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HIST4001: Handling Historical Evidence

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop the skills necessary to analyse a wide variety of historical primary sources and evaluate their significance as historical evidence
• Develop the skills and language needed to articulate the significance and context of historical primary sources
• Develop the skills necessary to locate, organise and study historical primary sources

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse historical primary sources with sensitivity to their origin, context and significance
2. Discuss and debate differing interpretations of the meaning and significance of primary sources
3. Demonstrate initiative in managing time and study tasks, with guidance.

Outline Syllabus

We begin your historical training with the cornerstone of historical research: evidence. What counts as evidence? It comes in many forms: chronicles and law codes, letters and diaries, written by people in the past; visual records, from paintings to photographs, film and maps; to aural records such as music and oral histories; and the physical remnants of past worlds, from coins to castles and burial places. Each source has a context we need to uncover. Who produced the source and why? Who would have seen or heard it, and what was their reaction? From here we can learn what questions to ask of our evidence. How can it illuminate past worlds? Our expert historians guide you through hands-on training, building your skills in drawing value from historical evidence.

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ ability to analyse primary sources through a portfolio of written source analyses and assessment of primary sources in an exam.

HIST4002: Revolutions in History

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop an understanding of the drivers, nature and outcomes of historical change
• Develop an understanding of a wide variety of historical revolutions
• Develop an understanding of how historical change benefits some individuals while being detrimental to others

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate an understanding of key factors that drive historical change
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the wide variety of historical revolutions
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the differing outcomes of historical change for different groups within society

Outline Syllabus

What does it take to disrupt the normal course of history, to overhaul how countries are run, to overturn long-held scientific knowledge and show people the world in a different light, or fundamentally disrupt the ways that wars are fought? What counts as a revolution? How do they happen? Here we explore a concept fundamental to History: historical change. What does it look like and how does it happen? Together, we investigate a series of political, economic, social, environmental, and cultural events and developments from the medieval period to the modern era that have been identified as revolutionary. You’ll gain the knowledge and skills to interpret and explain change in history, and to ask challenging questions. Who benefitted? Who was excluded?

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ ability to analyse historical revolutions through an essay and an exam.

HIST4003: Controversy in History

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Gain an understanding of why historians disagree on the meaning and significance of historical events and processes
• Develop skills in constructing and articulating historical arguments
• Develop skills in understanding differing historical perspectives and how to respond to these in a critically-informed fashion

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Understand the factors that shape why historians come to differing conclusions concerning historical events and processes
2. Identify and summarise differing historical interpretations, recognising the role of evidence and perspective
3. Communicate historical ideas clearly in structured written work, group presentations, and class discussion

Outline Syllabus

If the cornerstone of historical research is handling evidence, why do historians disagree about how to interpret the past? In the big debates of history, historians can place different values on certain evidence or interpret evidence differently—or miss evidence all together—and build their arguments to come to alternative conclusions. Your training as a first-year historian continues as our experts introduce you to real-life examples of historical debate, as you discover what issues divide historians and why they disagree. You’ll develop skills in reading historical arguments, uncovering how historians select and present evidence and engage critically with fellow scholars, and how they craft their argument. In the process, you’ll learn from example how to build an argument to engage, inform and persuade, forging the essential skills of the historian.

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ ability to summarise and analyse historiographical debates through a written review and in a group presentation.

HIST4004: Medieval and Early Modern Worlds

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop an understanding of the major historical developments of the medieval and early modern periods
• Develop an understanding of the key concepts and historiographical debates relevant to the medieval and early modern periods
• Develop the skills to analyse a variety of primary sources from the medieval and early modern periods

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse major historical developments of the medieval and early modern periods in their historical context
2. Engage with key concepts and historiographical debates relevant to the medieval and early modern periods
3. Analyse a variety of primary sources from the medieval and early modern periods

Outline Syllabus

The medieval and early modern periods witnessed immense change. This module will introduce you to the key themes, sources, and methods you need to understand the patterns of change and continuity around the world over a period of more than a thousand years. The shift from a warm climate in the medieval period to a colder one in the early modern period may help us explain patterns of life in a world where most people depended for their lives on subsistence agriculture. Huge transformations were also wrought by the movement of people, diseases, animals, and goods, with events such as the Black Death in Europe and smallpox epidemics in the Americas decisively changing how people lived, and how they related to each other. At the same time, political and religious ideas can help us to understand how and why people organised their societies in the ways they did, and how they understood their relationships to the other societies around them.

