LUC COURSE CATALOGUE 2012 – 2013:
PROGRAMME OVERVIEW, CALENDAR OF COURSES, PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION
Programme Overview
The academic programme at LUC consists of the following elements, amounting to the 180 EC required for graduation within 3 years:
GENERAL EDUCATION = 25 EC
5 EC Global Challenges: Earth
5 EC Global Challenges: Energy
5 EC Global Challenges: Justice
5 EC Global Challenges: Peace
5 EC History of Philosophy
ACADEMIC SKILLS = 20 EC
5 EC Academic English
5 EC Exploring Mathematics
5 EC Designing Academic Inquiry
5 EC Introduction to Areas Studies
or Areas of Theory (2011-2012)
MAJOR = 80 EC
45 EC 3 tracks (100à200à300-level)°
10 EC 2 methodology courses
5 EC 1 integrative course
10 EC 2 option courses in related fields
10 EC Capstone project
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP = 25 EC
Language and/or culture courses
MINOR / ELECTIVES = 30 EC
If minor:
2 tracks° of a single field
If electives: Any 6 courses
There is the possibility of a semester-abroad exchange, comprising 30 EC, which can contribute towards Major, Global Citizenship, Minor or Elective components.
For details, see [http://www.lucthehague.nl/current-students/go-abroad/].
°There can be some flexibility regarding 100-level courses; consult your personal tutor.
Reflecting the overall programme structure above, the Year 1 (60 EC) and Years 2 & 3 (120 EC) programme structures in 2012 – 2013 can be schematised as
follows:
YEAR 1 – General Education courses; Academic Skills courses; electives
Block 1
Block 2
Block 3
Block 4
GC: Peace
GC: Earth
GC: Justice
YEAR 2 & 3 – electives; language course(s)**; exchange***; capstone****
Block 1
Block 2
Block 3
Block 4
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
** Each language course spans one semester (Blocks 1+2, or 3+4), for 10 EC
*** Optional, in either Year 2 Semester 2 or Year 3 Semester 1
**** 10 EC research project in Year 3 Semester 2, in lieu of 10 EC of courses
GC: Energy
Academic Writing
Numeracy
History of Philosophy
Designing Academic Inquiry
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)
Course (5 EC)*
Course (5 EC)*
* Introduction to Area Studies should be taken in either Block 3 or Block 4
What follows in this document is the preliminary calendar of courses for 2012 – 2013, followed by an explanation of the tagging system and descriptions of majors,
minors, and independent tracks. To decipher the tags, refer to the legend below:
<Majors> GJ Global Justice
PA Political Arts
S Sustainability
HI Human Interaction
ID International Development
WP World Politics
<Minors> En Entrepreneurship
<Tracks>
J
Journalism Ec Economics
PS Policy Science
RA Rhetoric & Argumentation
<Others> AS Academic Skills || GC Global Citizenship || GE General Education || M Methodology course || I
1
DI Diversity & Integration
LSD Law, Society, & Development
MM Mathematical Modelling
Psyc Psychology
Integrative course
Calendar of Courses (preliminary, thus subject to change)
Block 1, 2012 – 2013
Course
Global Challenges: Peace (A)-(G)
History of Philosophy (A)-(G)
Academic Writing (A)-(G)
Argumentative and Rhetorical Analysis
Foundations of Finance
Foundations of Media & Communication Theory
Introduction to Diversity and Integration
Introduction to International Relations (A)
Introduction to Political Philosophy (A)
Introduction to Psychology
Principles of Public International Law (A)
Transnational History (A)
Arabic – Beginners
Chinese – Beginners
Russian – Beginners
Spanish – Beginners
