Module: HIS5114-20 Making History: Discourses and Approaches

Level: 5

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Dr Sarah Hackett

Module Tutor Contact Details: s.hackett@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

This module will introduce you to the ways in which historians have thought about the nature of history, its purpose and practice. It aims to identify continuity and change in the historian’s approach to the subject over time, from its origins in storytelling to its development as an academic discipline, and to explore then ongoing debates about method and approach. Particular attention will be paid to key developments in historiographical debates in the modern period, especially the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

2.Outline syllabus:

We will take a broadly chronological approach to examining the development of thinking on and about the study of history, from its ‘invention’ in Ancient Greece to its professionalisation as a discipline in the 19th century. We will focus on the transformation of historical thinking and methodologies in the 20th century, as historians responded to social, economic and political change. We will consider the impact of Marxist approaches to history, the rise of social history and ‘history from below’, the movement from postcolonialism to decolonisation, the notion of ‘global history’, and the emergence of alternative ways of researching and writing about the past, such as gender history, microhistory, and the ‘material turn’.

3.Teaching and learning activities:

This module is delivered through a mix of lectures and seminars. Seminars will be used to explore the topics introduced through the lectures in greater breadth and depth, including through student-led work. We will examine some of the major schools of historical thought and their impact on the practice of history as an academic discipline. We will look in detail at some of the most influential writers of and commentators on the subject, its role, meaning and value.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Coursework

• Description: Group presentation (3000 words equiv)

• % Weighting: 60

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Coursework

• Description: Individual Commentary (1500 words)

• % Weighting: 40