Study programme

The Master's programme History of Politics and Society lasts one year (60 EC). An academic year is divided into two semesters, running from September until January and from February until June. Each semester consists of two study blocks.

Curriculum

The programme consists of compulsory courses, electives, an internship or lab project and a thesis. Check the study schedule (PDF). 

Semester 1 | Study period 1

In the first study period, you will take the following courses:

• 'From Chaos to Order: How Does the Past Influence the Present?' (in English and in Dutch).
• 'Politics and Society in Comparative Perspective' (in English and in Dutch), in which you learn to apply comparative research methods.
• One of three electives: ‘Growth and Inequality, 1000 – 2000’ (in English), ‘Crisis! Kwetsbaarheid en veerkracht van pandemie tot recessie’ (in Dutch), or ‘Capitalism and Colonialism 1700-2000’ (in English). 

Semester 1 | Study period 2

In the second study period, you will take the following courses:

• ‘Politics of the Hague: between ideals and practices’ (in English and in Dutch), in which you will interact with Dutch governmental institutions as part of a Community Engaged Learning format.
• ‘Themes in the History of Politics and Society’ (in English and in Dutch), in which you develop the design for your MA thesis.
• One of three electives: ‘Global Nationalisms Revisited’ (in English), ‘Democracy and Democratisation’ (in English), or ‘Authoritarian Regimes and the Environment' (in English).

Finally, in the first semester you will participate in the career seminar, a combination of workshops helping you to prepare for the labour market, other trainings and a meeting with alumni.

Semester 2 | Internship or Politics and Society lab

In the second semester you will undertake an internship during which you will carry out an independent assignment at an academic level relating to a societal or political issue. An alternative for the internship is the Politics and Society lab: a project that allows you, in cooperation with a small group of fellow-students, to chart a current-day political or societal debate from a variety of angles and to record your findings in an advice or report.

Semester 2 | Master's thesis

In addition, in the second semester you also write your thesis, the concluding component of the Master’s programme. Recent thesis topics include:

Part-time

Part-time students take the same courses as the full-time students do, but spread the programme over two years instead of one.

Thesis Award

MA student Jarne van der Poel has won the Faculty of Humanities Thesis Award 2023 for his thesis "Heerma, Not Like This!": Social Housing, Neoliberal Reform and Resistance in the Netherlands 1986-1995.  

Educational methods

• seminars
• internship or lab project
• self-study

Almost all teaching in the first semester consists of seminars, in which you actively participate. Occasionally there will be a group assignment, through which you will learn to conduct research and/or give presentations as a group. However, most assignments will be individual assignments. These may include research papers, book reviews, knowledge transfer assignments or policy analyses. 

You prepare for the seminars individually, at home or in the library, reading the literature, working on assignments, preparing presentations, or collecting and analysing data.

When writing your thesis, you work largely independently, but you will have regular meetings with your thesis supervisor and with your fellow students regarding your progress.

Internship

An internship gives you the opportunity to learn how to apply academic skills and knowledge in real-life situations and to gain practical experience in your field, in order to prepare you for employment after graduation. Students of the programme have, for instance, worked as interns at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the city of Rotterdam, BNR News radio, and several political parties. 

Keep in mind that most organisations in the Netherlands use Dutch as their working language. However, you can also do an internship abroad, at a research project at a university or at an international organisation.

Politics and Society Lab

Instead of an internship you can also opt for the Politics and Society Lab, a group project. Together with two or three fellow students, you will - under the supervision of one of your lecturers -  investigate a recent social or political debate that is connected to one of the core themes of the Master's programme. You will not only analyse the debate from various angles - political, social, juridical, financial -  but also contribute to it. Examples include: tracing and analysing existing (research) reports, conducting interviews or working with questionnaires, or attending debates in parliament.

Podcast on algorithms

The role that algorithms play in our society is becoming increasingly important; therefore, the topic is also becoming interesting for researchers from the humanities and social sciences. For their project in the Politics and Society Lab, four Master's students developed a podcast about the influence of algorithms on the relationship between government and citizens. 

Examinations

• active participation in seminars
• oral presentation
• research paper
• brief paper, oral or written book report
• valorisation assignment or policy analysis
• internship report (or lab report)
• internship product (or lab product)
• thesis

The core courses of the programme are bilingual, which means our students have the right to be assessed in Dutch.