HIS6702 - Special Subject 1

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Demonstrate detailed knowledge of a specific period
Demonstrate an understanding of the limitations and advantages of the major primary sources and an ability to use those sources to build and support their own arguments
Demonstrate an understanding of the differing arguments of historians on key themes and a critical awareness of the current nature of historical debate
Demonstrate the ability to assess the validity of competing explanations for events and actions
Synthesise, organise and present knowledge and understanding in written form, using the appropriate historical apparatus

Content:

Special subject topics vary year on year based on staff expertise and research. An example of such a topic is set out below, (with appropriate reading set out in Learning Resources), other topics currently available, based on staff research expertise are: Representations of the Middles Ages 1750-1900, Votes for Women 1866-1919, Women in British Society 1500-1700. Normally two special subject topics will be run each academic year, e.g. Women in British Society 1500-1700, and Victorian Countryside, (having attended a meeting about the options, students select one topic; they may not get their first choice as it is important to maintain comparable groups sizes for equity, but every attempt is made to facilitate this, and they are taught in the same way).

Victorian Countryside
The rural population in the Victorian Countryside is examined, with students initially acquiring a context and an understanding of the issues involved. The rise and fall of British agriculture (the repeal of the Corns Law, the period of High farming and the Depression), and the repercussions of these changes on the countryside and its people are charted and considered. Students look at the experience of labourers, farmers, landowners and the changes and continuities experienced by the communities in which they lived, from the Agricultural Revolution to the First World War. Issues such as: changing work practices, the embourgeoisment of the farmers and their families, and representations of the countryside in art and literature, including its use as a site of leisure, are discussed. Votes for Women 1866-1919

This topic concentrates upon the campaign for women's franchise in Britain. It commences with an overview of the women's campaign and its wider social and political context for the entire period, asking the question why the women's claims were so contentious. The organisation and methods of both non militant and militant groups are then considered in more detail during the periods 1866 1907, and 1907-1919 as well as the position of the various political parties and parliament. Other factors in why the vote was won, including the franchise factor', changing attitudes towards women, and women and the war, are assessed in the final section.

Representations of the Middle Ages 1750-1900
This topic will examine eighteenth and nineteenth-century representations of the Middle Ages through a variety of media: Pre-Raphaelite paintings and Gothic Revival architecture; Gothic and historical novels; romantic poetry; social commentaries; and historical publications. Students will trace and critique the traditional trajectory from Enlightenment rejections of the Middle Ages as a time of barbarism, ignorance, and superstition to the Victorian reinterpretation of the medieval period as an age of romance and chivalry, social order or community, religious faith and artistic authenticity. They will examine how valid this interpretation is, and explore a range of different uses of the medieval pasts - from the Anglo-Saxon period to the fifteenth-century - to express personal crises, religious convictions, political opinions from Tory to Marxist, concern about gender roles, and social and cultural ideals and aspirations.

Women in British Society 1500-1700
Topic outline: The important roles held by women in past societies have often been submerged by the more traditional approach of political, religious and economic history. In order to recover the early modern female past it is necessary to study women's place in social history and particularly how they were treated by men, other women and the legislation or conventions of their times. This special subject will look at the role of women in British society with emphasis on their public and private worlds. The approach will be thematic and will include detailed study of themes such as women's role in society, marriage, childbirth, religion, politics, the civil wars and interregnum, education and culture, women and work, crime and witchcraft.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Learning is supported through small group-work seminars and student presentations, including individual weekly document analysis based on assigned reading and written reporting, and weekly individual written reporting on the historiography for the topic, plus a field visit and one 20-minute tutorial in support of the coursework essay.

Seminars and tutorials
Contact hours: 75
Intended Group size: 12

Field visit
Contact hours: 5
Intended group size: 12

Guided independent study
Contact hours: 320

Further details relating to assessment
Note: Special Subject = 20 + 20 credits = 100% + 100%. In order for two separate awards of 20 credits to be given the above assessment is divided the following way:
HIS6702 - Assessment (20 credits): Essay (50%) and seen source analysis (50%) HIS6712 - Assessment (20 credits): 3 hour unseen paper (100%) SSA
Students receive detailed guidance for this assignment, which entails in-depth analysis of two primary sources/extracts of primary sources. Those sources might be qualitative (social commentary, a letter from a union organiser, an autobiography, specialist press report, a ballad, a hymn, an extract from a Parliamentary Paper, a piece of art or illustration etc.), or quantitative (census data re occupation figures, tabulated material on outputs, tithe returns, land rates, acreages, official figures on Church attendance, information about the money spent by the poor on their diet etc.) - in some cases, photographic reproductions of material objects or architecture sites may be appropriate. Both sources/extracts are framed by the same question, e.g. 'Assess the value of this source for the historian of the Victorian countryside'. The students must complete the work in a short time frame (one calendar week), as a take home exam.
Broadly, in answering both parts of the SSA students should demonstrate their ability to:
a) identify the elements of value in the extract;
b) evaluate extracts in terms of reliability for a historian;
c) relate the value of this extract to other forms of evidence;
d) relate extract to historians' arguments.
They should also demonstrate a contextual knowledge.

Essay
The essay question provided on this module requires students to think about the primary sources, and all students receive a single question, for example, for the Victorian Countryside the question might be:
To what extent does Victorian social investigation enable the historian to determine the degree to which the living conditions of the agricultural labourer improved c. 1830 - c. 1914? (You may concentrate on the sources relating to one county.)
The following points are supplied for guidance to students on the coursework essay for the Special Subject. In order to answer the question fully they will need to:
- Identify the range of sources relevant to the topic (if these have not already been identified for you)
- Identify the strengths and weaknesses of those sources
- Identify and assess which sources are the most useful for investigating the topic
- Identify those elements of the investigation which cannot be fully answered/understood because of gaps or problems with the sources.
Students are supported in planning this via a 20-minute individual tutorial.

Exam
The exam is of three hours' duration, and students are normally given 6-7 questions of which they answer 3. These are discursive questions and exam conditions are unseen. The teaching advise students that they should produce:
1. A clear line of argument focused on the question.
2. Argument supported by appropriate evidence from primary sources.
3. Reference to historiography where appropriate.
4. A clear structure and fluent style.

Assessment:

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Prof. Karen Sayer
Level - 6
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - TAKEN WITH HIS6712
Semester(s) Offered -

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