Monday sessions focus on core theories and frameworks. In these theory-focused sessions, we lay the foundation to go in-depth and analyse the world around us. Along the way, we dive into questions such as: What are the basic concepts of marketing and why is the field so complex today? What makes consumption meaningful? How does consumption relate to personal well-being and to societal outcomes? Who is responsible for influencing and shifting (consumer) behaviour? When does something become greenwashing? We look outside of the classroom to collect examples for closer inspection. The theoretical lectures will be complemented by guest speakers from the marketing field.

Wednesday sessions are hands-on, with interactive exercises, critical discussions, and teamwork. In interdisciplinary groups, students explore topics from multiple perspectives and develop their own vision of what marketing can (and should) be. The course concludes with a TED Talk-style event, where student teams share their insights and connect with professionals and academics in an engaging, future-oriented forum.

Coordinator

Dr. Willemijn van Dolen

Timetable

You can find the timetable on Datanose.

Entry requirements

Open to second-year and third-year UvA Bachelor's students and other interested parties, such as contract students or students from other Dutch higher education institutions. Master's students can only participate if there are still spots available.

Registration

UvA Bachelor's students can register from 10 to 16 June 2025 in the GLASS registration rounds. Master’s students can send a short motivation to keuzeonderwijs-iis@uva.nl.

‘Bijvak’ students and contract students can register from 10 June 2025 until two weeks prior to the start of the course, by completing the online registration form.

If you have any trouble while registering, please contact us at keuzeonderwijs-iis@uva.nl.

Please note: as a contract student you can choose to participate either including or excluding assessment. If you choose the latter, you only have access to the seven lectures of the course. If you also wish to attend the seminars, please choose 'including assessment'.

Costs

Prices can be found on the IIS website.

SDGs in education

The IIS strives to reflect current societal issues and challenges in our elective courses, honours modules and degree programmes and attempts to integrate the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in this course. For more information about these goals, please visit the SDGs website.