Comparative Analysis of Political Systems
Comparative Philosophy of Being
Conflict and Democracy
Critical Security Studies in International Politics
Level
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
200
200
200
200
Tag(s)
GE
GE
AS
RA, PA, HI
Ec, En
GC, J, WP, PA
DI, HI, GC
WP
GJ, WP, HI
Psyc, HI
GJ
HI
GC
GC
GC
GC
WP
HI
GJ, WP
WP
Course
Environmental Change & Policy: GIS & Remote Sensing
Financial Management
International Human Rights (A)-(B)
Mathematical Modelling Fundamentals
Qualitative Research Methods (A)
Representations of Culture
Sociolinguistics
Trade and Finance in the Global Economy
Advanced Journalism
Foreign Policy and Diplomacy
History and Politics of Global Migration
International Environmental Law
Law and Society: North Africa & the Middle East
Politics of Identity and Difference: Collective Agency
Quantifying Global Challenges: Human Rights Indicators
Shaping Culture: Museums & International Exhibitions
Sustainable Resource Management
Arabic – Intermediate
French – Intermediate
Spanish – Intermediate
Level
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
Tag(s)
S, PS
En, Ec
GJ, ID, WP
MM, S, PS
M:HI+ID
M:HI, GC
GC, HI
Ec, En, ID
J, PA, GC
WP
I:HI+WP
GJ, ID
LSD, GJ, ID
WP, HI, PA
PS, WP, ID, S
GC, HI, PA
I:S+ID+PS
GC
GC
GC
Ø Global Poverty, Local Solutions—a development studies track of 15 EC offered by ISS—takes place in LUC Block 1, through the LUC Autumn
Break, and ends with examinations in Week 1 of LUC Block 2. Interested students should contact [email protected] for registration details.
2
Block 2, 2012-2013
Course
Global Challenges: Earth (A)-(F)
History of Philosophy (cont’d)
Academic Writing (cont’d)
Comparative Worldviews
Essentials of Journalism
Ethics of Development
Foundations of Social Theory
Introduction to Comparative Politics (A)
Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies
Introduction to Socio-Legal Studies
World Art
Arabic – Beginners (cont’d)
Chinese – Beginners (cont’d)
Russian – Beginners (cont’d)
Spanish – Beginners (cont’d)
Decision-Making Processes
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Earth Systems Science
Foundations of Justice
International Journalism:
Literature of War Journalism
Level
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
200
200
200
200
200
Tag(s)
GE
GE
AS
HI
J, PA, GC
ID, HI, GJ
GC, HI
WP
GJ, WP
LSD, GJ, ID
GC, PA, HI
GC
GC
GC
GC
WP, PS
Psyc, HI
S
GJ, ID, WP, S
J, PA, GC
Course
Marketing Management
Movement of Ideas and People: Feminism in History
Quantitative Research Methods (A)-(B)
Performance and Scholarship
Sources of Diversity and Inclusion
Sovereignty and Statehood
The Power of Words
Theory of Rhetoric
Thinking About Politics: Political Theory (A)
Advanced Financial Management
Gender and Literature
Human Security
Political Ecology
Politics of Religion
Public Policy Analysis: Agenda-Setting
Regionalism in World Politics: The Rise of China
Structures and Dynamics of Ecological Systems
World Regional Geography
Arabic – Intermediate (cont’d)
French – Intermediate (cont’d)
Spanish – Intermediate (cont’d)
3
Level
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
Tag(s)
En
HI
M:ID+S+WP, PS
M:PA, GC
DI, HI, GC
GJ, WP
RA, PA, HI
RA, PA, HI
M:WP
En, Ec
HI, PA
ID, GJ, WP
I:S+WP+HI
I:HI+WP
WP, PS
WP
S, MM
GC, HI
GC
GC
GC
Block 3, 2012 – 2013
Course
Global Challenges: Justice (A)-(F)
Designing Academic Inquiry (A)-(F)
Level
100
100
Numeracy (A)-(G)
100
Introduction to Area Studies (A)-(C)
100
Classics of the Sustainability Debate
100
Introduction to Comparative Politics (B)
