Admission requirements
This course is only available for students in the BA International Studies who have succesfully completed the second year elective course.
The number of participants is limited to 6.
Description
Building on earlier exercises in essay-writing, in particular the essay for the second year’s elective course, a bachelor’s thesis is the finishing paper of the program. It is a research paper of 10,000 words, which to a considerable extent is the result of research and writing that is independently done.
Collective supervision is provided in thesis seminars. The aim of the thesis seminar is to guide students through the process of designing a research question; collecting literature, sources, data, and other materials that are necessary for answering the question; bringing logic and persuasive order in the material and in the arguments supported by it; and designing appropriate research methods.
Attending a seminar is mandatory; no thesis can be submitted that has not been written in the context of a thesis seminar.
Apart from collective supervision, students will receive individual supervision, specifically focused on the subject of their research. The thesis seminar leader is also the one who provides this individual supervision. Students will have four individual meetings with their supervisor during the semester.
Each seminar will be devoted to one of the geographical areas covered by International Studies. Most seminar leaders will have expertise on political and economic subjects. For some larger areas, there will also be a limited number of seminars where stronger emphasis is laid on language, history, culture, religion, and society.
The exact set-up of the seminars may vary somewhat, due to the nature of the area, the number of seminars taught for each area, and the didactic preferences of the seminar leader. In particular, a number of seminars will have a theme to lend focus to the class discussions, and provide extra guidance for students to decide on their research topic.
For this seminar, the theme will be Mecca, the Holiest City of Islam.
Mecca is the aim of the hajj, the yearly pilgrimage of Islam, which takes place in the last month of the Muslim calendar. This largest ritual gathering in the world is an enormous logistic operation, not only in Saudi Arabia itself, but also in the countries from which pilgrims travel to the Holy City. In addition to these issues, also political and ideological issues are relevant to this seminar. For, the rule of Mecca and the organisation of the hajj also bring prestige to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. What does this mean for the standing of the dominant Wahhabi interpretation of Islam by the Saudis and its spread in the rest of the world?
Keywords: Islam, relation Islam and state, ritual, travel, Muslim cosmopolitanism.
Course objectives
Based, and further elaborating on the knowledge and skills acquired, students will prove themselves to be able to:
work with research techniques that are current in the discipline(s) applied by them;
comprehend sophisticated academic debates;
report on their studies and research in good written English;
work and write under time-pressure, and deal with deadlines.
report on their studies and research in good spoken English;
participate in debates in an active, prepared and informed way, respecting other people’s convictions and emotions;
understand fundamental cultural differences and divisions.
The general academic skills covered by these aims are:
collect and select specialised literature using traditional and electronic methods and techniques;
analyse and evaluate this in terms of quality and reliability;
formulate a well-defined research problem based on this;
set up, under supervision, a study of limited size, taking into consideration the traditional and electronic methods and techniques relevant for the discipline;
formulate a reasoned conclusion on the basis of this;
explain research findings in a clear and well-argued way, both orally and in writing.
Timetable
The timetable is available on the BA International Studies website
Mode of instruction
Six seminar meetings of two hours, spread over semester; four individual meetings with supervisor (half an hour on average).
Course Load
Attendance: 14 hrs.
Presentation: 8 hrs.
Literature review: 100 hrs.
Independent study and writing: 298
Total: 420 hrs.
Assessment method
Seminar:
25% (5% active participation;
5% research question;
15% literature review [3,000-4,000 words]).
Thesis (10,000 words, including footnotes and bibliography): 75%
Note: The maximum possible grade to be obtained for re-submission of the thesis is a 6.0. There is no resit for the other assessments.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used. Students are required to register on Blackboard
for this course.
Reading list
Registration
Enrolment through “uSis”: https://usis.leidenuniv.nl is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available in “English”: http://hum.leiden.edu/students/study-administration/usis-english.html and Dutch
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable.
Remarks
No thesis can be submitted that has not been written in the context of a thesis seminar.
There are four important due dates during the seminar: student are to submit a research question in week 40; a literature review in week 43; a draft version of the thesis in week 48; and the definitive version in week 1 of Janurary, 2016.
The due dates are not negotiable.
Since both the number of individual meetings with the supervisor, and their duration is limited, it is important that students go to them well-prepared.
Contact
Dr. N.J.G. Kaptein, email n.j.g.kaptein@hum.leidenuniv.nl