Admission Requirements
Participation in the BAP is only permitted if you passed the first year of IRO and completed at least 40 EC of the second year, including the courses Academic Skills: Research Design, Statistics II and Qualitative Research Methods.
Please note: For students who started their IRO programme before 1 September 2022 the admission requirements of 2023-2024 are still applicable: (a) first year, (b) 40 EC from year 2, incl (c) Research Methods in Political Science (10 EC) and (d) Academic Skills: Research Design (5 EC).
Transition regulations
If a student did not complete Research Methods in Political Science (10 EC) in 2022-2023 or earlier, they should complete Research Methods in Political Science (5 EC, year 1) and Qualitative Research Methods (5 EC, year 2).
Bachelor Project Information meetings Leiden
Semester II: The information session will be offered in block 2. Students will receive the invitation by mail from the SSC.
Registration for Bachelor Project
Semester II: The information will be available in November 2024.
Should you have questions regarding the registration, please email the SSC via ssc@leiden.edu.
Language
The thesis of the Bachelor Project Internationale Politiek will be written in English.
If you want to write your thesis in Dutch please consult your BAP teacher in advance.
Description
Goal 1: Learning to apply concepts, theories and methods in a research project that fits within a framework that has been formulated by the teacher in advance;
Goal 2: Conducting, and reporting on, a limited empirical or literature study.
Content: The bachelor project is a course that offers substantive instruction, followed by a research part within which students carry out an individual study. Various projects are offered that are structured around different themes. Students first follow substantive instruction for a number of weeks in which they deepen their knowledge of a specific subject within a subfield of political science. After that, students learn to formulate a research question, to design research to answer that question, to conduct their own research, and to report correctly and clearly on that research.
The final report - the Bachelor's thesis - completes the Bachelor's degree in Political Science. The thesis is an individual final paper based at least partly on the student’s own, original research.
Mode of Instruction
Workgroup meetings, walk-in meetings, library instruction, and above all self-study.
Library Instruction
On Brightspace you will find more information on the digital module 'Library instruction'.
Study materials
Halperin, S. & Heath, O. (2017) 'Political research: Methods and practical skills' - Oxford University Press, is assumed to be known. The core literature can be found on the Brightspace page of the Bachelor's Project. Further information about the bachelor project and the subprojects will also be available there.
Assessment Method
Students either pass or fail the entire BAP (16 weeks) worth 20 ECTS.
The assignments made in the first, substantive part of the BAP will jointly generate a first partial grade. This grade counts for 40% of the final BAP grade. It is rounded to one decimal. Obtaining a sufficient grade for this part of the BAP is not a necessary condition for passing the course.
The full thesis written in the second, thesis-specific part of the BAP will generate a second partial grade. This counts for 60% of the final BAP grade. It is rounded to whole and half numbers and passed with a 5,5 or higher. Obtaining a sufficient grade for this part of the BAP is a necessary condition for passing the course. This means that a (sufficiently high) partial grade for the second part of the BAP can compensate an insufficient partial grade for the first part of the BAP.
The final grade is the weighted average of both partial grades. In order to pass the entire BAP (20 ECTS), the final grade must be sufficient (i.e. at least 5,5) and, as stated above, the grade for the full thesis must be sufficient (i.e. at least 5,5) as well.
Concerning retakes:
Since the first, substantive part of the BAP counts for less than 50% towards the final grade, students who obtain an insufficient partial grade for that part do not have the right to a retake.
Since the full thesis written in the second, thesis-specific part of the BAP counts for 50% or more towards the final grade, students who obtain an insufficient partial grade for their thesis do have the right to a retake.
Students who obtain a sufficient partial grade for the full thesis written in the second, thesis-specific part of the BAP also have the right to a retake, unless they passed the entire BAP on their first attempt (which means both the final grade and the partial grade for the thesis obtained by them are sufficient).
Students failing the course but having received a sufficient grade for one of the two parts of the course are allowed to take the same BAP next academic year – provided that it is still offered and has not been changed fundamentally – but may skip that part of the course for which they received the sufficient grade. They can, so to speak, “take their sufficient partial grade to next academic year”.
Students failing the course and having received an insufficient grade for both parts of the course have to start all over again next academic year.
