Student handbook
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- Modules offered by the Department
Pathways
All pathways do HIST400 (Dissertation, 80 credits) and HIST401 (Researching and Writing History, 20 credits). Each of the pathways has TWO compulsory modules plus TWO optional ones (see the complete list below). Modules offered by the DepartmentPlease note that you need to register for your choice of modules with Becky Sheppard, by completing the registration form (via email or in person) as soon as possible after the Induction Session and no later than 14:30 on Saturday of Welcome Week (Induction). Please remember that attendance at seminars is compulsory and will be monitored. 
HIST401: Researching and Writing History Convenors: Dr Mark Hurst and Dr Corinna Peniston-Bird Taught: Michaelmas This module is intended to provide students with practical help in the conceptualisation and execution of their research so that they can present a dissertation that meets the required standard at the conclusion of their MA. Alongside having a passion for the past, researching and writing a quality piece of history requires a close engagement with the historian’s craft. What does good history look like? How can we be sure we are at the cutting edge of our discipline? What does it mean to write well? Through a series of practical seminars and class discussions, you will be guided through the processes behind constructing an extended piece of historical research, taking you from your initial research ideas through to giving you the skills needed to produce a high-quality dissertation. Particular attention is paid to making the jump from undergraduate to postgraduate study. Assessment: Feasibility Study, with formative Presentation (5000 words) Preliminary/Core reading: Brundage, Anthony, Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research and Writing (4th edn, Wheeling, IL, 2008). HIST420: How Historians Understand and Explain Convenor: Dr Deborah Sutton Taught: Lent Why history and what history? This module explores the historical imagination using the discipline (us) as an anchor to explore various means by which history has been conceived and constructed as a method of enquiry and as a western imaginary. The module assumes history as linear and singular (an assumption that underwrites almost all published history but which rests within a very specific, post-reformation, Protestant imaginary). Within this framework, in the seminars we will discuss significant ideas and authors associated with a particular movement (broadly defined) in History writing. The seminar topics include: empiricism and positivism, Marxism and social history, the Annales School, post-structuralism, post-colonialism and the Subaltern School, the ideas of Michel Foucault, the limits of History and, finally, counterfactual histories and alternate futures. Assessment: A critical bibliography (1500 words @30%) and one essay (3500 words @70%) Preliminary/Core Reading: 
Robert Braun, 'The Holocaust and the Problems of Representation', History and Theory, 34,1, 1995. Jacques Le Goff, Chapter 8. 'Mentalities: a history of ambiguities' in Le Goff and Nora, Pierre, eds. Constructing the Past: Essays in historical methodology. CUP. 1985. pp.166-80. Bernard Semmel, 'H. T. Buckle: The Liberal Faith and the Science of History', The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 27, No. 3, Special Issue. History and Sociology (Sep., 1976), pp. 370-86. HIST421: Beyond the Text: Literature, Image and Voice as Historical Evidence Convenor: Dr Sophie Ambler and Dr Mark Hurst Taught: Michaelmas In this module, you will examine historical approaches to a variety of sources, from the visual (or audio visual), to the aural, oral and artefactual. Whatever period you are studying, you will be able to investigate material relevant to your own research: in the past, the module has covered the gamut from ancient Rome to the modern day, and the sources you investigate will be tailored to suit the specialisms of your cohort. Over the course of the module you will deepen your familiarity with the range of sources available, and be able to analyse how non-traditional sources have been approached by historians. The knowledge and skills you learn will provide insights into how you can approach such sources within your own research; indeed, you will have the opportunity to pursue a coursework topic that relates to your chosen area of historical investigation. Preliminary/Core reading: Sarah Barber and Corinna Peniston Bird (eds.), History beyond the Text: A Student's Guide to approaching alternative Sources (Routledge, 2009). Assessment: Essay (5000 words) HIST424: Medieval Primary Sources: Genre, Rhetoric and Transmission Convenor: Dr Paul Hayward Taught: Lent Intended chiefly but by no means exclusively for students taking the medieval pathway, this module examines both manuscript studies and the decoding of medieval sources in their original and printed forms. Using relatively straightforward examples, the palaeographical strand provides an introduction to the principles involved in deciphering scripts while the ‘genre-focused’ strand considers a range of types of