History MA - 2021 Entry

Course Structure

You will study a range of modules as part of your course, some examples of which are listed below.

Core

• Dissertation

  This 18,000-20,000 word dissertation provides the opportunity for you to demonstrate the knowledge, understanding, research skills and techniques of presentation developed in the taught modules of the MA degree scheme. The specialist field of enquiry is chosen by the student in consultation with a supervisor and other members of the department before arrival and in the first half of Michaelmas Term. Individual one-to-one supervisions will be provided throughout the year to support taught modules, define and formulate a research hypothesis, identify relevant qualitative and quantitative sources, offer guidance on presentation and comment on the structure of the dissertation.

• Researching and Writing History

  Alongside having a passion for the past, researching and writing a quality piece of history requires close engagement with the historian’s craft. What does good history look like? How can we be sure we are at the cutting edge of our discipline? What does it meant to write well?

  In this core module, you will be guided through the process of conducting advanced historical research, reflecting upon the skills that you have and how they can be applied to extended pieces of research. Spanning both Michaelmas and Lent term, this module will take you from an introduction to postgraduate study through to laying the foundations for your dissertation, developing your understanding of the discipline of history, and your identity as an historian. The module culminates with a conference, where you will present your work to peers and members of academic staff, receiving feedback to develop your own and the opportunity to help your peers develop their projects.

  This module will be assessed by a portfolio of work developed throughout the course, including a feasibility study.

Optional

• A Special Relationship? The USA and Great Britain from World War II to the War on Terror

  Two of the most important developments of twentieth century international history were the decline of Britain's global influence and the simultaneous rise of the United States as a world power. Somewhat remarkably, these processes occurred without a major conflict arising between the US and Britain. Instead, relations between the two countries in the decades following the Second World War became increasingly intertwined, resulting in what is commonly referred to as the Anglo-American 'special relationship'. This module explores relations between Britain and the United States from World War II through to the War on Terror, and the role the US-UK relationship has played in international politics during this era. Has there in fact been a 'special relationship' between the US and Britain during this period? If so, what are the motivating factors for the two states in pursuing this relationship and the broader forces binding them together? You will address these questions and others exploring how US-UK relations have developed in the realms of diplomacy, defence, economics and intelligence.

• Beyond the Text: Image, Sound and Object as Historical Evidence

  In this module, you will examine historical approaches to a variety of sources, from the visual (or audio visual), to the aural, oral and artefactual. Whatever period you are studying, you will be able to investigate material relevant to your own research: in the past, the module has covered the gamut from ancient Rome to the modern day, and the sources you investigate will be tailored to suit the specialisms of your cohort.

  Over the course of the module you will deepen your familiarity with the range of sources available, and be able to analyse how non-traditional sources have been approached by historians. The knowledge and skills you learn will provide insights into how you can approach such sources within your own research; indeed, you will have the opportunity to pursue a coursework topic that relates to your chosen area of historical investigation.

• Creative Voices: History and Fiction

  What is the relationship between historical writing and creative writing, fiction and nonfiction and the entire spectrum of writing that that encompasses? What are the limits on creativity created by source materials or gaps in source materials? What are the respective responsibilities of author and reader?

  In this module you will explore those questions in the liminal space between historical and creative writing. You will be encouraged to think about the nature of writing across disciplines, your own creative voice and choices, and your relationship to your reader.

  You will consider extensive examples of how individual authors have chosen to meet the challenges of their subject matter, and be encouraged to explore the implications of this for your own writing.

• Critical Heritage Studies

  This module offers you the opportunity to think about the objects and spaces through which history is presented to the public. You will have the chance to engage with scholarly perspectives about heritage practises and to gain insight into the workings of public institutions.

  Its aim is to give you the opportunity to engage with scholarly criticisms of heritage practices and to gain insight into the workings of public institutions. Questions we will explore include: What are the processes through which history becomes heritage? By what means are objects gathered together and arranged in order to present, and preserve, ‘the past’? How are the meanings of these objects controlled and communicated to the public? In thinking through these, and other similar, questions, you will have the chance to consider the means through which ‘the historical temper’ is cultivated in both institutions and public spaces and, in particular, how and why the presentation of the past has changed over time. The module combines seminars with site visits, tours and sessions with heritage professionals.