To reckon with these changes - and many more - you will study a wide range of themes, from environment to health and disease, gender, culture, media, politics, religion, and science. Meanwhile, you will master some of the key approaches and methodologies that historians now use to interpret the fascinating patterns of continuity and change in early modern life. Moreover, discover a wealth of primary sources, ranging from: chronicles and letters; poetry and literature; codes of law; burials and material culture; along with printed pamphlets, books, and newspapers.

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ understanding of the major historical developments of the medieval and early modern periods, alongside relevant conceptual and historical debates through an essay or an exam.

HIST4005: Modern Worlds

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop an understanding of the major historical developments of modern world history
• Develop an understanding of the key concepts and historiographical debates relevant to modern world history
• Develop the skills to analyse a variety of primary sources relevant to modern world history

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse major historical developments of the modern world in their historical context
2. Engage with key concepts and historiographical debates relevant to modern world history
3. Analyse a variety of primary sources relevant to modern world history

Outline Syllabus

This module explores the lived experience of peoples and nations in the modern age through the emergence of new ideas – including nationalism, capitalism, imperialism, racism, feminism - and, in turn, how those ideas were shaped by individuals, political movements, and events in diverse regions such as Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We will explore the dramatic changes that took place across the period, such as enslavement and emancipation, dictatorship and democracy, mass suffrage, war, persecution, and transformations in medical practice and legal systems, including the emergence of the idea of the citizen. We also consider the histories of those who defied and resisted these ideas, regimes and categorisations in the face of industrial, economic and decolonial transformations. Here you will gain an understanding of how individual and group identities have been forged and contested against a backdrop of turbulent social forces in the modern world.

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ understanding of the major historical developments of modern British history, alongside relevant conceptual and historical debates through an essay or an exam.

HIST5001: Who Makes History?

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop knowledge and understanding of the life and work of a range of diverse historians
• Develop an understanding of the historical craft and how historians go about studying the past
• Develop an understanding of how external circumstances shape the practice of historical study

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the work of a diverse range of historians
2. Analyse the ways in which historians study the past and the impact of external factors
3. Engage actively in collaborative work, showing initiative and sensitivity in group contexts

Outline Syllabus

Who makes History? What drives them to investigate the past? Here we meet the women and men who have helped shape the discipline of History, delving into their life and works. How did their experiences and opportunities shape their careers and what questions spurred their curiosity? How did they find the sources they would need, and what methods did they use to analyse them? In exploring their stories, we ask how the place, time and society in which they lived opened opportunities or created obstacles to their careers, how they collaborated with other scholars or carved roles in learned societies or public debate. And we ask why some historians have been heralded as ‘great’ – their names famous, their books widely read – and why others are consigned to the footnotes of the historical profession, their endeavours in the archives unrecognised. What makes a pioneering historian?

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ ability to analyse historians, their work and environments, through a group podcast and a critical biography.

HIST5002: War and Transformation

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop the skills necessary to analyse a variety of historical transformations caused by, and influencing the conduct of, wars
• Engage with a variety of historiographical and conceptual approaches to the study of warfare and its broader societal impacts
• Develop the skills necessary to communicate ideas in well-structured, fluent written forms

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse a variety of historical transformations caused by, and influencing the conduct of, wars using appropriate historiographical and thematic frameworks
2. Critically assess a range of interpretations and source materials relevant to historical conflicts and their societal impacts
3. Communicate complex ideas in well-structured, fluent arguments in written formats.

