Admission requirements
This course is part of the (Res)MA History Programme. Students from within the specialization the course belongs to have right of way. It is not accessible for BA students. Active and passive knowledge of the Dutch language is required.
Description
In 2022, the five-year research program Independence, Decolonization, War and Violence in Indonesia, 1945-1950 presented its central research findings. This collaborative effort between three Dutch historical institutes (NIOD, NIMH and KITLV) focused on the analysis of extreme forms of violence by Dutch forces within the context of the Indonesian War of Independence. In order to better understand the public and scholarly debate that produced the recent surge of attention for the war, this course first examines the nature of the conflict, the violence used within its context and how historians have written about it.
However, the course’s primary focus will be on the character of the sources that determine our historical knowledge of the conflict. Over the past decades, the Dutch-Indonesian war has been studied widely, with various sharp peaks of attention. On the basis of official sources much has been written on policy, diplomacy, military strategy and increasingly also on the actual military engagements and extreme violence used by all sides. Only recently, the study of personal accounts seems to gather momentum.
In this research seminar, we will use soldiers’ diaries written during the war, memoirs written in retrospect and oral interviews. These will be studied and compared by the participants in this seminar. In order to do so, students will be taught the methodology and praxis of research in these various personal accounts that will be made available three different in databases.
Course objectives
General learning objectives
The student has acquired:
The ability to independently identify and select literature, using traditional and modern techniques;
The ability to independently identify and select sources, using traditional and modern techniques;
The ability to analyse and evaluate a corpus of sources with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
The ability to analyse and evaluate literature with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
The ability to independently formulate a clear and well-argued research question, taking into account the theory and method of the field and to reduce this question to accessible and manageable sub-questions;
The ability to independently set up and carry out an original research project that can make a contribution to existing scholarly debates;
The ability to give a clear and well-founded oral and written report on research results in correct English, when required, or Dutch, meeting the criteria of the discipline;
The ability to participate in current debates in the specialisation;
The ability to provide constructive feedback to and formulate criticism of the work of others and the ability to evaluate the value of such criticism and feedback on one’s own work and incorporate it;
(ResMA only:) The ability to participate in a discussion of the theoretical foundations of the discipline.
Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation
The student has acquired:
Thorough knowledge and comprehension of one of the specialisations as well as of the historiography of the specialisation, focusing particularly on the following; in the specialisation Colonial and Global History: how global (political, socio-economic, and cultural) connections interact with regional processes of identity and state formation; hence insight in cross-cultural processes (including the infrastructure of shipping and other modes of communication) that affect regions across the world such as imperialism, colonisation, islamisation, modernisation and globalization (in particular during the period 1200-1940); including the history and politics of cultural knowledge production and heritage formation (including archives) in colonial and postcolonial situations, at local, transnational and global levels.
Thorough knowledge and comprehension of the theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects of the specialisation or subtrack in question, with a particular focus on the following: in the specialisation Colonial and Global History: empirical and archival research from a comparative-and-connective global and postcolonial-theory perspective.
Learning objectives, pertaining to this Research Seminar
The student has:
knowledge and comprehension of the particular field of colonial history, and particularly of decolonization and the violent transformations that came with this phenomenon;
knowledge about decolonization wars in general and specifically about this critical period in Dutch-Indonesian relations, including comprehension of debates about the extent and nature of Dutch military violence in this period;
the skills to work with source materials – both published and unpublished written sources such as egodocuments and oral history – that may help us to enhance our understanding of this turbulent era. The student will also be instructed in the methodology and actual use of egodocuments and oral history;
(ResMA only:) the skills mentioned above and in addition will be expected to develop competency in linking theoretical analysis to the handling of primary source material.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar (compulsory attendance)
This means that students must attend every session of the course. If a student is not able to attend, he is required to notify the lecturer beforehand. The teacher will determine if and how the missed session can be compensated by an additional assignment. If specific restrictions apply to a particular course, the lecturer will notify the students at the beginning of the semester. If a student does not comply with the aforementioned requirements, the student will be excluded from the seminar.
Assessment method
Assessment
- Written paper (5000-6000 words, based on research in primary sources, excluding title page, table of contents, footnotes and bibliography. Related presentation in week 14 included in grade)
measured learning objectives: 1-8, 11-15
- Assignment 1 (Podcast on method and sources)
measured learning objectives: 3-7, 11-15
- Assignment 2 (Activating literature assignments, weekly in groups)
measured learning objectives: 3-4, 8-9, 11-14
- Assignment 3 (For ResMA students: one chapter of 2000 words extra covering learning objective 10)
measured learning objectives: 1-8, 10-14
Weighing
Written paper and related presentation: 70%
Assignment 1 (Podcast on method and sources): 20%
Assignment 2 (Activating literature assignments, weekly in groups): 10%
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average with the additional requirement that the written paper must always be sufficient.
Deadlines
Assignments and written papers should be handed in within the deadline as provided in the relevant course outline on Brightspace.
Resit
Should the overall mark be unsatisfactory, the paper is to be revised after consultation with the instructor.
Inspection and feedback
How and when a review of the written paper will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the results, a review of the written paper will have to be organised.
Reading list
Gert Oostindie, Ben Schoenmaker en Frank van Vree (eds), Over de grens. Nederlands extreem geweld in de Indonesische onafhankelijkheidsoorlog (Walburg Pers, Amsterdam 2022)
Thijs Brocades Zaalberg en Bart Luttikhuis, Empire’s violent end: comparing Dutch, British, and French wars of decolonization, 1945–1962 (Cornell University Press, Ithaca 2022)
Gert Oostindie, Soldaat in Indonesië 1945-1950: Getuigenissen van een oorlog aan de verkeerde kant van de geschiedenis (Bert Bakker, Amsterdam 2015)
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the [website https://www.student.universiteitleiden.nl/en/your-study-programme/courses-and-exams/enrolment/leiden-university/guest?cd=guest&cd=guest&cf=university).
Contact
For course related questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga.
Remarks
NA