• Digital texts in the Humanities

  Despite huge advances in digital technologies, many of the approaches historian use remain rooted in the analogue age. Perhaps the only major change that computers have led to among historians to date is the use of major digitised archives, such as Early English Books Online, Old Bailey Online or the British Newspaper Archive. Even with these, many historians simply use these to search and browse, never making use of their full potential or able to critique the digitised sources effectively.

  In the first part of this course you will look at how paper sources are digitised and encoded to create digital historical resources. This will enable you to understand how digital sources are created, and encourage you to think critically about their benefits and limitations. The second part of the course explores how digitised historical sources can be explored and analysed in more sophisticated ways. Corpus linguistics enables us identify and summarise themes of interest from millions or billions of words of text in ways that go far beyond simply keyword searches. It also helps the historian decide which parts of a large body of text require further research and which do not.

  You do not need any prior knowledge of computing beyond the basics all history students will have. We will draw on examples from a wide range of topics from the early modern to modern British. You will also have the opportunity to use the techniques and approaches learnt with their own sources.

• Exploring the World of Digital Humanities

  This module will offer an introduction to the range of theories and methods most commonly used today in Digital Humanities. As primary and secondary sources of information become increasingly available, Humanities scholars have the capacity to study these in ways not traditionally envisioned before, being now able to answer questions such as: What patterns emerge in the discourses from 1,000 volumes of parliamentary data? What changes can we identify at a landscape scale during the formation of the Aztec Empire? Can the Romantic Novel be visualised? Covering the most cutting-edge research at the intersection of computing and the humanities, the module will offer an overarching view of the latest research in the fields of history, archaeology, literature, sociology, linguistics, politics, and religious studies.

  Each session will introduce a topic through specific case studies covering a variety of theories from Data Justice, and Digital Inclusion, to Decolonial technology; as well as techniques and methods ranging from Geographic Information Retrieval, Text Mining, Network Analysis, Data Mining, Computational Linguistics, Visualisation and Data Design, to Human Computer Interaction.

  The student will learn a wide variety of approaches and will acquire a broad overview of the field as is practiced today.

• Historical Research Project

  This bespoke module is shaped by you and your allocated module supervisor. It enables you to develop a particular research interest if this cannot be accommodated within the dissertation or in other taught modules; alternatively, it can be used to undertake a guided reading programme under supervision. You should only consider this option if you have a clear idea of a particular project you wish to propose that is distinct from your dissertation project. You will be asked to consult the appropriate Director of Graduate Studies to discuss your choice, and the form of assessment will vary depending on the project, it will however be of equivalent weighting to 5,000 words of text.

• Introduction to Latin Translation for Historians

  This is a special intensive course for students who have little or no previous knowledge of Latin. The course concentrates on the basics of Latin Grammar and vocabulary as used in the Medieval period, though it will also be very useful for students of the Roman and Renaissance periods. By the end of the course students should be able to read sources such as title deeds, court rolls, government records, wills, and inscriptions. Help will be given to individual students on Latin texts relevant to their dissertation or thesis.

  Preliminary/Core Reading:

  J. Thorley, Documents in Medieval Latin.

  E. A. Gooder, Latin for Local Historians.

  R. Latham (ed.), Medieval Latin Word-List.

  Any standard Latin-English dictionary.

  Assessment: Two course work exercises (40%) and a final examination (60%).

• Medieval Primary Sources: Genre, Rhetoric and Transmission

  Designed for students taking the medieval pathway, this module examines both manuscript studies and the decoding of medieval sources in their original and printed forms. Using relatively straightforward examples, the palaeographical strand provides an introduction to the principles involved in deciphering scripts while the ‘genre-focused’ strand considers a range of types of source—some that you will almost inevitably encounter in your research (e.g. charters, letters and chronicles) and some that you might not have considered, but which offer much for the medieval historian (e.g. poems and miscellanies). Indeed, one of the main aims of the course is to alert students to the significance of book history and manuscript studies—to the importance of attending to manuscript evidence and what it can tell us about the production, transmission and reception of a medieval source.

  The course is taught by means of a weekly two-hour seminar, which will include both substantive discussion of a topic or genre of source and a workshop element, for which some preparation, partly in the form of a weekly ‘palaeography exercise’, is expected.

• Outreach, heritage and public history placement

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  This module offers you the chance to benefit from the Department’s established and expanding network of heritage partners by completing a professional placement. Our previous placement partners have included a number of notable organisations, such as the Duchy of Lancaster, Hoghton Tower, the Museum of Lancashire, the National Trust, the North Craven Trust, and the Senhouse Museum Trust.