100
Introduction to International Relations (B)
100
Introduction to Political Philosophy (B)
100
Organisation and Management
100
Transnational History (B)
100
World Literature
100
Biodiversity and Society
200
Economics of Development
200
Empire and Post-Empire
200
Historiography
200
th
st
International Journalism: 20 - & 21 -Century Conflict 200
Language and Politics
200
Legal Method and Jurisprudence (A)-(B)
200
Peace-Building in Fragile Political Orders
200
Qualitative Research Methods (B)
200
Religion and Art
200
Tag(s)
GE
GE
AS
AS
S, HI
WP
WP
GJ, WP, HI
PS, En, WP
HI
GC, PA, HI
S, HI, GC
ID, Ec
HI, WP
M:HI
J, PA, GC
GC, HI, PA
M:GJ
WP, GJ, ID
M:HI+ID
GC, PA, HI
Course
Theories and Concepts in International Politics
Visual Communication: Journalism for Television
Water Resources and River Management
Arabic – Elementary
Chinese – Elementary
French – Elementary
Russian – Elementary
Spanish – Elementary
Advanced Marketing Management
Comparative Ethics
Culture and Civilisation
Diversity and Integration: Solutions and Case Studies
Gender and Development
International Criminal Law
International Political Economy
Multi-Level Governance
Political Communication and Psychology
Rhetorical & Argumentative Analysis: Case Studies I
Sustainable Energy Strategies
Chinese – Intermediate
French – Advanced
4
Level
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
400
Tag(s)
WP
J, PA, GC
S, ID
GC
GC
GC
GC
GC
En
HI
I:HI+PA
DI, HI, GC
ID, GJ
GJ
I:WP+GJ+Ec
WP, PS
WP, HI, Pysch
RA, PA, HI
S, ID
GC
GC
Block 4, 2012 – 2013
Course
Global Challenges: Energy (A)-(G)
Designing Academic Inquiry (cont’d)
Numeracy (cont’d)
Introduction to Area Studies (D)-(F)
Argumentation and Debate
Comparative Worldviews (B)
Introduction to Business and Entrepreneurship
Introduction to International Relations (C)
Principles of Economics
Principles of Public Health
Principles of Public International Law (B)
Advocacy and Litigation (A)-(B)
Field Methods for Environmental Sustainability
Forced Migration
Human Resources Management
Nation and Nationalism in World Politics
Performance and Citizenship
Political Drama
Quantitative Research Methods (C)
Reception Studies: The Greco-Roman World
Thinking About Politics: Political Theory (B)
Level
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
200
Tag(s)
GE
GE
AS
AS
RA, PA, HI
HI
En
WP
Ec
HI, ID
GJ
M:GJ
M:S
ID, WP
En
WP
M:PA, GC
PA, HI
Course
Tools of the Trade: Sustainability Research
Arabic – Elementary (cont’d)
Chinese – Elementary (cont’d)
French – Elementary (cont’d)
Russian – Elementary (cont’d)
Spanish – Elementary (cont’d)
Conflict Resolution and Settlement
Economic Policy in the European Union
Environment and Development
M:ID+S+WP, PS
Rhetorical & Argumentative Analysis: Case Studies II
PA, HI, GC
M:WP
Chinese – Intermediate (cont’d)
French – Advanced (cont’d)
Globalisation & Modernity: Histories of Human Rights
History of Violence
International Dispute Settlement
Issues and Perspectives in International Politics:
The Politics of Development
Law, Governance, and Development
th
Literary Journalism: Totalitarianism in the 20 Century
Multilateral Institutions (A)-(B)
Religion and Law
Level
200
200
200
200
200
200
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
Tag(s)
M:S, PS
GC
GC
GC
GC
GC
GJ, WP
Ec, PS
ID, S
I:HI+GJ
HI, WP
GJ
WP, ID
300
300
300
300
300
300
400
I:GJ+ID+PS
J, PA, GC
WP, GJ
HI, GJ, LSD
RA, PA, HI
GC
GC
Ø For a taste of courses already offered in 2011-2012, check the Leiden e-Prospectus at [https://studiegids.leidenuniv.nl/en].
