Module HIST2921: CONVERSATIONS WITH HISTORY

Department: History

HIST2921: CONVERSATIONS WITH HISTORY

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• To have done 40 credits in History con-currently.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To encourage students to develop advanced study skills including identifying and defining their own questions within the context of a given set of historical and historiographical issues, developing effective strategies for dealing with them, planning and writing long, independent projects, discussing and explaining their ideas in a small-group context, and engaging reflexively with bodies of historical literature that require them to think harder about how we "know" the past.
• To enhance progression from Level 1 to facilitate progression to Level 3, and in particular to the Research-based Dissertation, (HIST3192 or HIST3181).

Content

• This module will enable students to develop more advanced study skills through working in a small, intensive seminar requiring extensive reading, discussion, and writing about problems of historical understanding in connection with defined historical themes. The module will include:
• information skills workshops designed to improve students' ability to make best use of library and other (principally online) learning resources as independent learners;
• overview lectures explaining course objectives, methods, and procedures, and providing an introduction to research issues in medieval, early modern, and later modern history;
• staff-directed seminars examining key texts and problems of historiographical interpretation within the areas of the defined themes;
• and student-directed seminars requiring students to present aspects of their work-in-progress while they are developing their long Independent Projects on historiographical and/or methodological issues or problems connected with these themes, which will include:
• The Annales historians and the Middle Ages;
• Power and Ethnicity in Western Europe, c.500-c.1500;
• Studying the Built Environment in Renaissance England;
• Women's, gender and feminist history;
• A Usable Past? The Reinterpretation of US History in and since the 1960s;
• History and Guilt: the impact of the Holocaust and other modern crises on postwar European historiography;
• and Writing apartheid: the historiography of twentieth-century South Africa.

Learning Outcomes

• In-depth understanding of key aspects of problems of historical research and historiographical interpretation within the area of the defined themes.

• Subject specific skills for this module can be viewed at: http://www.dur.ac.uk/History/ugrads/ModuleProformaMap/ and will include, in particular:
• identifying and defining their own questions within the context of a given set of historical and historiographical issues;
• developing effective strategies for dealing with them;
• planning and writing long, independent projects;
• discussing and explaining their ideas in a small-group context;
• and engaging reflexively with bodies of historical literature that require them to think harder about how we "know" the past.

• Key skills for this module can be viewed at: http://www.dur.ac.uk/History/ugrads/ModuleProformaMap/

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

• Student learning is facilitated by a combination of the following teaching methods:
• lectures to set the foundations for further study and to provide the basis for the acquisition of subject specific knowledge. Lectures provide a broad framework which defines individual module content, introducing students to themes, debates and interpretations. In this environment, students are given the opportunity to develop skills in listening, selective note-taking and reflection;
• seminars to allow students to present and critically reflect upon the acquired subject-specific knowledge, methodologies and theories, and to identify and debate a range of issues and differing opinions. The seminar is the forum in which students are given the opportunity to communicate ideas, jointly exploring themes and arguments. Seminars are structured to develop understanding and designed to maximise student participation related to prior independent preparation. Seminars give students the opportunity to develop oral communication skills, encourage critical and tolerant approaches to reasoned argument and historical discussion, build the students' ability to marshal historical evidence, and facilitate the development of the ability to summarise historical arguments, think in a rapidly changing environment and communicate in a persuasive and articulate manner, whilst recognising the value of working with others and, occasionally, towards shared goals;
• the introductory talk and library skills workshops are delivered at the end of the Easter term of the previous academic year. The introductory lecture will explain the module's distinctive structure and rationale, its place in the overall framework of the students' learning, and our expectations of students in terms of their commitment to prepare for all seminars, to participate actively, and to take increasing responsibility for their own learning. The information skills workshops, to be provided in collaboration with professional colleagues in the University Library, will be designed to enhance students' ability to develop and research their projects independently, by taking the initiative to move beyond reliance on tutors' guidance as to their reading. They will acquire enhanced bibliographic skills, improved awareness of electronic journals and other (e.g. primary source) online information provision, and a greater ability to make independent judgements about the quality and sufficiency of information available to them to enable them to address their own research questions.
• Assessment:
• Presentation skills will be summatively assessed against a criterion matrix permitting the fair and consistent evaluation of students' abilities to convey necessary information and explain their arguments orally (with the aid of handouts or other teaching aids, e.g. illustrations, Powerpoint) and to respond to questions;
• Summative essays remain a central component of assessment in history, due to the integrative high-order skills they develop. Essays allow students the opportunity to recognise, represent and critically reflect upon ideas, concepts and problems; students can demonstrate awareness of, and the ability to use and evaluate, a diverse range of resources and identify, represent and debate a range of subject-specific issues and opinions. Through the essay, students can synthesise information, adopt critical appraisals and develop reasoned argument based on individual research. They should be able to communicate ideas in writing, with clarity and coherence; and to show the ability to integrate and critically assess material from a wide range of sources.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

At least one oral presentation in Term 1 and a 2,000 word formative essay to be submitted by the end of Term 1, plus formative benefits from the summative assessment in Term 2.

■ 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