Durham University
Programme and Module Handbook

Postgraduate Programme and Module Handbook 2007-2008 (archived)

Module HIST40230: Privilege, Power and Protection: Liberties and the Late Medieval English State

Department: History

HIST40230: Privilege, Power and Protection: Liberties and the Late Medieval English State

Type Tied Level 4 Credits 30 Availability Available in 2007/08 Module Cap
Tied to V1K107

Prerequisites

  • None

Corequisites

  • None

Excluded Combination of Modules

  • None

Aims

  • The module aims to enable students to engage on a high level of sophistication with contemporary historical evidence and historiagraphical concepts and interpretations relating to a significant area of medieval history, in support of the intended learning outcomes of the MA in Medieval History.

Content

  • The role of local government as a forum for the expression of local identities
  • Spacial analysis of liberties (how were their boundaries made visible to people in ritual and architecture?)
  • The geographical distribution of liberties within England
  • The relationship between provincial liberties and the state

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:
  • By the end of the module the student will have gained a detailed knowledge of important aspects of the character and course of state-formation in late Medieval England, and the capacity to evaluate critically both a wide range of types of contemporary historical data and the writings of modern scholars relating to autonomous political jurisdictions (liberties) and their relations with central government in that period.
Subject-specific Skills:
    Key Skills:

      Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

      • Appropriate specialised areas for focus are identified in dialogue between the module leader and individual students in weekly tutorials. These are also the means by which the module leader directs and monitors ongoing, directed reading of each student. In addition, they provide the framme work within which each student plans, researches and writes, under the module leader's supervision, an extended essay, making use of original sources and the fruits of modern scholarship.

      Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

      Activity Number Frequency Duration Total/Hours
      Tutorials 9 1 hour 9 Weekly
      Preparation and Reading 291
      Total 300

      Summative Assessment

      Component: Essay Component Weighting: 100%
      Element Length / duration Element Weighting Resit Opportunity
      Essay 5000 words 100%

      Formative Assessment:

      Module leader reads and comments on preliminary draft of student's 5000 word essay.


      Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University