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Exploring the Past

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 5
  • Convenor: Dr Sean Brady
  • Assessment: a reflective exercise (0%), historiographical essay question and essay plan (0%), 2500-word historiographical essay (100%), 500-word draft dissertation proposal (0%) and 500-word dissertation proposal (0%)

Module description

During this module, we look at how scholars have discussed the past and how our ways of approaching evidence shape the stories we tell. We explore themes across periods, regions and disciplines.

In thematic lectures we examine how particular ways of viewing the past have developed over time; in seminars we explore how arguments about historiography and methodology have created the modern disciplines of history, classics and archaeology. You will learn how to:

  • use references and reviews to understand topics of interest to you
  • work with theoretical frameworks to study the past
  • situate your own work in relation to that of other scholars.

Alongside our focus on ways of thinking about the past, we also provide training in key practical areas of advanced research, such as:

  • effective referencing
  • identification and interrogation of evidence in secondary literature
  • structuring extended academic writing.

Indicative syllabus

Part one

  • What is historiography? How do we write historiographically?
  • History from below
  • Bridging disciplines
  • Situating ourselves
  • The past in the present; the history of the future

Part two

  • What is a dissertation in archaeology, classics and/or history?
  • Planning a BA dissertation
  • Archives: What are they? Where are they?
  • Archives and beyond: digital history and dissertation research in archaeology, classics and history
  • What is a primary source in archaeology, classics or history research?
  • Primary source analysis workshop
  • The dissertation proposal: What is your area of research?
  • Who is your academic supervisor?
  • The significance of secondary literature/historiography in your dissertation
  • Session with Aidan Smith, Subject Librarian: databases and resources for research

Learning objectives

By the end of the module, you should be able to:

  • identify and describe a range of historical debates
  • evaluate evidence and arguments presented by other scholars in a range of periods
  • write an extended piece semi-independently
  • reference and create a bibliography.