Ø Course outlines for 2012-2013 will become available in August 2012, prior to Semester 1 course registration in mid-August 2012.
5
Mapping: Majors, Minors, & Tracks
There are many and various ways for interested and responsible students to
map their path through their degree programme at LUC. The college offers a
flexible and versatile curriculum framed by pressing questions of peace, justice
and sustainability; these questions are nuanced and developed through a
matrix of individual courses that can be sequenced together into coherent,
progressive tracks, which can then in turn be combined to form minors and
majors that will determine the exit trajectory of LUC graduates. In general,
our majors and minors are thematically rather than disciplinarily oriented,
but because of the nature of academic progression student should expect to
see (and seek) clear development in theoretical and methodological
sophistication as they move from 100 to 200 to 300 level and beyond.
LUC Major: An Overview
70 EC (courses) + 10 EC (capstone) = 80 EC (major)
14 courses at 5 EC each
Ø 3 tracks (100-200-300-level courses) = 9 courses
Ø 2 methodology courses (200-level)
Ø 1 integrative course (300-level)
Ø 2 option courses in related fields (any level)
Capstone of 10 EC in Year 3 Semester 2
Ø Research thesis / Internship + Report / Group project
In outline: a track consists of three sequenced courses (one each at the 100,
200, 300 levels) and amounts to 15 EC; a minor usually consists of two tracks
that cohere for thematic, theoretical or methodological reasons, amounting to
30 EC; a major usually contains at least three tracks, but it also has other
requirements, amounting to 80 EC.
Tagging
To maximise student choice and ownership of their individual programmes
of study, LUC operates with a system of ‘tags’ to designate how a particular
course can be used and for which parts of the programme it can be counted as
credit.
Given the overall themes of education at LUC and its
interdisciplinary approach, this tagging system means that many courses are
cross-listed into more than one part of the LUC programme – while this
implies that every course could in principle count towards more than one
programme component, note that it can in fact only be used to satisfy the
requirements of one such part. In consultation with their personal tutors,
responsible and imaginative students should be able to make creative use of
the tagging system to assemble a trajectory tailored to their own interests and
ambitions, whilst satisfying the requirements of rigorous academic
progression and development in particular areas.
Advice on choosing courses, following tracks, and qualifying for majors and
minors can and should be sought from a student’s personal tutor. At the end
of their first year of study (i.e., on completion of P1), students should declare
their intention to qualify for a particular major.
Ø Regular major: 80 EC (as set out in the right column)
Ø Combined major: 80 EC of a regular major + methodology courses
from an additional major (thus graduating with extra credits)
Ø Double major: 160 EC (thus graduating with extra credits)
Although this choice need not be set in stone, it does help to focus and
organise student choices and experiences over the course of the second part
(P2) of their programme.
6
Major: GLOBAL JUSTICE
Major: HUMAN INTERACTION
Law and order are no longer exclusively a matter of domestic jurisdiction.
Global threats and transnational patterns of crime and violence have led to an
increasing internationalisation of responses to conflict and the emergence of
new norms and institutions at the universal, regional, and domestic level to
settle disputes, combat impunity, and provide conditions for sustainable
peace and security. The nexus between justice, order and peace poses legal
and policy challenges for governments, international institutions, non-state
actors and civil society that go beyond national borders and single disciplines.
The globalising world defies understanding through the isolated study of
politics, law, economics, and hard and soft sciences. The international arena
in which considerations of politics, economy, environment—but also culture,
religion, and society—intermingle in increasingly cross-cutting ways poses
serious challenges for traditional ways of understanding human interaction.
