Studiegids

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First year

Vak EC Semester 1 Semester 2

Semester 1 (Fall semester)

Common Core Course

Besides the “Theory and Methods” course students are strongly advised to attend the Thesis Writing Seminar, which is obligatory in the second year only.

Theory and Methods in Area Studies 10

Specialisation courses

Students choose two or more specialisation courses up to a minimum of 20 EC from the list.

Semester 2 (Spring semester)

Common Core Course: students choose one of the two following courses:

Students may opt to take both courses. One of them will then be counted as a specialisation course. Besides the CCC of their choice students are strongly advised to attend the Thesis Writing Seminar, which is obligatory in the second year only.

Arts and Culture in Area Studies: Culture and Conquest: the impact of the Mongols and their descendants 10
State and Society: Orientalism, Colonialism, and Post-Colonialism 10

Specialisation courses

Students choose two or more specialisation courses up to a minimum of 20 EC from the list.

Second year

After the completion of their first year students may opt to spend the summer or a complete semester (semester 3) to study abroad at one of the institutions affiliated with the programme or to do fieldwork. Students who want to go abroad need to contact a potential supervisor of their project early in the second semester (of the first year) to write a sound proposal. This proposal needs to be submitted to the Board of Examiners for approval at least two months before the student leaves (preferably before the end of the second semester).

Students who are staying in Leiden are obliged to take the Thesis Writing Seminar and choose two (or more) courses from the list of specialisation courses.

Vak EC Semester 1 Semester 2

Semester 1 (Fall semester)

Common Core Course

Thesis Writing Seminar (Area Studies, Asian Studies and Middle Eastern Studies (research)) 10

Specialisation courses

Students choose two or more specialisation courses up to a minimum of 20 EC from the list.

Semester 2 (Spring semester)

Common Core Courses

Research MA Thesis (Area Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Asian Studies) 30
Thesis Writing Seminar (Area Studies, Asian Studies and Middle Eastern Studies (research)) 10

Specialisation courses

The courses listed are, in principle, open to all students admitted to the MA Middle Eastern Studies (research). However, some of them may have additional entry requirements such as, for example, a particular level of language sufficiency. Please, see the course descriptions for further details.

Vak EC Semester 1 Semester 2

Semester 1 (Fall semester)

Specialisation courses offered by the Research Master

Art History and Archaeology of the Christian and Islamic Middle East 5.0/10.0
Historiography and Cultural History (Persian) 10
Oral Traditions 10

Other specialisation courses

Anthropology of Muslim Societies 10
Arabic Dialectology: Historical Grammar of the Arabic Language(s) 10
From Manuscript to Modern Media: Transmission of Texts and Knowledge in the Islamic World 5.0/10.0
From Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic 10
Global Christianity: the Middle East (1800-present) 5
Literature and Politics in the Persian-speaking World 10
Theories and Methods of Middle East and Islamic Studies 10
The Ottoman Empire and Europe 10

Semester 2 (Spring semester)

Specialisation courses offered by the Research Master

Pilgrimages and Holy Places 10
Religion, art, and identity of Christian societies in the Middle East 10

Other specialisation courses

Continuity and Change in Turkish Culture 10
Culture and Society in the Medieval Muslim World 10
Developments in the Modern Middle East 10
Persian Literature outside Iran: A Literary History 10
Practicing Modernity:State and Society in Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus 10
Themes in Modern Arabic Literature 10
Turkey since World War II 10
`Ulamâ’ in the Modern Muslim World 10