  The placement is centred on a specific project, which is agreed between the Department and the partner organisation, and completed under the supervision of that organisation. The work undertaken as part of the placement project can take a variety of different forms, ranging from cataloguing objects to assisting in arrangement for exhibitions to undertaking research work on a corpus of visual, audio or textual sources. You will need to take part in an application process with each heritage partner deciding on the best match of student for their placement.

  The assessment for the module comprises a portfolio of work relating the placement and a (1,000-2,000 word) reflective essay.

• School Placement

  This module will be of particular interest if you are considering teaching as a career. The placement takes place over 10-weeks working part-time at either a primary or secondary school in the region. Typically our school placements involve a combination of classroom observation and teacher assistance, as well as the preparation of lesson plans, teaching plans and learning materials. You may also have the opportunity to teach the class as a whole. Participation in this module will give you first-hand experiences of young people’s responses to historical texts and problems, and it will give you the opportunity to develop confidence in communicating your subject. It will also increase your awareness of the roles of schools and universities in educational processes.

  The assessment for the module comprises a portfolio of work relating the placement and a (1,000-2,000 word) reflective essay.

• Spatial technologies for Humanities Research

  This module covers a range of geospatial technologies which are now available to historians, and is an opportunity to develop the practical and critical skills which will allow you to apply them to your own research. In doing so, you will also be exposed to many of the ongoing trends and debates within the growing field of Digital Humanities.

  You will be introduced to the ‘spatial turn’ in the humanities, identifying its theoretical bases and technical requirements, as well as some of their limitations and practical implications. Topics include Spatial Theory and Thinking, Geographical Text Analysis, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

  You will explore cutting-edge research in the field in a number of case studies, and engage with them critically. In addition to this theoretical component, you will have the opportunity to develop essential capabilities in GIS, including how to find, load, edit, visualise and analyse different kinds of data. You will learn how to combine texts and records with contemporary and historical cartography, sensor data, and satellite and aerial photography. This will allow you to visualize your own data in 2 and 3 dimensions, perform spatial statistical analyses, transform it into interactive time lines and visualisations, or produce high quality maps for presentations and publications. In doing so, you should acquire an important set of transferable digital skills and build an awareness of the opportunities, challenges and limitations of working with this medium.

• The Cold War in the Third World

  The traditional historiography of the Cold War focused predominantly on the two superpowers, i.e. the United States and the Soviet Union, and the European theatre of the conflict. In this module, in contrast, you will gain a different, less Euro- or Western-centric view of the Cold War. Studying the impact of the East-West struggle in the Third World – Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America – you will explore how the course of the Cold War was affected by wars, conflicts, and crises in the Global South. You will learn that the Global Cold War was not only dominated by the two superpowers, but was also heavily influenced by Third World actors and lesser Cold War powers such as the People’s Republic of China.

  The study of the Global Cold War is currently the most dynamic field in Cold War History and, probably, even in International and Military History more generally. As a result, you will be able to engage with a vast body of international literature, which is based on multi-lingual and multi-archival research around the world. Meanwhile, you will have the opportunity to analyse a vast array of documents, and carry out primary sources-based research. This is rendered possible by the availability of specific Cold War History document collections, national collections of diplomatic documents, as well as digital archives and document collections.

• Warfare in the Medieval World, 1100-1500

  In this module you will explore a crucial period in the history of warfare, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, when episodic conflicts gave way to near continual war. In Europe, ‘chivalric’ ideals were first established, in order to limit noble bloodshed and protect non-combatants, and then overturned, as the killing of nobles on the battlefield and the systematic terrorizing of civilian populations became standard strategy. Western crusaders conquered swathes of the Holy Land and led expeditions to North Africa, before the revanche of the Abode of Islam under the Ayyubids and then the Mamluks, while the Mongol Empire emerged to confront the powers of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Military technology was transformed, with the invention of the trebuchet and then the gun, and new and potent battle tactics were developed, most famously the arrowstorm of the Hundred Years War. In this module, you will encounter a range of topics, perspectives and approaches to warfare across the medieval world, and be able to develop skills in identifying and assessing both new interpretations and primary sources, such as participant accounts, government records, and battlefield archaeology.

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.