Acknowledging that institutional and legal structures are only part of the
picture of a globalising world, this major focuses on the cultural, historical,
philosophical, psychological, and religious dimensions of human interaction
on the global stage. This is a multi- and inter-disciplinary major which draws
on the humanities and social sciences to explore a series of contemporary
challenges for global citizenship. Hence, the emphasis of this major is on the
various ways in which local, national and international boundaries are
maintained and traversed by social, cultural, and religious practices.
This major provides a complex and nuanced framework to study these
challenges, ranging from integrated and multi-disciplinary techniques to
overcome conflict and dispute, through to the consideration of how to live
the Good Life in a global world of competing conceptions of justice and
ethical principles. The major is designed for students who wish to study
justice and global order from multiple perspectives, including those of
international law, political science, and practical philosophy.
Unique and exciting its breadth as well as its potential for depth of insight,
this major empowers students with the vocabulary, principles, and methods
of history as a discipline, by providing them with foundational and
specialized knowledge and skills in transnational history. Students can be
trained in the core sub-fields of philosophy in a global context, sensitive to
the dynamics of historical and international developments in the domain of
human thought. This major also offers an innovative approach to the study
of religion, starting with a comparison of various bases for belief, followed by
an investigation of cultural and religious expression, building up to a
synthesis of religious influences on social, political, and legal forms in
domestic, national, and international contexts. Furthermore, students
interested in this major have access to a wide range of courses in anthropology,
culture, literature, sociology, and psychology, adding variety and depth to
students’ investigations of how human beings interact.
The major can include courses in the legal foundations of justice as well as its
normative underpinnings in politics and international relations, building
upon the compulsory 100-level Global Challenges courses on Peace and
Justice. Students should expect to be introduced to the legal foundations of
global justice (e.g., international norms, global and regional judicial systems),
normative concepts (e.g., fairness, legality, legitimacy and their critiques), and
their application in specific fields (dispute settlement, human rights). They
will also explore the nexus between peace, justice and security. This major
also introduces students to the foundations of statehood, democracy and the
root causes of conflict, the role of global actors and institutions (e.g., United
Nations, regional organisations) and conflict management techniques (e.g.,
peace diplomacy, mediation, peace-keeping).
Methodology courses:
Methodology courses:
Advocacy and Litigation
Legal Method and Jurisprudence
7
Historiography
Qualitative Research Methods: Ethnography
Representations of Culture
Major:
Major: POLITICAL ARTS
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
One prominent global challenge in an increasingly interdependent world is
the pace at which and the conditions under which local, national, regional,
and global development take place. As prescribed and ascribed geopolitical
divisions of north-south and east-west continue to teeter in different degrees
of violence and flux, a responsible and critical approach to international
development is urgently due. This inter-disciplinary major draws from
anthropology, economics, environmental studies, ethics, geography, gender
studies, governance, law, management studies, politics, and sociology, all
towards a holistic appreciation of the difficulties plaguing development
studies, so as to equip students with the necessary conceptual and pragmatic
tools to enter the development debate. Learning to navigate multiple levels of
analysis and dimensions of inquiry, students will be challenged to question
not only so-called universal norms of development, but also any personal
penchant for liberal, democratic ideals.
Complementing the more conventional political sciences, LUC hosts the
innovative and creative academic discipline of political arts to question and
analyse how human beings interact with, compose, and express political ideas
and actions through the various, diverse media of technology and the arts.
This major explores the ways in which dance, drama, film, literature, music,
performance, photography, poetry, rhetoric, and the practical and creative
arts interleave with political life, either as vehicles for criticism, elaboration,
theorisation, intervention, or activism. Quizzing definitions and boundaries
of the political, students of this major will inspect the communicative,
reflexive, and transformative aspects of individual and collective political
agency; taking performance and artistic practice seriously as modes of
scholarship, students of this major will dismantle the disciplinary edifices of
the traditional university and discover new insights into what it means to be a
political animal as a human being.
