Reading Histories

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Identify and read critically materials in a range of formats.
• Develop your time management skills in planning a research project.
• Undertake individual research and present findings coherently.

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• How to collate and analyse different types of historical sources.
• A range of historical debates and an awareness of how historiographical approaches develop.
• How research questions have been formulated by the authors you are studying.
• The different theories and methods that inform your chosen research area.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Identify and critically assess the work of a number of scholars related to the field of your proposed dissertation topic, and apply their ideas to your own research project.
• Understand and deploy specialist historical terminology related to your research project in an effective manner.
• Analyse how sources have been used by different historians, and how their methods may inform your own approach to sources.

Indicative lecture topics include:

How do historians 'create' history?

History and conflict

History and politics

History and gender

History and culture

History and religion

Indicative workshops (organised by chronology, geography or theme) will include topics such as:

Which writers have had the most influence on the field and why?

How have sources been used in the different approaches taken by historians?

What are the main 'silences' in your subject area?

What are the main ethical/moral issues in your research area?

What are the big historical controversies in your field?

Indicative online resources (e.g., podcasts):

What makes a good research question?

How do you establish the boundaries of a research project?

When have you done 'enough' research?

How to use material evidence in constructing the past

How to find your way around an archive.

Teaching activities include:

Workshops discussing key literature overseen by specialists

Presentations on specific texts

Lectures on interpretations, sources and methodologies

Applying and utilising online resources relevant to your research area

Palaeographic support or research training (if appropriate).

Learning activities include:

Preparing presentations on key literature in your specialist area of research

Critically analysing different historiographical approaches in a workshop setting

Engaging with appropriate sources for your research topic in specialist-led workshops

Individual tutorials to help you devise and construct a framework for your research

Peer support in the development of research and the interpretation of texts.

Summative

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

Referral

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

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.