First semester: You will learn anthropological theories and terms so you can study people in their everyday lives and write about your findings. The courses focus on people’s resilience, creativity, and self-expression.

Second semester:  You will be taught hands-on research skills like interviewing, conducting surveys, and participant observation. We also emphasise audiovisual methods - something Leiden is famous for. Ofcourse, you will also learn general academic skills, such as critical thinking and writing. You will practice these skills through fieldwork in Leiden or The Hague, becoming a socially engaged researcher, eager to gather data and connect with people.

Now you can specialize by choosing one of two exciting specialisations:

People Planet Power (PPP): Explore how sustainability and diversity connect to politics, economics, and the environment. You will study both social and ecological sustainability, and will focus on the interplay between economic and ecological forms of sustainability.

Media Making Movements (MMM): Dive into visual storytelling and digital communities. Learn multimodal methods, like documentary filmmaking, drawing, and sonic ethnography to do social scientif research. Discover how people worldwide use digital technology creatively and differently. How does digitalization help continue cultural practice and shape social relations anew? What do humans do with fake news, hate speech, datasets big and small, or with emergent forms of digital (il)literacy and exclusion? 

It is an option to follow both PPP and MMM. You can use the elective space in the third year to follow the courses of the other specialisation. 

In both specialisations you will learn how practical research, creative methods and having a cultural perspective enable anthropologists to make crucial and original contributions to debates on global challenges, such as digitalisation, (lack of) diversity in representation and the impact and creative use of media technologies worldwide.

Besides you will conduct a month-long fieldwork project in the Netherlands. You will learn to analyse your own research data from different perspectives, link it to societal debates and present it at a conference in Leiden to which you can invite your research participants.
Both specialisations also follow courses on diversity and power.

Year three will give you the freedom to tailor your programme. Next to writing a thesis on a topic of your personal preference, you will follow an elective and a course that will help you choose between continuing your academic studies or entering the professional environment. Study for a semester abroad, follow a minor or do an internship.