Conducive for robust and reflective global citizenship, such interrogations can
take shape in a number of different ways. Many students are specifically
interested in human development, and they are encouraged to start with
ethical reflection on the ends and means of local, national, regional, and
global development. Other students might be more interested in institutional
development, focusing on development-specific macro- and micro-economic
policies and governance issues surrounding resource management. Finally,
one of the most original ways in which students can engaged questions of
development is through the nexus of law, society and need: students sensitive
to the interface between state and society will consider how and whether it
should be the function of law and legal institutions to regulate people’s
security, economic advancement, social justice and environmental protection.
In collaboration with the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) and the Royal
Conservatory (KC) in The Hague, as well as the Academy for Creative and
Performing Arts in Leiden, this LUC major offers students a diversity of
investigatory trajectories: for those who enter LUC with high proficiency in
performance can continue to hone their practical talents at the KABK or KC,
while joining those who concentrate on the philosophical aspects of political
and visual aesthetics, phenomenology, semiotics, and communication, thus
bringing practice into constant and dynamic dialogue with theory.
Knowledge, especially of ourselves as political beings, requires the confluence
of participation and reception – from the musical to the theatrical, from the
literary to the journalistic, students will also reflect on the ontological, ethical,
and political status of art, artefact, and artistry.
Methodology courses:
Methodology courses:
Qualitative Research Methods
Quantitative Research Methods
8
Performance as Citizenship
Performance as Scholarship
Major: SUSTAINABILITY
Major: WORLD POLITICS
Driven by rapidly growing demands for food, water, materials and fuels,
humans have changed the earth more deeply and extensively in the last
decades than in any other period of time. All over the world, natural
resources, environmental quality, and biodiversity are being outstripped by
the ever-expanding ‘ecological footprint’ of human activities. Meanwhile,
human population density continues to increase. Reversing the degradation of
ecosystems, while meeting increasing demands, requires intense and
concerted action of science and society. Sustainable solutions are required in
many areas, such as global warming, depleting energy supplies, water and
food, and the sustainable management and use of (material as well as
ecological) natural resources.
Living in an interdependent world, we are increasingly interconnected by
means of mobility and communication. Technology is changing the rules of
world politics and provokes the need for globally conscious responses to issues
such as sovereignty and intervention, imperialism and colonialism, poverty
and development, trade and inequality, national security and human security,
nationalism and identity, culture and terrorism, health and environmental
deterioration, migration and immigration. This major equips students to
understand these global challenges from the multifarious standpoints of
nation-states and their citizens, as well as of non-governmental and
international organisations, and provides an in-depth view of domestic,
comparative, and international politics, addressing and how these multiple
political realms (which are conventionally studied in relative isolation from
each other) have become intertwined in the present era of global
interdependence.
The development of strategies for sustainable growth calls for an integration
of scientific insights, methods and solutions from various disciplinary fields.
Therefore, this major includes methodological and theoretical frameworks
from across the natural sciences, from the sub-disciplines physics, chemistry,
biology and their derivatives such as environmental sciences, as well as from
the social sciences. The ultimate aim is for students to synthesize in-depth
information from relevant field, lab, and academic sources which represent
various points of view and different approaches. Hence, unlike conventional
programmes in environmental or earth sciences on the one hand, or in public
administration and governance on the other, this multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary major provides a unique combination of various specialisations to
help build knowledge for a better world.
Students taking this major will be able to graduate with a BSc or BA,
depending on their choice of focus.
Students can expect to be trained to find a distinctive understanding of the
world in which we live as well as the problems confronted by it. Students can
pursue cutting-edge developments in the theories and methodologies of
international politics and international relations, thus exploring critical
security and regionality in globality in a comprehensive way. Concrete case
studies lend themselves to a comparative approach to international politics,
with analyses on the level of voter behaviour, constitution-building,
institutional structures, party politics, and so forth. This major enables
students to focus as tightly or as broadly as their interests dictate: at the most
intimate level, students might explore questions of political psychology; at the
other extreme, they might be fascinated by grand theories of the international
system as a whole or in the formal modeling of game theory.
