Module HIST1731: Modern Lives

Department: History

HIST1731: Modern Lives

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To introduce students to the study of the modern period and the concepts, methods and sources that have been used by historians.
• To provide students with an understanding of the way frameworks – individual, local, national, regional and global - shape historical narratives.
• To develop subject specific knowledge of a particular locality in its global context.
• To develop skills in comparative and contextual analysis, research and writing.
• To introduce students to the study of history ‘from below’, and how significant historical events and processes were experienced by individuals and communities.

Content

• What has it been like to live in the modern world? This module explores the experiences of individuals and societies and argues that ‘modernity’ has meant very different things for different people: plans interrupted, dreams deferred, new opportunities suddenly arising. The module equips students with the concepts and tools to study this period of the ‘arrival of the modern’ in geographical places both familiar and unfamiliar. It traces how people’s lives were reshaped after 1800 in different parts of the world in similar but uneven ways through processes such as capitalism, colonialism, migration, and ideas about health, wealth and humanity. We explore the debates historians have had on how these transformations intersected with one another in different times and places, and introduce students to the sources that can be used to understand these processes. The module is organised around four sites of change: Bodies, Work, Things and Ideas. These are four sites through which change was encountered, experienced and recorded. Lectures on each site will introduce the big picture of changes wrought and contested and the ways in which historians have studied them, whilst seminar groups will focus on a particular part of the world to develop a more grounded understanding of what it means to live through a time of change. In this way the module develops skills in comparative thinking and introduces students to the problem of scale – can and should our stories of change be individual, local, national, regional or global? What happens to our understanding of modern lives when we tell these stories from different standpoints?

Learning Outcomes

• Overview of the scope and nature of major changes in people’s lives during the modern period.
• In-depth understanding of the modern history of a particular geographical region in its global context.
• Understanding of key concepts in modern history (e.g. gender, race, class, caste, nation) and the methodologies of historians who use them.

• Ability to compare historical processes on differing geographical scales, from the local to the global.
• Ability to compare and contrast historical experiences in differing geographical contexts, using both secondary and primary source evidence.
• Ability to interrogate historical narratives and concepts using secondary and primary source evidence.
• Ability to explore and appraise the ways in which historians use different types of evidence to address historical problems.
• Practicing introductory oracy skills and the ability to articulate historical arguments in a small group context.

• The ability to employ sophisticated reading skills to gather, sift, process, synthesise and critically evaluate information from a variety of sources (print, digital, material, aural, visual, audio-visual etc.).
• The ability to communicate ideas and information orally and in writing, and to devise and sustain coherent and cogent arguments.
• The ability to write and think about historical complexity while balancing the demands of time management and working to deadlines.
• The ability to make effective use of information and communications technology.

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 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 seminar will also be the primary forum for developing students skills in reading and criticising primary sources.
• Assessment: The summative essay remains a central component of assessment in history, due to the integrative high-order skills it develops. It allows 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.
• Group presentations will allow students to develop problem solving skills and provide experience of working in a team. Presentation skills will be formatively 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. An individually assessed summative component of this assignment will require students to write a short reflection (no more than 500 words) on their personal contribution to the presentation.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

A written assignment of 500 words to be submitted in advance of the first summative assessment. A formative group presentation for the summative assignment and essay 2.

■ 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.