Making History Part 2: Debates and Research

Module overview

In this module, you will work at the leading edge of historical research, generating new knowledge about a specific subject or topic. You will choose one from a wide selection of projects, spanning the thematic, chronological, and geographical expertise of the department. You will have the opportunity to work in small groups, supervised by a member of staff with expert knowledge of the historical period, event, or context. Together with your supervisor, you will discuss how your chosen subject relates to wider historical contexts and scholarly debates by exploring primary sources and supporting materials. Focusing on primary sources, this module encourages you to think critically and creatively about history and its practice, thereby helping prepare you for the final year History dissertation, whilst introducing you to a specific historical subject.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

analyse critically a variety of sources - textual, visual or material culture - and understand how to discuss these in an analytical and engaging manner.
engage with secondary literature on an historical subject, and contribute to the debates relating to the historiography of that subject in an accessible way.
identify and apply relevant historical contexts to enhance the interpretation of primary source materials

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

select textual, visual and material culture sources as appropriate and use them effectively to explore and explain an historical subject.
utilise and further develop your time-management skills.
explain and critically evaluate complex historical questions

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

key secondary source material relating to an historical subject.
key primary sources relating to an historical subject.
the history of an historical subject, in particular the way in which such history is conceived by historians.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include workshops. Learning methods include working within assigned groups and discussion of key themes and ideas.

Study time
Type	Hours
Completion of assessment task	96
Preparation for scheduled sessions	96
Wider reading or practice	88
Workshops	20
Total study time	300

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Kean, Hilda, and Paul Ashton, (eds) (2008). People and Their Pasts: Public History Today. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lowenthal, David (1998). The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History. Cambridge: CUP.

De Groot, Jerome (2009). Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture. London: Routledge.

Kean, Hilda, Paul Martin, and Sally J. Morgan (eds) (2000). Seeing History: Public History in Britain Now. London: Francis Boutle.

Lowenthal, David (1985). The Past is a Foreign Country. Cambridge: CUP.

Assessment

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Written assignment	40%
Essay	60%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Resubmit assessments	100%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	60%
Written assignment	40%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External