Various coursework and training modules are offered at the level of the LIAS, the Faculty of Humanities, and the University. Some are available to PhD candidates for free, and some charge a fee. All modules offered by the LIAS are available for free, and are announced to all PhD candidates on email ahead of time.

This page has information on:

Formal obligations
PhD skills training
CDS workshops
Scientific integrity
PhD seminars
Methodologies in the social sciences and the humanities
Auditing bachelor’s or master’s courses
National research schools
Network events and other academic events
Teacher training
University-wide courses

Formal obligations

University-level rules stipulate that employee candidates and scholarship candidates must participate in minimally 140 hours’ worth of academic training activities (e.g. coursework, lecture and conference attendance, etc) and do 140 hours’ worth of training in transferable skills (e.g. academic writing, course design, etc; this category also includes scientific integrity training). Self-funded candidates have no such obligation, but they will benefit just as much from taking coursework and training and deserve just as much support for doing so.

PhD skills training

The skills training sessions are convened by the director of doctoral studies regularly throughout the academic year, in sessions of 60 to 90 minutes with prep work circulated ahead of time. Topics include

• managing your research
• writing grant applications
• doing a literature review
• academic writing
• course design
• grant applications
• academic job applications
• etc

None of these topics can be treated exhaustively in a single session. The skills training sessions offer basic guidelines and pointers for follow-up.

PhD research talks

PhD candidates can present their work to the community, regardless of the stage they are at. Sessions usually have two speakers, with Q&A time for both. Preparation includes a trial session for feedback from the other speaker and the director of doctoral studies, a few days prior to the actual talk.

CDS workshops

The Centre for Digital Scholarship at Leiden University Libraries offers workshops and events on topics such as data management, copyright, open access publishing, and programming.

Scientific integrity

All PhD candidates must take a faculty-wide course on scientific integrity, preferably in year 1. This involves about 15 hours of prep work and a 90-minute workshop. In the LIAS, the workshop is normally offered once a year, usually in early December.

PhD seminars

The LIAS PhD seminars are built around themes that advance interdisciplinary thinking, in six weekly sessions. Topics to date have included knowledge and authority; archives, power, and memory; decolonization in academia; themes in global political economy; text and image; genders, sexualities, and bodies; gender and archive; identity and resistance in a global context; ethnographic approaches to subaltern resistance; listening and hearing in research; history through the lens of poetry; the uses of translation. See here and here for two examples.

Methodologies in the Social Sciences and the Humanities

Offered by the LIAS in collaboration with LeidenGlobal, ‘Methodologies in the Humanities and Social Sciences’ is a twelve-week course that helps junior researchers develop a critical understanding of methodology and apply this to their own projects.

Auditing bachelor’s or master’s courses

PhD candidates may audit bachelor’s or master’s courses in the Faculty of Humanities, if the instructor in question gives them permission to do so. They normally don’t take these courses for credit and don’t do any of the assignments, so as to avoid increasing the instructor’s workload. For exploring the possibility of auditing courses in other faculties (or at other universities), it is best to liaise with the instructor directly.

National research schools

For several fields in the humanities, the national research schools administered by LOGOS offer training modules for PhD candidates affiliated with universities in the Netherlands. For inquiries on financial support for school membership or individual course fees, PhD candidates may contact the LIAS management team.

Network events and other academic events

The LIAS is home to several research networks along regional, disciplinary, and thematic lines. You are encouraged to keep an eye out for network events you might like to attend, and for other academic events in your area of interest. Make sure to sign up for the relevant mailing lists.

Teacher training

Under Dutch law, only PhD candidates with employee positions are allowed to teach. If their duties include teaching full BA courses, they are entitled to introductory training in basic teaching skills at the Leiden Learning & Innovation Centre. This will be funded by the LIAS. (Candidates are not automatically entitled to taking the full trajectory toward a University Teaching Qualification portfolio, but the management team will consider requests to this end.) Scholarship candidates and self-funded candidates have to rely on guest-lecturing to gain teaching experience.

University-wide courses

PhD candidates can register for a broad variety of university-wide courses. Some of these come at a fee.