Leiden Elective Academic Periodical

LEAP: Your first step to a career in academics

This intensive elective invites students from different (R)MA programmes within the Faculty of Humanities to work towards a publication in the third issue (Summer 2023) of the online, annual, faculty-broad Leiden Elective Academic Periodical (LEAP).

Under the guidance of two senior scholars, you will work both as an individual author and as a collective editorial board, jointly responsible for the journal issue as a whole. While you depart from your own discipline, you will also engage in a dialogue with peers from other disciplines. This allows you to experience first-hand what interdisciplinary collaboration entails.

After this course you will

Have experience in writing an academic article, review or artistic paper for a journal
Have experience in collaborating as the editorial board of a journal
Have learned how to engage with and respond to the feedback of expert peer-reviewers
Have learned how to edit and copy-edit your own work and that of your peers
Have learned how to work as part of an interdisciplinary team
Have organizational experience

What students say

Sophia

Literary Studies student

‘Working with an interdisciplinary group of students last year made me feel really connected with the Faculty. And teamwork is an inherent aspect of that! Apart from enjoying it so much, I also learned a lot. We had to comment on other people’s work but also had to accept comments ourselves. Reflecting on your own article in that way helps you learn to look critically at your work. It sometimes means you have to completely change a whole section, but afterwards you always find that the end result is stronger.’

Gabriël

Ancient History student

‘My contribution to the journal was writing an academic article and helping with the design. I learned a lot from reviewing each other’s articles and the fortnightly meetings in small groups. I learned most from the process of writing an academic article: our articles were reviewed by the other students, our lecturers and then by an expert reviewer from the discipline. At all stages of the process I gained concrete knowledge that I could use in applying for my PhD.’

Frank

Literary Studies and Classics student

‘It’s become very clear to me that LEAP represents the development we’ve achieved in terms of communication and contact. And that’s important not only at the interdisciplinary or academic level, but also at the personal and emotional level. Making connections at these levels is just as much a part of the academic world as any other academic skill.’

How to apply

You can register for this course after you have been selected by the organizers. This selection is based on a paper or thesis written within your previous studies, which will be evaluated in terms of the quality of the writing and argumentation. On top of this, you will be asked to briefly motivate (one paragraph) how your paper could be rewritten and developed into an article, review, artistic paper or joint article (max 2 persons) that relates to this year´s theme 'senses'.

Proposals (paper + motivation) should be sent to Nanne Timmer and Astrid Van Weyenberg before 16 December 2022. The maximum number of participants in this seminar is 15 students.

Leiden Elective Academic Periodical

LEAP: Your first step to a career in academics

After this course you will

Have experience in writing an academic article, review or artistic paper for a journal

Have experience in collaborating as the editorial board of a journal

Have learned how to engage with and respond to the feedback of expert peer-reviewers

Have learned how to edit and copy-edit your own work and that of your peers

Have learned how to work as part of an interdisciplinary team

Have organizational experience

What students say

Sophia

Gabriël

Frank

How to apply

Want to learn more?

Check the online prospectus

Visit the LEAP website

Join the information session