Outline Syllabus

Wars are among the most important drivers of historical change and have transformed states, societies, borders and landscapes, as well as ideas, identities, and worldviews. The decision to go to war is rarely taken lightly, but the mechanisms and norms for doing so have varied greatly over time. How peoples mobilize themselves for conflict has likewise been shaped by ideas about rights, responsibilities, and roles, ideas sometimes rooted in shifting concepts of gender and racial ideologies. War is also a crucible of scientific and technological change. From the longbow to the machine gun, and from photography and reconstructive surgery to the atomic bomb, war has stimulated scientific and technological innovation while unleashing its most destructive forces. Exploring war and its legacies in all its complexities allows us to see it not as a unique form of human endeavour, but as a realisation of broader social, cultural, and intellectual forces.

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ ability to analyse war and its impact through an essay and an exam.

HIST5003: Human and Environment

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop the skills necessary to analyse human interactions with the environment across a range of historical periods and geographic regions
• Engage with a variety of historiographical and conceptual approaches to the study of humans and the environment
• Develop the skills necessary to communicate ideas in well-structured, fluent written forms

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse a variety of human interactions with the environment using appropriate historiographical and thematic frameworks
2. Critically assess a range of interpretations and source materials relevant to human interactions with the environment
3. Communicate complex ideas in well-structured, fluent arguments in written formats.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores the links between humans and their environments around the world from the medieval period to the modern era. By examining how people have understood nature and their place within it over time and across cultures, we investigate climate change, environmental disasters, and massive landscape transformations. Situating the natural world as both an agent of change and a system that humans can alter on many scales, you’ll develop skills in navigating complex human-environment interactions. You’ll encounter a range of sources, from texts to images and environmental data, and learn how to analyse them, including through digital methods. With these skills, you’ll explore regional case studies of environmental impacts on humans and human alterations of the environment, from the impact of warming periods and the Little Ice Age, to the transformation of colonial landscapes, the exploitation of forests, minerals, and water, and the effects of urbanization.

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ ability to analysis human interactions with the environment through a group poster assignment and an individual project.

HIST5004: Body, Mind and Society

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop the skills necessary to analyse humans’ experience of body and mind across a variety of historical and geographic contexts
• Engage with a variety of historiographical and conceptual approaches to the study of the body and mind
• Develop the skills necessary to communicate ideas in well-structured, fluent written forms

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse a variety of historical understandings of the body and mind using appropriate historiographical and thematic frameworks
2. Critically assess a range of interpretations and source materials relevant to human understandings of the body and mind
3. Communicate complex ideas in well-structured, fluent arguments in written formats

Outline Syllabus

In this module you’ll explore the two things that make us human – body and mind. Historians once regarded mind and body as the same across time and place. But more recently, historians have challenged this assumption, showing that changing societies have led people to experience mind and body in radically different ways. We will explore patterns of continuity and change from the medieval to modern periods by investigating key themes such as: how ideas about mind and body have impacted gender, race, and social class; violence and injury; sexuality and gender identity; changing experiences of disability and transformations in attitudes to healthcare. You’ll build the skills to historicize mind and body through innovative methodologies such as disability studies; histories of health and medical humanities; gender and sexuality studies; histories of clothing and bodily adornment; interdisciplinary approaches including osteo-archaeology; recent developments in material culture; and the study of lived experience.

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ ability to analysis how various societies have conceived of the body and mind through an essay and an exam.

HIST5005: Inventing Rights

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop the skills necessary to understand how a variety of human societies have understood and contested the idea of rights
• Engage with a variety of historiographical and conceptual approaches to the study of rights
• Develop the skills necessary to communicate ideas in well-structured, fluent written forms.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse a variety of ways in which societies have conceived of and contested the idea of rights
2. Critically assess a range of interpretations and source materials relevant to historical understandings of rights
3. Communicate complex ideas in well-structured, fluent arguments in written formats

Outline Syllabus

To what rights are humans entitled? How are those rights balanced with the rights of other organisms and the environment? How are they balanced with the needs of societies and governments? The protection of human rights has been used to justify international conflict and military intervention to save lives, yet human rights critics have argued that they are a form of cultural imperialism limiting the sovereignty of local populations. Here we explore the codification of rights, from Magna Carta and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the Geneva Conventions, and how questions of rights have manifested in movements for decolonisation and self-determination, debates on the use of capital punishment, and campaigns for gendered, disability and same-sex relationship rights. We also explore how societies have considered rights in relation to landscapes, from the right to roam to the protection of spaces, from medieval forests to the creation of national parks.

