Module HIST1781: Big Problems: Historical Perspectives on Global Challenges

Department: History

HIST1781: Big Problems: Historical Perspectives on Global Challenges

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To reflect on large scale processes that drive historical change.
• To understand and historically contextualise specific issues of contemporary importance.
• To prompt thematic linkages across temporal and regional divides.

Content

• How can history help us navigate our world? This module both asks and answers that question. We will explore how knowledge of both the deep and the recent past, from regions near and far, can be brought to bear on the central issues of our own time and place. We will also consider how placing knowledge about diverse time periods and regions into conversation helps us develop a richer understanding of the ‘big problems’ we face. Historical expertise is vital for understanding and confronting the challenges and opportunities that define our time. This module illustrates how a wide range of expertise is relevant to prominent contemporary issues, and develop tools for articulating that relevance.
• It does so by linking historical expertise to a series of ‘big problems’. Our own historical moment is characterised by a set of global, regional, and local challenges, which are themselves the product of historical processes. By exploring those processes and by showing how similar challenges in other eras encourage new insights into ours, this module confronts fundamental questions about the nature and purpose of historical expertise. Students will leave the module with a broad understanding of core historical themes, as well as an appreciation of how and why history matters for navigating the present and a critical understanding of debates about the applicability of historical knowledge.

Learning Outcomes

• A broad knowledge of currently pertinent historical episodes in selected time periods and regions.
• An appreciation of the thematic linkages between historical knowledge in different time periods and regions.
• An awareness of the historiographical approaches historians use to think about both the past and the present.

• Identifying, defining, and understanding historical problems.
• Ability to explore the ways in which historians use different types of evidence to address historical problems.
• Ability to identify and to critique conflicting historical interpretations.
• Discussing and explaining ideas in a small-group context.
• Practicing introductory writing and research skills.

• 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:

A written assignment of at least 800 and no more than 1,000 words to be submitted in Michaelmas Term. A group presentation to be delivered in Easter Term.

■ 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.