source—some that you will almost inevitably encounter in your research (e.g. charters, letters and chronicles) and some that you might not have considered, but which offer much for the medieval historian (e.g. poems and miscellanies). Indeed, one of the main aims of the course is to alert students to the significance of book history and manuscript studies—to the importance of attending to manuscript evidence and what it can tell us about the production, transmission and reception of a medieval source. The course is taught by means of a weekly two-hour seminar, which will include both substantive discussion of a topic or genre of source and a workshop element, for which some preparation, chiefly in the form of a weekly ‘palaeography exercise’, is expected. Preliminary/Core reading: Clemens, R., and T. Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca, NY, 2007). Clanchy, M. T., From Memory to Written Record, England, 1066–1307 (3rd edn, Oxford, 2013). Rosenthal, J. T. (ed.), Understanding Medieval Primary Sources: Using Historical Sources to Discover Medieval Europe, Routledge Guides to Using Historical Sources (London, 2012). Assessment: (1) A brief manuscript description (1000 words, worth 20%); (2) Your three best palaeography exercises (amounting to 1000 words, 20%); (3) One Essay (3000 words, 60%). HIST425: Introduction to Latin Translation for Historians Convenor: Professor John Thorley Taught: Michaelmas, Lent and Summer. This is a special intensive course for students who have little or no previous knowledge of Latin. The course concentrates on the basics of Latin Grammar and vocabulary as used in the Medieval period, though it will also be very useful for students of the Roman and Renaissance periods. By the end of the course students should be able to read sources such as title deeds, court rolls, government records, wills, and inscriptions. Help will be given to individual students on Latin texts relevant to their dissertation or thesis. Preliminary/Core Reading: J. Thorley, Documents in Medieval Latin. E. A. Gooder, Latin for Local Historians. R. Latham (ed.), Medieval Latin Word-List. Any standard Latin-English dictionary. Assessment: Two coursework exercises (40%) and Exam (60%) See study guide for greater elucidation. HIST426: Using Digital Texts as Historical Sources Convenor: Professor Ian Gregory Taught: Michaelmas Despite huge advances in digital technologies, many of the approaches historian use remain rooted in the analogue age. Perhaps the only major change that computers have led to among historians to date is the use of major digitised archives, such as Early English Books Online, Old Bailey Online or the British Newspaper Archive. Even with these, many historians simply use these to search and browse, never making use of their full potential or able to critique the digitised sources effectively. In the first part of this course you will look at how paper sources are digitised and encoded to create digital historical resources. This will enable you to understand how digital sources are created, and encourage you to think critically about their benefits and limitations The second part the course explores how digitised historical sources can be explored and analysed in more sophisticated ways. Corpus linguistics enables us identify and summarise themes of interest from millions or billions of words of text in ways that go far beyond simply keyword searches. It also helps the historian decide which parts of a large body of text require further research and which do not. You do not need any prior knowledge of computing beyond the basics all history students will have. We will draw on examples from a wide range of topics from the early modern to modern British. You will also have the opportunity to use the techniques and approaches learnt with their own sources.
Hitchcock T. (2013) “Confronting the digital: or how academic history writing lost the plot” Cultural and Social History, 10, pp.9-23 Pumfrey S., Rayson, P. and Mariani J. (2012) “Experiments in 17th century English: manual versus automatic conceptual history” Literary and Linguistic Computing, 27, pp. 395-408 Nicholson B. (2012) “Counting culture; or, how to read Victorian newspapers from a distance” Journal of Victorian Culture, 17, pp. 238-246 Weller T. 2013. History in the Digital Age. London: Routledge. Assessment: Two pieces of coursework. One essay, 1,500 or equivalent for the first piece (30%) and 2,500 for one practical exercise (70%) HIST427: Belief and Unbelief: Gods and Pagans from Antiquity to Today Convenor: Professor Michael Hughes and Colleagues Taught: Lent This module examines the nature of Belief and Unbelief from Ancient Greece through to the present day. It is often assumed that there has been a movement down the centuries from 'Belief' to 'Unbelief', especially in the West, where the intellectual impact of the Enlightenment and the growth of industrial society have widely been seen as fostering 'the death of religion'. The reality has been more complicated. Dominant religions have always been challenged by various forms of alternative belief: pagan, superstition, etc. In the modern period, religious belief has survived the enormous social and intellectual upheavals of the last two centuries. New forms of ‘religion’ have also appeared (some scholars have for example treated environmentalism as a form of religious belief). Both modern cognitive science and the growth of 'New Age' beliefs suggests that the religious instinct is rooted deeply in the human psyche. The development of terrorist activities committed to asserting the primacy of faith shows how modernity does not necessarily lead to the triumph of unbelief over belief. This module will encourage students to think broadly about the concepts of Belief and Unbelief through time and across the world. Assessment: Essay (5000 words) HIST429: Spatial Technologies for Historical Analysis 
