History

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr Alex Sutherland

Pre-requisites

Programme Year 5 or above

Overview

The course begins with a discussion of sources, with particular references to the strengths and weaknesses of journals, letters, and oral testimony. It examines primary and secondary source material. It goes on to examine themes such as folk medicine: the role of healers trained in the classical medical tradition, the impact of university trained doctors; changes to doctor-patient relations, the transiton from 'simples' to patent medicine; the social. medical and religious responses to epidemic diseases such as smallpox, the influence of warfare and 'improvement' on the health of the indigenous population.

Structure

10 x 90 - minute siminars

Assessment

Continuous Assessment (100%): 1 x 3000 - word essay (80%); 1 x 1000 - word book review (20%)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr Alex Spelling

Pre-requisites

Programme Year 5 or above

Overview

This course will study the origins, workings and development of the US-UK ‘special relationship’ in the decades since WW2. It will examine the shared interests and conflicts that have arisen in the intervening decades and the relationship’s place in the international firmament.
Particular focus will be given to the personal element of the dynamic, such as Prime Ministerial-Presidential relationships and joint international endeavours. In addition, the more ‘unseen’ bureaucratic, financial, military, scientific and intelligence cooperation will be explored, as well as interpretative issues concerning the relationship’s benefits and validity in the Cold War and post-Cold War worlds.
Was the relationship merely a dependent one for the UK as its power and influence steadily waned after 1945? What has been its function for the US? Has it prevented greater British integration with Europe and affected US-European relations? Why has it proved enduring despite being challenged and ‘written off’ on a number of occasions?

Structure

8 two-hour seminars

Assessment

Continuous assessment: 4000 word paper – 80%; presentation – 10%; book review 10%

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr Sarah Thomas

Pre-requisites

Programme Year 5 or above

Overview

This course will study Scandinavians in Scotland and Ireland from the ninth to the eleventh centuries. It will examine how Scandinavians interacted with local populations in Scotland and Ireland both from a historical and archaeological perspective. The key themes of the course will be: alliances and warfare, encounters with Christianity and Christianisation, settlement and resource management (farming and fishing), trade and the growth of towns.
It will encourage students to critically analyse the historical sources in the light of the archaeological, place-name and runic material. It will engage students with the major historiographical debates: for example ‘the war or peace’ debate, the role of the Vikings in the creation of the kingdom of Alba and the impact of the Vikings on Irish politics.

Structure

8 two-hour seminars

Assessment

Continuous assessment: 4000 word paper - 60 per cent, presentation with powerpoint – 10%, 1000 word report on presentation topic with powerpoint slides – 30%

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor David Dumville

Pre-requisites

N/A

Overview

The course is devoted to historiography’s development (by no means a straightforwardly linear process) over a period of approximately two millennia. It is precisely the variety of forms, the modes of their interaction, external stimuli, ideological imperatives, and the impact of individual societies which we need to investigate in order to appreciate the forces at work in the production of historical writing.

Structure

2 one-hour seminars per week for ten weeks

Assessment

Class participation (10%), a bibliography on each topic covered (30%), an essay of 3,000 words (60%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr Tony Heywood

Pre-requisites

None.

Co-requisites

Either HI5053 Introduction to Historical Research.

Notes

Overview

Why did the Russian empire succumb to revolution in 1917? This fundamental question of twentieth-century history is explored through analysis of key debates concerning the empire's final crisis. The course makes particular reference to the impacts of the 1905 revolution and the First World War. It encompasses foreign policy as well as the domestic situation, and includes extended discussion of selected prominent individuals such as Tsar Nicholas II and Petr Stolypin (Prime Minister, 1906-11)

Structure

8 x 2-hour seminars

Assessment

100% Continuous Assessment: 1 x 3000 word essay (70%); 2 x 500 word book review (30%).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

TBC.

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in year 5

Co-requisites

HI5053 Introduction to Historical Research

Notes

Overview

This course uses a selection of specialised studies of key historical episodes in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Ireland to highlight: (a) the emergence and development of constitutional, cultural and militant nationalism; (b) the emergence and development of constitutional and militant unionism; (c) the changing nature of Anglo-Irish relations.

Structure

10 x 2-hour seminars

Assessment

Continuous Assessment (100%) 60% - 3,000 word essay; 30% - 1,500 word seminar paper; 10% - 500 word book review

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

TBC.

