Module HIST1771: Early Modern Worlds

Department: History

HIST1771: Early Modern Worlds

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To introduce students to diverse perspectives on early modern history, rooted in different parts of the world and varied traditions of historical research.
• To equip students with key skills and methods that have emerged from the practice of early modern history, and have transformed historians’ approaches to other periods and places.
• To engage students with a variety of primary sources produced by societies across the early modern period, and to secondary sources rooted in different traditions of historical interpretation.

Content

• The early modern period marks a rupture with the Middle Ages as the world became significantly more interconnected between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Yet it was also a period when life was structured and thought about in fundamentally different ways compared with the modern era. This module introduces students to a wide range of perspectives on the early modern world, both thematically and geographically, according to the department’s varied expertise. At the same time it explores key skills and methods for studying history in general that relate closely to the practice of early modern historians in particular, including comparative and connected histories, as well as macro- and micro-histories. In this way, the module evaluates where global histories converge and where they diverge, who they prioritize and who they marginalize; it questions how far the world(s) of the early modern period held together, and how modern they really were after all.

Learning Outcomes

• At the end of this module, students will have an understanding of:
• Key features of the chronology and geography of the early modern world.
• Major debates in the historiography of the early modern period.
• De-centred approaches to history and the value of understanding historical events from diverse perspectives.

• At the end of this module, students will also be able to:
• Critically evaluate a range of primary sources, including – where appropriate – visual and material sources, not least those available in Durham.
• Apply and critique both comparative and connected approaches to global history, assessing their value and limitations and why these approaches have been associated particularly with the study of early modern history.
• Apply and critique both micro- and macro-historical approaches to global history, assessing their value and limitations and why these approaches have been associated particularly with the study of early modern history.

• 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 under pressure, manage time and work 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: Examinations test students' ability to work under pressure under timed conditions, to prepare for examinations and direct their own programme of revision and learning and develop key time management skills. The examination gives students the opportunity to develop relevant life skills such as the ability to produce coherent, reasoned and supported arguments under pressure. Students will be examined on subject specific knowledge.
• 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.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Essay outline (maximum of 1,500 words, excluding bibliography and footnotes).

■ 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.