Prospectus

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Leiden Graduate Journal 'Culture and Society'

Course
2020-2021

Admission requirements

Students who register for this course are asked to send a brief abstract of their proposed article (200 words), fitting with the overarching theme of “crisis” (understood in the broadest possible sense), to Nanne Timmer and Astrid Van Weyenberg before 15 January 2021. The maximum amount of participants in this seminar is 10; should more students register, the organizers will select on the basis of the submitted abstracts.

Description

This new seminar invites students from different MA and ResMA programmes within the Faculty of Humanities to work towards a publication in the first issue (Summer 2021) of the online, annual, faculty-broad Leiden Graduate Journal “Culture & Society”. Under the guidance of two senior scholars, students work both as individual authors and as a collective editorial board, jointly responsible for the journal issue as a whole. Connecting their own research to the overarching theme of this year’s Journal Issue, students depart from their own disciplines while also engaging in a dialogue with peers from other disciplines. This allows students to experience first-hand what interdisciplinary collaboration (which can be difficult, but also extremely productive) entails.

In bi-weekly sessions of four hours, students discuss their work in progress. This involves, among other things, peer-reviewing and editing each other’s work, collectively deciding on the structure and lay-out of the journal issue, and potentially inviting one or two Leiden-based scholars as guest contributors. In practice, students together form the members of the editorial board of this year’s journal issue, with the two senior scholars operating as the chief editors. In principle, the journal should be able to accommodate different languages and alternative genres, so as to safeguard inclusivity.

In the course of the semester, students additionally prepare the symposium Leiden Humanities Presents, where they present their work-in-progress (based on the draft versions of their articles) to students and staff within the Faculty, thus practicing how to prepare and coordinate a symposium. Finally, to festively conclude the project, students organize a Journal Launch, where they present their work to family, friends, and other interested people from outside the university, thus practicing how to translate academic work to a broader audience.

The Leiden Humanities Graduate Journal is intended as a platform where MA and ResMA students can present their work. Each seminar edition result in a new journal issue, with a new (broad) theme that holds relevance within different scholarly fields and within society at large. The Journal, therefore, functions as a bridge between the different disciplines of the Humanities, but also between the Faculty of Humanities and the wider world. It is a space where Leiden University can communicate the diverse ways in which ‘culture’ is studied within the Humanities. In a world in which the value of the Humanities is increasingly questioned, this visibility is especially important.

Course objectives

After this course students:

  • Have experience in writing an academic article for a Journal.

  • Have experience in collaborating on a Special Issue of a journal (discussing, peer-reviewing, editing)

  • Have learned how to work as part of an interdisciplinary team

  • Have experience in organizing an academic symposium (practicing their moderating, chairing, presenting skills) and a book launch (training how to translate their research to a broader non-academic audience).

Timetable

Visit MyTimetable.

Mode of instruction

Interactive seminar with individual and group work

Assessment method

Assessment

  • Journal article (pass/fail)

  • Collective peer-review and editorial work (pass/fail)

  • Collective organization of symposium Leiden Humanities Presents (pass/fail)

  • Collective organization of the Journal Launch (pass/fail)

To guarantee the quality of the Journal Issue, only articles with a passing grade (e.g. which have been positively reviewed by the chief editors), will be published.

Resit

Resit: Students who receive a failing grade for their article can take a resit by rewriting said article.
NB: It is not possible to resit the collective assignments.

Reading list

T.b.a

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website.

Registration Studeren à la carte en Contractonderwijs

Registration Studeren à la carte.

Contact

Contact information

Dr. A.L.B. van Weyenberg

Dr. N. Timmer

Remarks

Not applicable