The master’s programme in Book and Digital Media Studies is taught across two semesters and comprises compulsory courses, elective courses and the writing of an MA thesis.

Semester one

The aim of the first semester is to prepare you for the specialisations that you will choose during your second semester. This part of the programme provides a solid basis and introduction to the field, conceptually and practically, via five foundational courses.

Semester two

During your second semester you will choose two options from the following specialisations:

• History of the Book: Research Seminar;
• Dynamics in Scholarly Publishing;
• Digital Access to Textual Heritage.

The second part of the second semester is spent writing your MA thesis.

The programme offers three specialisations:

Specialisation 1: Digital Access to Textual Heritage

In Digital Access to Textual Heritage, you focus on the various ways in which cultural heritage institutions offer access to their digital collections. The course concentrates on topics such as crowd sourcing, digital preservation, support for digital scholarship and intellectual property and how these are transforming textual media. Special emphasis is placed on the interaction between the providers and the users of digital information.

Specialisation 2: History of the Book – Research Seminar

In this research seminar on the History of the Book, you explore different aspects of the history of textual communication. We look at innovations in how books were made in the medieval and early modern period, investigating the interchange between book and society, developments in the physical appearance of books, and the relationship between the book and its producers and readers. You will conduct research using the rich primary sources contained in the special collections of libraries and archives in Leiden.

Specialisation 3: Dynamics in Scholarly Publishing

In Dynamics in Scholarly Publishing, you will look at the wider role and function of academic publishing, a large, international, and technologically innovative business, in society. The course covers the full publishing chain, from the work of authors, via the activities of publishing houses, to libraries and readers. Extrapolating findings from academic publishing as a case-in-point, you will study new dynamics between stakeholders in in publishing, arising from the introduction of digital text technologies.

To get an impression of possible topics, see the recent MA theses listed below.

• Joris Vugs, 'The Reading Game: An Analysis of Digital Text Through the Lens of Visual Novels' (2022).  https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3308899
• Mirjam Rörsch, 'Changing typesetting and printing conventions in the eighteenth century: A study into the typographical features of late eighteenth-century newspapers written in French', (2022). https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3308901
• Nitzan Shalev, 'Mind Your Language: A Longitudinal Study of the Catalogues of Leiden University Library’s Hebrew Manuscripts Collection' (2022). https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3448598
• Laurie Bastemeijer, 'Required Listening: The effects of using audio- and karaoke books in fiction education at Dutch VMBO schools' (2021). https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3204761 
• Chelsea Crane, 'A Critical Assessment of the FAIR Guiding Principles in Book History' (2020). https://hdl.handle.net/1887/86173 
• Sana Bardawil, 'Preserving Cultural Heritage Through Digitisation: Lebanon as a Case Study', (2020).  https://hdl.handle.net/1887/84782