Course Convenor: TBC Taught: Lent This module covers a range of geospatial technologies which are now available to historians, and is an opportunity to gain the practical and critical skills which will allow you to apply them to your own research. In doing so, you will also be exposed to many of the ongoing trends and debates within the growing field of Digital Humanities. You will be introduced to the ‘spatial turn’ in the humanities, identifying its theoretical bases and technical requirements, as well as some of their limitations and practical implications. Topics include Geographic Information Systems (GIS), spatial network analysis and Linked Geodata. You will explore a number of case studies and engage with them critically. In addition to this theoretical component, you will develop essential capabilities in GIS, including how to find, load, edit and visualize different kinds of data. You will learn how to combine texts and records with contemporary and historical cartography, sensor data, and satellite and aerial photography. This will allow you to visualize your own data in 2 and 3 dimensions, perform spatial statistical analyses, transform it into interactive time lines, or produce high quality maps for presentations and publications. In doing so, you will build an awareness of the opportunities, challenges and limitations of working with this medium, and many of the concrete skills required to address them. Preliminary/Core Reading: Drucker, J. 2012. ‘Humanistic Theory and Digital Scholarship’. In Gold, M, K. & Klein, L. F. (eds.) Debates in the Digital Humanities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/34 Kemp, K. K., 2010. Geographic Information Science and Spatial Analysis for the Humanities. In, Bodenhamer, D. J. et al, (eds.) The Spatial Humanities: GIS and the Future of Humanities Scholarship. Bloomington: Indiana University Press Knowles, A.K. 2008. 'GIS and History'. In, Anne Kelly Knowles, Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical Scholarship. Redlands: ESRI Press Longley, P. A., et al. (eds.) 2005. ‘Introduction’. In, Geographical Information Systems. Principles, Techniques, Management & Applications. 2nd Edition. Hoboken: Wiley Assessment: Essay (2000 words, @30%); GIS project (GIS files and report of 2,500 words; 70%) HIST434: Critical Heritage Studies Convenor: Dr Chris Donaldson Taught: Michaelmas This module offers you the opportunity to think about the objects and spaces through which history is presented to the public. You will have the chance to engage with scholarly perspectives about heritage practises and to gain insight into the workings of public institutions. What are the processes through which history becomes heritage? By what means are objects gathered together and arranged in order to present – and preserve – ‘the past’? How are the meanings of these objects controlled and communicated to the public? You will be invited to consider the means through which ‘the historical temper’ is cultivated in both institutions and public spaces and, in particular, how and why the presentation of the past has changed over time. The module will combine seminars and site visits to regional collections. Preliminary/Core Reading: J. R. Gillis, ed. Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994) Brian J. Graham and Peter Howard (eds), The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity (Farnham: Ashgate, 2008) Rodney Harrison, Heritage: Critical Approaches (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013) Assessment: Essay (5000 words) HIST477: Creative Voices: History and Fiction Convenor: Dr George Green (Creative Writing) and Dr Corinna Peniston-Bird 
Directory: media media -> Applications to Drill media -> Unicef voices of Youth Chat Theme: Children and aids nigeria and Zimbabwe 13 October 2006 Background media -> Tsunami Terror Alert: Voices of Youth media -> Biblical Eschatology Presentation by: D. Paul Beck May 4, 2016 Ground Rules media -> Guide to completing the collection using the Omnibus system media -> The milk carton kids media -> Events Date and Location media -> The Gilded Age: The First Generation of Historians by H. Wayne Morgan University of Oklahoma, April 18, 1997 media -> Analysis of Law in the United Kingdom pertaining to Cross-Border Disaster Relief Prepared by: For the 30 June 2010 Foreword media -> Cuba fieldcourse 2010 Download 1.85 Mb. Share with your friends:
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