Module HIST46230: Contexts and Connections in Global History: 1000-1800

Department: History

HIST46230: Contexts and Connections in Global History: 1000-1800

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To gain insights into a number of local societies across Eurasia and also examine the transnational connections which developed to link these societies.
• To examine the history of Eurasia from local, comparative, and transregional perspectives.
• To study the political, social and cultural processes that developed in different communities and the connections that developed to link cultures, economies and societies.
• To explore a wide range of primary source materials in translation, included but not limited to chronicles, prosopographical works, hagiographies, travel accounts, advice literature, newsletters, as well as visual and material cultures.
• To critically discuss a diverse historiography and recent scholarship that has started to investigate spheres of the political beyond the medieval and early modern state.

Content

• This module investigates the local contexts of a number of societies in medieval and early modern Eurasia – including, but not necessarily limited to Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, and East Asia. It also examines the transnational connections that developed to link this region economically, culturally and politically. Students will be introduced to different local case studies, examining aspects of political, cultural and social history. They will also examine how transnational connections developed and dissolved during this period. Global and locally sensitive approaches to history will complement each other to gain a multi-layered insight into the historical trajectory of political formations of the period.

Learning Outcomes

• An understanding of different discourses and processes that developed in various geographic contexts during the medieval and early modern eras.
• Insights into the transnational history of societies in these periods.
• Knowledge of the crucial historiographical debates on transnational and global history.

• Knowledge of and ability to critically analyse primary source texts (in English translation) from various societies in different locations.
• Ability to engage with a varied conceptual literature on social, political and cultural history and to apply this analytically across different themes of the module.
• Methodologies and strategies in using primary sources to interrogate and debate findings in the historiography on the political history of medieval and early modern Eurasia.

• Independent research skills, using a wide range of search tools and historical sources.
• Advanced ability to synthesise complex material from a wide range of sources.
• Ability to formulate complex arguments in articulate and well-structured English, observing the conventions of academic writing, conforming to high academic standards.
• Effective oral and written communication.
• Facility drawing together disparate forms of historical evidence.
• Ability to demonstrate professional conduct through observation of professional and academic standards, including correct editorial referencing of sources. Personal organisational skills, including time management.

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

• Seminars will revolve around case studies of different societies. We will explore the relevant historical contexts and study political protagonists through a diverse corpus of primary sources to discuss critically what made them political, how their community building exercises shaped the political landscape and what the social and cultural sources of political power were that they could tap into. Seminars will involve preparatory reading and the exploration of a rich historiography on the political history of the subcontinent.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative work done in preparation for and during seminars, including oral and written work as appropriate to the module.

■ Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.