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ ability to analysis how societies have conceived of rights through an essay and an exam.

HIST5006: Death

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop the skills necessary to understand how a variety of human societies have understood and experienced death and dying
• Engage with a variety of historiographical and conceptual approaches to the study of death
• Develop the skills necessary to communicate ideas in well-structured, fluent written forms

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse a variety of ways in which societies have conceived of and experienced the concepts of death and dying
2. Critically assess a range of interpretations and source materials relevant to historical understandings of death
3. Communicate complex ideas in well-structured, fluent arguments in written formats.

Outline Syllabus

What does it mean to die? Is it frightening? Will I see those I love again? What does it mean to kill, whether an enemy, a friend, or myself? Death is a universal human experience but how we confront it has varied across history. Religion can shape beliefs and customs, from the theology of the afterlife to funerary rituals and the treatment of the corpse. Yet at the margins have always lain a shadowy world, where the restless dead return, the living seek to summon the departed, and the despairing take their lives. We explore varied experiences of death across the centuries, from end-of-life care to execution, and from battlefields to pandemics. We discover the different means of investigating death, from the chronicles that describe the walking dead, to the archaeology of burial practice, and from murder trials to palaeogenetics, unlocking the passage of disease.

Assessment Proportions

The assessment will assess students’ ability to analysis how societies have conceived and experienced death through verbal, an essay and an exam.

HIST5007: Britain in the 20th?Century

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Outline Syllabus

This module gives a broad thematic overview of the history of modern Britain. Twentieth-century British history is largely a story of change. The impact of democratisation, war, economic decline, the loss of empire, and internal fragmentation has resulted in a nation seemingly in constant flux, often unsure of its identity and its values. In this module you will explore the patterns of social, economic, cultural and political change which have most affected the lives of the British since 1900. The overarching themes are the formation and reformation of identities based on class, gender, race, empire, nation, and the dual process by which the British were integrated into the state as citizens, and into the market as consumers. Throughout the module, as well as being introduced to the key historiographical debates, you will be encouraged to explore the subject through an eclectic mix of primary sources, including film, television, cartoons, posters, novels, and parliamentary debates.

The module aims to equip you with an overview knowledge of the key themes and events of twentieth-century British history, by means of engagement with the most important historiographical debates. Though you will gain an insight into the timing and pace of change, the content is taught thematically, to enable you to develop your understanding of the most important factors shaping modern Britain, from changing gender roles and the growing importance of race, to the development of the role of the state and changes in Britain’s international role.

HIST6002: The Use and Abuse of History

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop knowledge and understanding of how history impacts and is utilised in the present day
• Develop an awareness of how history is politicised and adopted for ideological purposes in the contemporary world
• Develop the skills necessary to communicate historical topics to contemporary audiences.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how history impacts and is utilised in the present day
2. Demonstrate an awareness of how history is politicised and adopted for ideological purposes in the contemporary world
3. Present historical findings and arguments to academic and non-specialist audiences, adapting tone, format, and media effectively.

Outline Syllabus

Why does History matter? What does it contribute to our world? This module challenges you to consider how our discipline is applied. Beyond working in universities, historians are active in public debate and influence the policies of institutions and governments on matters from the memorialisation of historic figures and institutional links with the Transatlantic Slave Trade to geopolitical threats to UK security. They collaborate with museums, helping visitors engage with material remains of the past, and write books for a wide public readership. In this module you’ll develop a critical awareness of your discipline and gain confidence in articulating its significance in our world. You’ll also contend with the subjective use of History: how political leaders have co-opted stories of the past to justify war and conquest, and ideologically driven groups claim historical legitimacy. What role should historians play in shaping how our understanding of the past influences the present?