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in year 5

Co-requisites

Either HI5053 Introduction to Historical Research or EL5013 Research Methods in Language and Linguistics

Notes

Overview

This course examines developments in Ireland, both North and South of the border, from the outbreak of the Troubles in 1968 until the signing of the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998. The first half of the course focuses on competing political interpretations (Unionist, Loyalist, Nationalist, Republican and Marxist etc), and the interrelationship between Ireland, Scotland, England, Europe and the US. The second half of the course concentrates on how poets, novelists and visual artists have responded to the Troubles. Focusing on key events (Bloody Sunday, the Hunger Strikes, the Anglo-Irish Agreements), this half of the course looks at the use (and abuse) of history as a representational strategy, identity politics, and the role of the artist in a divided society.

Structure

10 x 2-hour seminars

Assessment

Continuous Assessment (100%)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr Karin Friedrich and Dr Michael Brown

Pre-requisites

None.

Co-requisites

HI5053 Introduction to Historical Research or CU5004 Approaches to Culture

Notes

Overview

This course examines the emergence and the variations of Enlightenment thinking in Scotland and Central Europe (with particular emphasis on the German and East Central European Enlightenment, to which the Scottish Enlightenment had strong historical links). It emphasises the varieties of the European Enlightenment, against the traditional assumption that the Enlightenment was exclusively 'located' in France. It looks at the definition and the shaping of Enlightenment thought and practice (learned societies, reading clubs, social reform movements, education, freemasonry etc) at the 'peripheries' of an allegedly French-dominated Enlightenment culture (recently re-affirmed by Robert Darnton) by comparing and contrasting various theoretical and practical strands. It invites students to think critically about historiographical debates and to develop skills in using, speaking and writing about theoretical concepts in a clear, comprehensible manner. Seminar topics will focus on major figures and personalities of the Scottish and European Enlightenment, on 'The Catholic Enlightenment', on Enlightenment in practice, 'Enlightenment as Secularisation?', and other themes.

Structure

8 x 2-hour classes

Assessment

100% Continuous Assessment: 1 x 2500 word essay (60%); 1 x 1500 word comparative review (40%).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr Clare Downham

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

HI5053 Introduction to Historical Research

Notes

Overview

This is an interdisciplinary study of the turbulent Viking Age, and of the impact that the aggressive clash as well as the more peaceful contact between cultures had on British and Irish society. The course will be themed by region looking at Vikings' relations with the Anglo-Saxons, Gaels, Britons and Picts up to the reign of Cnut (d.1035). Special attention will be given to the development of Viking colonial identity and the cultural and religious influences which Britain and Ireland brought to Scandinavia and Iceland.

Structure

10 x 2-hour seminars

Assessment

1 x 5,000-word essay (100%)

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Prof. Mario Biagioli

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 5

Co-requisites

HI5053 Introduction to Historical Research.

Notes

Overview

This course examines some of the many aspects of the so-called “scientific revolution” across disciplines and national boundaries, paying considerable attention to its intellectual, institutional, religious, gender, material, and methodological dimensions. It covers the work of canonical figures such as Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton, but also patronage dynamics, the place of science at court, the relationship between science and humanism, the emergence of museums and academies, the sites of scientific practice, networks of communication, material culture, the role of artisans, women, and instrument makers, and the development of scientific publications.

Structure

10 x 2-hour classes

Assessment

Continuous assessment 100% (5,000-word essay – 100%)

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr Gregory Smithers

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 5 or above.

Co-requisites

HI5053: Introduction to Historical Research.

Notes

Overview

This course explores why and how the British Government decided to establish a colony in Australia, and it examines the issues of gender and racial formation in colonial society. The course will focus on: the rationale for settlement; convict life; encounters with Aborigines; female workhouses and the 'problem' of prostitution; missionaries; self-government; the Gold Rush and Chinese immigration; the development of Australian nationalism; federation; the 'white Australia policy'.

Structure

Ten 2-hour seminars (to be arranged).

Assessment

Continuous assessment (100%) - 1 x 3,000 word essay (60%), 1 x 2,000 word annotated bibliography (40%).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr Andrew Dilley

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 5 or above.

Co-requisites

HI5053: Introduction to Historical Research.

Notes

Overview

After an initial introductory session, the course will involve an examination of both secondary material and, where possible, relevant primary texts. Broadly the first half of the course will focus more upon the period c1850-1914, while the second will move on to consider broader parallels and the interwar years. Weekly reading will focus upon broad themes in Anglo-Dominion relations, while as the course progresses students will develop an increasing appreciation of the ways in which these themes interrelate and evolved, drawing out the full complexity of the processes underlying an important historical relationship.

Structure

Ten 2-hour seminars.

Assessment

Continuous assessment: essay (70%), and comparative review (30%).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr Jackson Armstrong

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 5 or above.

