Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

R.M. in Humanities (Research)

Knowledge for society: from COVID-19 to climate change

The program is designed to equip the next generation of humanities researchers with the tools to design innovative, imaginative research across disciplines. In close collaboration with highly acclaimed research groups, you’ll develop techniques to connect your research with current societal challenges and to communicate the results to a broad audience. You’ll benefit from the extensive network our teams have built up with heritage institutions, research institutes, NGOs, and business partners, for internships and embedded research projects.

The opportunities are endless – as evidenced by the vast range of projects students have got involved with in recent years. Depending on the chosen area of specialization, students have worked as assistants for the Environmental Humanities Centre at VU Amsterdam, and for the Graduate School Humanities. Human Language Technology students have collaborated with professors in research projects to improve the recovery of patients after COVID-19, using their text-mining skills. 

Others have studied the language of sexual predators (Forensic Linguistics); or the link between empathy and the first-person perspective in movies, virtual reality, paintings, and photography (Critical Studies in Art and Culture); or the history of forced labor and slavery in cooperation with researchers at the International Institute for Social History; or how people tell stories about the environment in nonfictional texts (Literature and Contested Spaces). A Philosophy student spent a semester in the US; one Literature student was an intern at the China Cultural Centre in The Hague, and another one was an intern for the Winternachten Literary Festival. And a History student did an exchange with the European University in St. Petersburg. Students from different tracks have collaborated across faculties and with citizens in Amsterdam to solve neighborhood issues in a Community Service Project.

Whichever track you choose, you’ll hone your critical thinking and analytical skills, learn the tools of the trade, and have ample opportunity to explore your future career inside and outside academia, whether you want to become a researcher or an entrepreneur.

Once you have chosen a track, you can either follow the set curriculum of that particular track (including electives), or you can opt for one of the cross-cutting themes Environmental Humanities and Digital Humanities. You will find more information about the two themes beneath the tracks.

The start date of this program is September 1st.

Summer School

Apply to VU Amsterdam Summer School and develop your academic skills in a focused and inspiring study abroad experience.