Students can follow only 1 BAP per academic year.
Final product:
The thesis. It should be between 7,000-8,000 words. Note that this is the actual required length of the thesis and not 7,000-8,000 plus/minus 10%. Regarding the word count: Everything from introduction to conclusion counts (as picked up by the count in MS Word). The following elements do not count: front page, abstract, table of contents and list of references. Concerning the abstract and table of contents: these are optional.
Deadlines:
BAP semester II: tba
Students who get an insufficient grade for their bachelor thesis – and so fail the entire BAP – have the right to improve their thesis and submit it for a second time. They do so on the basis of the feedback given by the supervisor during a feedback meeting. Note, however, that students are not entitled to any further supervision. The submission deadlines for the second chance are:
BAP semester II: tba
There are two important caveats to this:
Students do not have the right to submit their thesis for a second time if their first attempt resulted in a sufficient grade.
Students do not have the right to submit their thesis as part of the second chance if they did not submit a completed version of their thesis during the first chance (See Rules and Regulations of Board of Examiners, art. 4.8.2).
Bachelor Project themes:
Semester II
106 - (Dr. T. Theuns)
107 - (Dr. J. Schulhofer-Wohl)
108 - (Dr. S. Rezaeedaryakenari)
109: Environmentalisms of the Right - (Dr. R. Ploof)
Environmentalism is now often assumed to be an issue of the political left and center. Yet this has not always been the case in the past, nor is it likely to be in the future. How have those on the right historically conceptualized and taken up environmental concerns? How, in the context of climate change, might they do so once again?
Rooted in political theory, this course examines the conceptual foundations of right environmentalisms. It explores how political philosophers – like Heidegger on the one hand and Horkheimer and Adorno on the other – have both embraced and challenged rightist approaches to nature, the environment, and humanity’s relationship to the material world. Emphasizing the interplay between theory and practice, the course also looks at how these ideas have intersected with and informed far-right political action.
This BAP is amenable to a variety of qualitative methodological approaches, however explicit methods guidance will focus on political theoretical analysis. Students wishing to use a different qualitative method in their thesis should be prepared to draw on prior methods training. Use of quantitative methods is not permitted.
Finally, please note that this BAP allocates a non-trivial portion of the part one grade to active in-class participation and will not be a good fit for students who do not wish to engage in seminar-wide discussion.
110 - (Dr. E. van Reuler)
111 - (Dr. C. van de Wetering)
112 - (Dr. M. Mos)
113 - (Y.Y. Zhu)
114 - (Dr. M. Kinacioglú)
115 - (Dr. M. Verschoor)
116: Readings in the History of Political Thought - M. Longo
This Bachelor Project engages close, critical reading of texts in the history of political thought, focusing on the modern era (roughly 16th – 20th century). This period oversaw huge political and economic changes – the rise of the modern state, liberalism, capitalism – and spawned equally significant contributions to political philosophy. Debates in this period regarded themes such as sovereignty, justice, democracy, obedience, and freedom – all of which remain pressing today.
This year the BAP will take an in-depth look at one of the most important authors within this varied canon – Hannah Arendt. Class will center on a close reading of her seminal work of political philosophy, The Human Condition; it was also look at secondary literature that engages critically with her legacy. During class we will reason through and debate a wide range of subjects that emerge from this text, including the intertwining of politics and morality, the relationship between citizen and state, and the role of theology in the secular era.
For their final theses, students will be asked to draw on this material to develop their own unique reading of the primary source material and use it to contribute to contemporary debates in the field.
Block III will be primarily substantive, working through the texts and articles in careful detail. By the end of the block, students will have developed skills necessary to critically evaluate primary sources and substantiate arguments in the field. There will be two written assignments – one focused on explicating primary sources; the second based on analyzing debates within the secondary literature. In Block IV, students will work independently to create their own arguments, drawing upon their own reading of the primary source material, to answer a question and advance a debate of their choosing. This term will involve extensive student-teacher dialogue, as well as group discussions, to help bring the projects to fruition.
The syllabus will be distributed before the first meeting of class. Because this is a reading intensive course, it makes sense to get a head start on some of the readings beforehand.
117 - (Dr. C. Jentzsch)
118 - (Dr. M. Sampson)