Assessment Proportions

Assessment will be a group project based on an analysis of a historical site/object, pitched to the public. Based on this project, students will write a brief written report and provide an individual presentation.

HIST6004: Participation, Splendour and Violence: The Italian City-States, c.1100-1350

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Explore a historical topic in depth through the study of a large range of primary sources
• Develop the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment
• Develop the ability to Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate proficiency in the analysis of a wide range of primary sources.
2. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment.
3. Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Outline Syllabus

Between 1100 and 1350, northern Italy was divided into sixty ‘city-states’ governed by their citizens through assemblies and shared public office. Italian merchant-bankers grew so rich that they lent money to kings and popes, and used their wealth to transform cities into works of art, encouraging a period of cultural flourishing later called the Renaissance. But beyond this splendour lay a darker reality of economic exploitation, political exclusion, and violence that eventually proved fatal for this system of self-government. In this module we reconstruct the development of the Italian cities across one of the most significant periods of medieval history, exploring themes such as coexistence and violence, participation and exclusion, law and good government, through sources ranging from legal documents to frescoes, and from literature to architecture. Meanwhile, we ask a question that remains important today: what does it mean to be citizens in a plural and increasingly unequal society?

Assessment Proportions

This module is assessed by a combined portfolio of source analyses, essays, small group presentations, seminar presentations, and/or an exam.

HIST6005: Intelligent Design? Science, Religion and the Idea of Design in Nature, 1450-1800

• Terms Taught: Lent/summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Explore a historical topic in depth through the study of a large range of primary sources
• Develop the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment
• Develop the ability to Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate proficiency in the analysis of a wide range of primary sources.
2. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment.
3. Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Outline Syllabus

Today the claim that God designed everything in the universe has given way to the theory of evolution. The usual story of this change is one of conflict between science and religion. But we will challenge the popular narrative. Focusing on the period 1450-1800, we will reconsider the rise and fall of the idea that nature was the work of a divine designer. As well as trying to understand why the design argument became so important in the early modern period, we will seek to understand why it fell out of favour during the 18th century - long before the theory of evolution. But we will not simply be studying the history of ideas. To understand how early modern science changed, we will study a wide range of practices - from intellectual disciplines like philosophy, rhetoric and theology, to material practices including chemistry, architectural design, archaeology, and art.

Assessment Proportions

This module is assessed by a combined portfolio of source analyses, essays, small group presentations, seminar presentations, and/or an exam.

HIST6006: Paradise Lost: Colonisation and the Jamaican Environment, 1655-1838

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Explore a historical topic in depth through the study of a large range of primary sources
• Develop the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment
• Develop the ability to Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate proficiency in the analysis of a wide range of primary sources.
2. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment.
3. Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Outline Syllabus

Colonisation fundamentally transformed Jamaica’s paradisical environment. In this module, you will gain a detailed understanding of how this process occurred. You will begin by studying how the first colonists comprehended the New World environment and the importance of that environment for shaping settlement. You will then study how settlers exploited the Jamaican environment using enslaved African labour. In the concluding section, you will examine how colonists sought to mitigate the devastating effects of plantation agriculture through nascent environmentalism. You will study this fascinating history using a diverse array of primary sources and by reading deeply in environmental history. A suite of interlocking assessments will also allow you to undertake your own research in environmental history. You will thus emerge from this module with a detailed understanding of Jamaica’s natural history and the field of environmental history more broadly.

Assessment Proportions

This module is assessed by a combined portfolio of source analyses, essays, small group presentations, seminar presentations, and/or an exam.

