HR924-7-AU-CO:
Rethinking History: Approaches, Theories and Concepts
2023/24
Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Postgraduate: Level 7
Current
Thursday 05 October 2023
Friday 15 December 2023
20
22 September 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
CER V10009 History,
MA V10012 History,
MA V100MO History,
MHISV199 History,
MHISZV98 History (Including Placement Year),
MHISZV99 History (Including Year Abroad)
Why do historians disagree? How is it possible for different historians to look at the same evidence and arrive at different conclusions? This module focuses on important recent trends in the conceptual and theoretical approaches of contemporary historians, along with their practical use in historical writing.
The first part of the module examines key concepts, such as `class`, `gender`, and `race`, while the second part explores 'turns' towards particular theories and approaches, such as the study of material culture, emotions, or memory.
The aims of this module are:
- To ensure that students are familiar with a range of concepts, approaches, and theories used in contemporary historical writing.
- To enable students to critically assess and engage with diverse theoretical, conceptual, and methodological approaches to the study of history at an advanced level.
- To support students in developing the appropriate skills to successfully apply differing concepts, approaches, and theories to the study of history.
- To support students’ development of critical understanding of how the questions that historians ask relate to concepts, sources, and methods, as well as previous scholarship.
- To enable students to compare different concepts, approaches, and theories to the study of historical across and between different chronological and geographical contexts.
By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:
- Demonstrate understanding of concepts, approaches, and theories used by contemporary historians.
- Show insight into debates concerning the ways in which history is written, including critical knowledge of historical concepts, theories, and methods.
- Critically examine the use of concepts, theories, and methods in practical historical writing.
- Ask more sophisticated questions in their own specialist field of study.
- Examine the ways in which approaches have been used in fields beyond their own.
- Display methodological rigour in the formulation of questions and hypotheses, the choice of methods appropriate to answering and evaluating those questions and hypotheses and the treatment of evidence.
- Present, accurately, succinctly and lucidly, and in written or oral form their arguments in accordance with appropriate scholarly conventions.
The module is divided into two parts: 'Concepts' and 'Theories and Turns'. Because the module explores recent trends in historical writing, specific topics and case studies may change to reflect current debates and practices. An indicative syllabus is provided below.
Indicative Syllabus
Part I - Concepts
- Introduction.
- Class & Culture.
- Gender & Sexuality.
- "Race" & Ethnicity.
- Political Cultures & the State.
Part II – Theories & Turns
- Material Turns.
- Space & Place.
- Subjectivity & Emotion.
- Memory & History.
- Conclusion: Objectivity & Research Paradigms
Students will explore these concepts, approaches, and theories through analysis of examples of historical writing on a range of topics, paying particular attention to the relationship between the kinds of questions historians ask, their conceptual starting points, the types of sources they use, and their methods for `reading` evidence.
All the concepts, approaches, and theories discussed are potentially applicable to all historical periods and to all geographical areas.
This module will be delivered via:
- One 2-hour seminar per week
-
Gardiner, Samuel Rawson, 1829-1902 (1894) History of the great civil war, 1642-1649 / by Samuel R. Gardiner. Longmans, Green.
-
Boydston, J. (2008) ‘Gender as a Question of Historical Analysis’,
Gender & History, 20(3), pp. 558–583. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0424.2008.00537.x.
-
Michael Roper (2005) ‘“Between Manliness and Masculinity: The ‘War Generation’ and the Psychology of Fear in Britain, 1914-1950”’,
Journal of British Studies, 44(2), pp. 343–362. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/427130.
-
Barbara Jeanne Fields (1982) ‘Ideology and Race in American History’, in Region, Race, and Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of C Vann Woodward, pp. 143–177.
-
Brown (1996)
Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs?: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia. Chapel Hill: Omohundro Institute and UNC Press. Available at:
https://search-ebscohost-com.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=965096&site=ehost-live&authtype=sso&custid=s9814295.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Critical reading exercise (1000 words) |
|
20% |
| Coursework |
Essay (4000 words) |
|
80% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Alison Rowlands, email: alisonc@essex.ac.uk.
PHAIS Postgraduate Queries: phaispg@essex.ac.uk
Yes
No
Yes
Prof Rohan McWilliam
Anglia Ruskin University
professor of Modern Hritish History
Available via Moodle
Of 22 hours, 20 (90.9%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
2 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
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