Methodology courses:
Methodology courses:
Field Methods in Environmental Sustainability
Quantitative Research Methods
Tools of the Trade: Sustainability Research
9
Quantitative Research Methods
Thinking About Politics: Political Theory
minor: ECONOMICS
Minor: JOURNALISM
Economics combines the virtues of politics and science. It is, truly, a social
science. Its subject matter is society – how people choose to lead their lives
and how they interact with one another – but it approaches its subject with
the dispassion of a science. By bringing the methods of science to questions
of politics, economics tries to make progress on the global challenges that all
societies face. To introduce students to the economist’s view of the world
and build on the principles of economics, LUC offers a range of courses in
macro- and micro-economics, econometrics, finance, trade, and economic
policy, with case studies from diverse contexts.
This minor trains students interested in journalism for opportunities in mass
media fields that demand strong writing and speaking skills alongside a clear
appreciation of the ethics involved in reporting. In addition to practical skills
and fieldwork in print and broadcast journalism, students taking this minor
will also engage with the unique perspective of studying journalism as a
literary experience – international journalism on war, conflict, and
totalitarianism not only resonates with the interdisciplinary themes of peace,
justice, and sustainability, but, by doing so, also prepares students to
understand and grasp the power of words.
Minor: ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Minor: RHETORIC & ARGUMENTATION
For many, entrepreneurship is foremost associated with business venturing.
However entrepreneurship is much more than that. The identification and
pursuit of opportunities are highly relevant in today’s constantly changing
world. Existing companies and non-profit organisations need to adapt
continuously to changing markets and circumstances by identifying new
needs and developing new products and services or even changing their entire
strategic focus. This calls for professionals who have the resourcefulness and
energy to realise when and what to alter to remain competitive. Increasingly,
this need for change and flexibility also affects the individual and his/her
character and stance towards the world.
Scientific and scholarly discourse, political debate, court hearings, literature,
commercials: they all rely on Argumentation and Rhetoric. Why are some
politicians’ speeches more convincing than others’? What makes lawyers
effective in court? In academic work it is equally important to be able to
distinguish between sound and fallacious reasoning, to be acquainted with
principles of rhetoric and to apply such knowledge to good practical effect, in
order to present standpoints in a coherent and convincing manner. Rhetoric
and argumentation are essential in learning to formulate standpoints and
effectively present it to audiences, rebuttal of contrary stances included. This
minor introduces students not just to classical origins but also to state of the
art approaches of rhetoric and argumentation. Next to a theoretical basis,
students practice a lot with historical and modern examples and also apply
their skills in their own papers, presentations, and debates. This minor starts
with two introductory courses in which the basic principles of argumentation
and rhetoric are explained, trained, and practiced. Students then continue
with two more specialised courses for each field, in order to advance to a set
of 300-level course centred around case studies and debating.
The primary aim of this minor is to inspire students to obtain an
entrepreneurial mindset with a highly positive attitude to new opportunities
and change. Students who seek opportunities as entrepreneurs or managers
in the international business community or non-profit sector will benefit
from following this minor. Afterall, future leaders need to have in-depth
insight in entrepreneurial and management principles.
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Minor: POLICY SCIENCE
Track: DIVERSITY & INTEGRATION
More systematic and sophisticated approaches to understand policy have
become increasingly influential in governmental and non-governmental
institutions and organisations. Students of this minor will examine the
challenges of policy-making and policy design for a clear appreciation of the
organisational and political origins of many global challenges, and thus will
be well-placed to develop possible solutions. The development of policy
strategies requires an integration of social scientific insights, methods, and
perspectives from a wide range of disciplines, and the evaluation of policy
outcomes necessitates a firm grasp of quantitative data analysis. Thus, this
minor includes coursework in quantitative methodology and analytical
frameworks from across the social, biological, and computational sciences.