HIST6009: Big Data and Dead People: Digital Histories of Crime, Justice and Punishment, 1760-1925

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Explore a historical topic in depth through the study of a large range of primary sources
• Develop the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment
• Develop the ability to Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate proficiency in the analysis of a wide range of primary sources.
2. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment.
3. Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Outline Syllabus

The module examines how cogent issues in crime, justice and punishment have been treated historically from the eighteenth century. Taking advantage of online historical datasets, including Digital Panopticon and Old Bailey Online, the module introduces you to the vast range of historic criminal justice records. On the module, the classroom becomes the archive. We get hands on with primary sources evidencing the social and cultural history of modern Britain, and act as Digital Detectives to gather evidence to unlock the world of Victorian crime and punishment. By using digital approaches to this evidence, we can navigate a history from below and explore the impact of crime and injustice on diverse social groups including women, the working classes, migrants, and youth, allowing us to explore historical experiences of crime, justice and punishment both at scale and at the level of the individual in its fullest evidential context.

Assessment Proportions

This module is assessed by a combined portfolio of source analyses, essays, small group presentations, seminar presentations, and/or an exam.

HIST6010: Forging India: South Asia from Empire to Nation, 1829-1964

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Explore a historical topic in depth through the study of a large range of primary sources
• Develop the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment
• Develop the ability to Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate proficiency in the analysis of a wide range of primary sources.
2. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment.
3. Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores the history of South Asia from the abolition of sati to the death of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Across the module, we will consider the social, cultural and political histories through which the idea of India was expressed and contested. This Special Subject will explore the debates and rebellions through which the European colonial project was resisted and South Asian identities were expressed and cohered. We will begin by considering the translations, interpretations and classifications of subcontinental history, society, language created in the nineteenth century. How were ideas of identity, community and freedom formed in response to and against the incursion of European power in the region? Subsequently, how did the idea of the nation coalesce into something beyond Empire to create not one, but two nations: India and Pakistan?

Assessment Proportions

This module is assessed by a combined portfolio of source analyses, essays, small group presentations, seminar presentations, and/or an exam.

HIST6011: Advertising and Consumerism in Britain, 1853-1960

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Explore a historical topic in depth through the study of a large range of primary sources
• Develop the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment
• Develop the ability to Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate proficiency in the analysis of a wide range of primary sources.
2. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment.
3. Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores the origins of modern consumer society in Britain. In the century from the abolition of advertising tax in 1853 to the birth of commercial television in the 1950s, advertising became a pervasive feature of modern life, and Britain became a nation of consumers. Through a range of sources, including press reports, social surveys, and – of course – advertisements, you’ll investigate the impact of new shopping environments like the department store and the supermarket, and the rise of ethical consumerism. Advertising is political, and you’ll also examine how it helped Britain win two world wars and market the Empire to its citizens. By the end of the module, you will understand how advertising sells us much more than simply clothes or food, how it shapes the way we view gender and race, and how it creates support for a market economy based on the principles of freedom and choice.

Assessment Proportions

This module is assessed by a combined portfolio of source analyses, essays, small group presentations, seminar presentations, and/or an exam.

HIST6013: Gender Identities in the People's War: Experiences, Representations and Memories

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Explore a historical topic in depth through the study of a large range of primary sources
• Develop the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment
• Develop the ability to Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate proficiency in the analysis of a wide range of primary sources.
2. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment.
3. Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Outline Syllabus

With the blurring of the Home and Battle Fronts in Britain in the Second World War, the conventional wartime gender contract — in which men fight to protect the vulnerable at home and women keep the home fires burning — was challenged. In this module you will examine how war was experienced by those who conformed to and those who challenged gender norms, by those included in the war effort, and those who stood outside it. You’ll consider different categorisations of experience (military/civilian; home front/ battle front; male/female) and how historians have grappled with key concepts including the People’s War and hierarchies of service. Through a wide range of primary sources, including autobiographical materials, poems, photographs, films, parliamentary minutes, newspapers, posters and cartoons, we will seek to understand individual and collective experiences of the war, and their gendered dimensions.

Assessment Proportions

This module is assessed by a combined portfolio of source analyses, essays, small group presentations, seminar presentations, and/or an exam.

