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Objectives
The Research Master Arts and Culture is closely connected to the Research Master Literary Studies and has three main objectives:
It seeks to provide students with a shared methodological and theoretical basis and to broaden their scope by adding a comparative study. These objectives will be accomplished in the compulsory team-taught common courses in the program;
The program will also allow students to acquire sophisticated knowledge and technical expertise on Art History in the chosen domain. This objective will be accomplished in those parts of the programme that are track-specific;
The programme wants to train the students as independent researchers, in particulair in the thesis seminar and the thesis writing.
The aim of the programme is:
1. to broaden and deepen the students’ knowledge, understanding and skills, and train them in the use of scientific methods in the field of Arts and Culture and;
2. to enable students to develop the following academic and professional skills:
the ability to solve academic problems independently, critically and creatively;
the ability to analyse complex problems;
the ability to clearly report academic results, both in writing and orally;
Furthermore the programme aims:
3. to prepare students for an academic career at a university for postgraduate programmes;
4. to prepare students for a non-academic career in the public or private sector for which advanced research skills and practical research experience are a prerequisite.
The achievement levels can be found in the Course and Exam regulations
Programme
Students can focus on different domains within Art History:
Arts and Culture, Contemporary Art in a Global Perspective
Arts and Culture, Art, Architecture and Interior before 1800
Museums and Collections
Film and Photographic Studies
First semester
Students take the obligatory course ‘LUCAS Seminar: Cultural Theory for the 21st Century’ (5 EC) and one course within the programmes of one of the National Research Schools (5 EC).
Students may also take the course in ‘Practices and Debates in Art History’, which addresses current methodological issues in art history.
In addition, students take two elective courses:
one general elective course (10 EC);
one elective course (research seminar) from the chosen domain (10 EC);
it is also possible to change one of the elective courses for the Research Master course ‘Interculturality I’.
Students can take the Core Course Medieval and Early Modern Studies (10 EC) in their first semester instead of the Core Course Methodological Concepts in the second semester. In that case they take one elective course in the first semester and three in the second semester.
Second semester
In the second semester students take the Core course ‘Methodological Concepts in Art and Literature’ (10 EC), unless they took the Core Course Medieval and Early Modern Studies in the first semester and two elective courses:
one general elective course (10 EC);
one elective course (research seminar) from the chosen domain (10 EC);
it is also possible to change one of the elective courses for the Research Master course ‘Interculturality II’.
Third semester
The second year starts with preparation for the thesis in the ‘Lucas Writing Seminar’ course (10 EC). Students take two elective courses (see Semester 1 and 2).
Forth semester
Students complete their Research Master programme by writing a thesis (25 EC) under the supervision of an academic member of staff. They also take a course within the programmes of one of the National Research Schools (5 EC).
Master thesis and requirements for graduation
The Research Master Arts and Culture is concluded by a thesis. This is a written report of research which the student carries out under supervision by an academic member of staff but with a high degree of independence. In principle, the thesis must be of sufficient quality to be published in an academic journal in the relevant field. The thesis counts a maximum of 25,000 words including notes, bibliography and appendices.
Requirements for graduation are:
Please note that you are also asked to fulfill certain administrative procedures, as can be found on the website of Arts and Culture.
Career Preparation
Career Preparation in the Research Master Arts and Culture
The programme
The curriculum of the Research Master Arts and Culture is characterised by a focus on Arts and Culture, Media Studies or Literary Studies, or students explore a single period (Middle Ages/Early Modern or Modern and Contemporary). The programme's flexibility will encourage you to adopt an interdisciplinary perspective. During your studies you will acquire a valuable range of skills and knowledge, both disciplinary and interdisciplinary, historical and theoretical.
How can you use this knowledge and the skills that you acquire? Which specialisation should you choose within your study programme and why? What skills do you already have, and what further skills do you still want to learn? How do you translate the courses that you choose into something that you’d like to do after graduation?
These questions and more will be discussed at various times during your study programme. You may already have spoken about them with your study coordinator, the Humanities Career Service or other students, or made use of the Leiden University Career Zone. Many different activities are organised to help you reflect on your own wishes and options, and give you the chance to explore the job market. All these activities are focused on the questions: ‘What can I do?’, ‘What do I want?’ and ‘How do I achieve my goals?’.
Activities
You will be notified via the Faculty website, your study programme website and email about further activities in the area of job market preparation. The following activities will help you to thoroughly explore your options, so we advise you to take careful note of them:
Transferable skills
Future employers are interested not only in the subject-related knowledge that you acquired during your study programme, but also in the ‘transferable skills’. These include cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, reasoning and argumentation and innovation; intrapersonal skills, such as flexibility, initiative, appreciating diversity and metacognition; and interpersonal skills, such as communication, accountability and conflict resolution. In short, they are skills that all professionals need in order to perform well.
It is therefore important that during your study programme you not only acquire as much knowledge as possible about your subject, but also are aware of the skills you have gained and the further skills you still want to learn. The course descriptions in the e-Prospectus of the Research Master Arts and Culture include, in addition to the courses’ learning objectives, a list of the skills that they aim to develop.
The skills you may encounter in the various courses are:
Collaboration
Persuasion
Research
Self-directed learning
Creative thinking
Courses of the Research Master Arts and Culture
Courses of the study programme obviously help to prepare you for the job market. As a study programme, we aim to cover this topic either directly or less directly in each semester. Within the Research Master, this takes place within the following courses:
- For one research seminar students can opt for an integrated internship where they gain valuable work experience
Contact
If you have any questions about career choices, whether in your studies or on the job market, you are welcome to make an appointment with the career adviser of the the Humanities Career Service, or with your coordinator of studies, Els Munter