This track focuses on the different aspects at stake when encountering those
challenges to integration posed by the co-existence of multiple actors and
different cultures in contemporary societies. It does so in theoretical and
practical terms by evolving from an introductory course where the conceptual
foundations of the problematics framed in terms of diversity & integration in
social and natural science are examined, with an analytical focus on the
concept of unity; in the next course, the core question becomes that of the
individual, specifically his/her need of and struggle for recognition and
distinction; the third and final course addresses current tensions and examines
case studies in which both diversity and integration are challenged by
institutional structures or individuals’ daily forms of interaction.
Quality policy solutions designed to address the practical problems of a
globally interconnected world are best built on a precise and publicly
verifiable understanding of the workings of complex forces governing social,
political, economic, and ecological systems. Students of this minor therefore
explore questions of how these systems work and interact to generate the
global challenges we face, in order to develop and evaluate policy solutions
capable of addressing these challenges in a sustainable, fair manner in
promotion of human welfare.
This highly multidisciplinary minor
encourages students to develop scientific reasoning skills to critically evaluate,
engage with, and participate in high-level technical policy debates and, more
importantly, sets the foundation for life-long intellectual engagement with
the sophisticated policy issues.
This track relates to the global challenges theme of LUC in as much as it aims
to get students acquainted with cross-disciplinary approaches and conceptual
debates with regards to integration and the empirical challenges derived from
the diverse composition of contemporary societies, as well as multiple actors
involved at the global and local level. Any approach to peace, sustainability,
justice, and our earth system requires the capacity to critically address the
foundations of proposed forms of integration for the functioning of any
system, and the constant challenge posed to it by the diversity of voices coexisting within it.
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Track:
Track: MATHEMATICAL MODELLING
LAW, SOCIETY, & DEVELOPMENT
Serious efforts to meet global challenges will sooner or later encounter the
limits of law in developing countries. At the interface between state and
society, it should be the function of law and legal institutions to regulate
people’s security, economic advancement, social justice and environmental
protection, to mention just a few goals of development. This raises several
important socio-legal questions. To what extent are such legal systems able to
implement standards set by international law, to provide access and remedies
to justice-seekers, and to support good governance and the development of
society at large? To understand the capacities of these systems to make laws,
implement them, and adjudicate conflicts, we will have to know what they
look like, whether they consist of legal transplants from the West, or perhaps
are based on other conceptions of law like customary law, divine Islamic law,
or other traditions? How does state law relate to ‘non-state law’? Students of
this track will also come to understand how legal systems operate in a
heterogeneous and rapidly changing society. Economic, political, and social
problems have their impact on the effectiveness of legal and governance
institutions. In as far as legal systems are ineffective, corrupt or otherwise
dysfunctional, is there anything to be done about that? Ultimately, this track
encourages to student to assess the scope for strengthening legal systems and
promoting the rule of law and human rights in the developing world.
This track trains students to develop models for dynamic empirical systems,
and examine their behaviour mathematically and numerically. Students will
consider discrete time (recurrence relations) as well as continuous time
(differential equations) systems, deterministic systems as well as effects of
randomness, and effects of external input on system dynamics. Besides
mathematical analysis, students will learn to perform numerical analyses of
model dynamics by means of the R programming language. With respect to
specific applications, the emphasis will be on global challenges, such as
natural population dynamics, human interactions (game theory), toxicology,
and population genetics. Each course in this track will start with relatively
simple models and their main results, then generalise to more complex
models and dynamics. Other subjects considered are food webs, evolution
and development of ecosystems, and causes and effects of biodiversity in
ecosystems.
Track: PSYCHOLOGY
This track can be a useful and illuminating addition to all inquiries into
global challenges, not least because human activities, decisions, and behaviour
can account for most of these challenges. This track introduces students to
the foundations, principles, and sub-fields in psychology – after a general
overview, students interested in education can proceed with developmental
psychology, those who wish to explore social psychology can continue to
explore organizational and economic behaviour, and the track ends with an
in-depth study of political communication and psychology.
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