for the Graduate School requirement are in the programme for the second semester of the first year of the Research Master, but students are allowed to take these credits at any time during their programme. Courses offered by Graduate Schools change every academic year, so if an interesting course is offered students should try to incorporate it into their programme as it might not be offered in the following year.
Students are advised to look at the website of the research school most fitting to their research interests on a regular basis to make sure they are aware of any new options being made available.
Information on courses and summer- and winter schools usually becomes available several months before the start. It is a good idea to review these courses and see which might be suitable in terms of the kind of research you propose to do. There tends to be a strong focus on methods courses in the Research Schools and this can be very useful to develop your research techniques, enabling you to develop more sophisticated approaches when it comes to writing your thesis.
Once students have begun to develop their research ideas it is a good idea to begin surveying the graduate courses available with a view to identifying which might be most suitable. In some cases, for example with theses that focus on interview-based fieldwork approaches, a qualitative research methods course might be suitable. For others, on occasion courses focusing on quantitative approaches might be more useful.
Students are encouraged to share their plans and ideas with their supervisor and lecturers for their methods courses for advice on how to tie this into their ideas for further research or they can make an appointment with the study advisor.
The list below gives several research schools that are related to topics in the Research Master Latin American Studies:
List of Research Schools
Below the most relevant Research Schools are listed:
N.W. Posthumus Institute (Social and Economic History)
Huizinga Institute (Cultural History)
NICA (Cultural Analysis)
OSL (Literature)
NOG (Gender Studies)
Politics, Culture and National Identities, 1789 to the Present: Research School Political History
Please note that the courses offered by the Research Schools differ in length and intensity and consequently in the amount of EC that are granted.
Also note that other Research Schools besides those listed within the specialization may offer relevant courses. Students who are interested in an interdisciplinary approach may find a relevant course at the other National Research Schools for Humanities.
Procedure
Student picks a Research School that is aligned to their ResMA specialization from the list of Research Schools (see list Research Schools above);
Student requests approval from the Board of Examiners at least a month before the start of the Research School, listing the following information:
which Graduate School courses they have chosen (linking to the course description);
student number.
- Student registers for the courses of the Research School themselves;
- Upon completion, student turns in either:
an authenticated copy of their Research School certificate/grade at Board of Examiners;
or, forward the original e-mail containing the Research School certificate via uMail to the Board of Examiners.