HIST6016: A Global History of the Cold War

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Explore a historical topic in depth through the study of a large range of primary sources
• Develop the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment
• Develop the ability to Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…1. Demonstrate proficiency in the analysis of a wide range of primary sources.2. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate complex historical problems and debates with originality, insight, and critical judgment.3. Lead and contribute effectively to team-based tasks, responding to diverse perspectives and challenges.

Outline Syllabus

In line with recent historiographical developments, this module shifts the focus away from the two superpowers – the United States and the Soviet Union – and Europe to provide a Global History of the Cold War. Engaging with leading international scholarship, you will explore key episodes of the conflict across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. This approach enables a thorough understanding of the regional and local dimensions of this global conflict and highlights the influence of 'Third World' actors and lesser Cold War powers such as the People's Republic of China. You will hone your analytical and technical skills by working with a diverse array of primary sources from around the world. These sources, used in both classroom discussions and assignments, will help you conceptualise and critically analyse the Global Cold War while positioning yourself within the dynamic historiography of the field.

Assessment Proportions

This module is assessed by a combined portfolio of source analyses, essays, small group presentations, seminar presentations, and/or an exam.

HIST7006: Bodies in Conflict:?Violence,?Health?and Society

• Terms Taught: Lent
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Student must have completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant field.

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop an understanding of how violence has impacted individuals through consideration of medicine, the body, sexuality, and the mind
• Develop an understanding of how the body (broadly defined) has impacted violence and violent episodes in history.
• Develop confidence in analysing primary sources and historiographical debates in verbal and written formats

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Link key themes in the history of conflict, violence, and the body to historical periods, places, and episodes.
2. Construct arguments about the histories of violence and the body, drawing on primary sources and theoretical/methodological texts.
3. Discuss complex evidence, ideas, and arguments concerning violence and the body in both oral and written forms.

Outline Syllabus

While histories of war have long focused on the causes, course, outcome, and legacies of conflict, ‘new’ military histories also now seek to understand how ordinary people have experienced war ‘from below’. Structured around four broad themes—medicine, the body, sexuality, and the mind—this module considers the bodily legacies of warfare in a variety of times and places. Topics typically include the role of the military in the emergence of clinical medicine in the 18th century; the impact of war disability on society following the American Civil War; the long history of rape as a ‘weapon of war’; and the use of methamphetamines by the German Wehrmacht in the Second World War. Drawing on a large range of sources, including diaries, memoirs, medical texts, engravings, photographs, and wartime propaganda, you will develop a detailed understanding of how people throughout history have experienced conflict and its aftermaths through their bodies.

Assessment Proportions

• 20% Group Presentation
• 80% Essay, ~3000 words

HIST7007: Global Environmental Histories

• Terms Taught: Lent
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Student must have completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant field.

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop an understanding of how humans have interacted and changed their environments over a broad range of geographic and chronological settings
• Develop an understanding of how environments have shaped human experience over a broad range of geographic and chronological settings
• Develop confidence in analysing primary sources and historiographical debates in verbal and written formats

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically assess changes in approaches to the environment across a long chronology and in different cultural contexts.
2. Demonstrate an awareness of the connection and importance of environmental histories for contemporary debates about the climate.
3. Express complex ideas about human, non-human and environmental factors in spoken and written formats.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores the complex relationship between humans and non-humans and their environments from the medieval to the present in a range of geographical and cultural contexts. Students will explore crucial historical developments, such as climate change, landscape changes, animal diplomacy, resource depletion, industrialisation, colonisation, and environmentalism. The module is organised around case studies that span Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia, and so you will gain an appreciation of the natural world’s historic diversity, as well as the ways that differing peoples across history have understood, exploited, and preserved the environment. Students will be introduced to the profound contemporary relevance of the vibrant field of environmental history past environments and its relationship to climate crisis debates. You will emerge from this module with a nuanced understanding of how humans, and non-humans, have altered the environment, the importance of the environment for shaping world history, and the ways that historians have studied environmental history.

Assessment Proportions

• 20% Group Presentation
• 80% Essay, ~3000 words