Pre-University Honours Programme: Politics & Identity

About

Trump! Brexit! Black Lives Matter! Pride! Many of today’s political developments seem to revolve around identity in more ways than one. While some acknowledge the importance of identity politics in an age with growing inequalities, others argue that focusing on identity in the political arena distracts from the “real cause” of contemporary political anger: economic inequality.

In the first week of this summer programme, we will examine the concept of identity through an academic lens, and analyse how it intersects with other important concepts such as culture, class, race, sexuality, and ethnicity. In the second week, we will turn to current political debates that are strongly steered by ‘identity politics’, most dominantly those around populism, globalization, environmentalism, and antiracist social movements.

In our lectures, the students will be given the theoretical background to participate in empirical discussions that will be the basis of our interactive online seminars and class debates. In these sessions, students will work together to disentangle empirical manifestations of identity politics, unravelling how both are so closely bound together. Students will use their home context as nodes that are deeply entrenched in local and global debates about democracy.

Students will experience studying in a supportive international environment hosted by the University of Amsterdam. The lectures and all course materials are in English. Participants in the course will develop study skills and become acquainted with learning methods that will give them an advantage as they continue their education at university.

Target group

For current high school students (must be 16+) interested in (identity) politics, political science, and the social and behavioural sciences in general.

Course aim

As our hyper-connected world draws closer together, it falls to present and future generations to understand how this affects the political climate. Every aspect of our lives is intertwined with political decisions, as is our identity. But how can something as fluid and changeable as identity be the basis for political debate? What implications does our own identity have on our political beliefs, and how does our identity have an impact on and change the interpretations of others, and to what extend do they change our political establishments and conversations? This summer programme will bring together high school students from across the world to study an important topic at the university level.

Fee info

The fee above covers both tuition and housing