Notes

Overview

The lay ruling elite in late medieval England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland was a diverse group numbering well into the tens of thousands, but one which shared a personal stake in the governance of society. They also shared common cultural aspects, chiefly participation in chivalric and courtly life. This course seeks to explore the contours of their elite culture. This includes themes of linguistic and ethnic diversity, education, literacy, personal piety and relations with the church, recreation and patronage of arts, literature and music, and the significance of knighthood, heraldry and pageantry. It also takes in political culture and the different nature of their roles in various parts of the British Isles. It will search for the links among various sub-groups in the Isles, and abroad to Continental Europe.

Structure

10 two-hour seminars.

Assessment

Continuous assessment (100%)

Credit Points

10

Course Coordinator

Professor Jane Stevenson

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 5

Co-requisites

None

Notes

Overview

Students will be trained in skills and techniques for reading a range of medieval and early modern manuscripts. Elements of the course will be tailored to the chronological and generic interests of individual students.

Students will become familiar with:

- major developments in script history
- different styles of handwriting
- commonly used abbreviations and contractions
- the terminology used to describe script forms and styles

They will be able to read a range of vernacular manuscripts relevant to their field of interest.

Session 1: Palaeography: Theory and Method.
Sessions 2 - 20: Transcription of a series of manuscripts, with weekly homework exercises.

Structure

2 x 1-hour seminars per week for 10 weeks.

Assessment

Continuous assessment (100%: 8 transcription exercises, 12.5% each).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Professor Allan Macinnes

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in year 5

Co-requisites

None

Overview

Jacobitism was a major factor in Scottish politics for almost six decades after the deposition of James VII in 1689, yet appears to have diminished in Ireland as a military and political force during the 1690s. However, Ireland retained a cultural vibrancy and optimism with regard to Jacobitism which was viewed increasingly pessimistically, even fatalistically, in Scotland. This course examines the apparent paradox of Jacobitism as a national endeavour in both countries. Use will be made of Gaelic as well as English sources to establish whether Jacobitism attained the status of a movement in Scotland while remaining a cause in Ireland. Particular reference will be made to the rich collection of Jacobite materials in Special Collections and the Library.

Structure

10 x 2-hour seminars

Assessment

Continuous assessment (100%)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr Tom Nichols and Dr Andrew Gordon

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 5

Co-requisites

None

Notes

Overview

This course will provide students with an introduction to, overview of, and engagement with, the key skills necessary to conduct historical research at a graduate level. In particular the course will focus on certain specific issues especially relevant for writing generally and dissertation preparation specifically: historiography; source-handling; analysis; construction of arguments; synthesis of ideas.

Structure

6 x 2-hour seminars

Assessment

Continuous assessment 100%.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Frederick Pedersen

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in year 5

Co-requisites

None

Notes

Overview

This course is intended for students with a knowledge of basic Latin grammar and vocabulary. The courses introduces the student to reading, understanding and translating simple medieval and classical Latin texts. The course will take the form of a series of lectures, seminars and tutorials in which we read and discuss Latin texts chosen to illustrate the use of grammar and the importance of grammatical analysis in the study of Latin. In addition to grammatical and syntactical analysis, students will be invited to contemplate the difference between medieval and classical Latin.

Structure

4 hours per week for 7.5 or 8 weeks.

Assessment

Exam (100%) - 1 three-hour written exam

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr Ben Marsden and Dr Guido Bacciagaluppi

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 5 or above.

Overview

This course will provide students with an introduction to, overview of, and engagement with, the key skills necessary to conduct research at a graduate level in the history and philosophy of science. In particular the course will focus on specific issues especially relevant for writing generally and dissertation preparation specifically: historiography; source-handling; analysis; construction of arguments; synthesis of ideas.

Structure

8 x 2-hour seminars.

Assessment

100% Continuous Assessment: 1 x 1000 word initial topic proposal (30%); 1 x 1500 word methodoligical or historiographic review (35%); 1 x 1500 word dissertation outline (35%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor D. N. Dunville

Pre-requisites

Palaeography I

Co-requisites

None

Notes

Overview

1) Practical work with prescription specimens with weekly homework exercises.
2) Practical work with manuscripts held by Aberdeen University Library, with a physical description to be written.
3) Study of script-history

Structure

2 one-hour classes per week

Assessment

one two-hour written exam (50%) continuous assessment (50%) consisting of weekly transcription exercises (25%) and physical description of an MS (25%)

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr Aly Macdonald

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 5

Co-requisites

none

Notes

Overview

This course seeks to examine, by the use of a range of source materials, the relationship between war and society in medieval Scotland. Students will be invited to consider whether war acted as a significant agent of change in medieval Scotland and what the organisation and conduct of warfare tells us about the nature of Scottish government. The relationship between war and senses of identity will be explored, as will the impact of frequent war in the Scottish borders. Martial and chivalric culture will be examined; so will the impact of war on normally non-combatant groups such as women and the clergy. These themes will be considered in the light of recent international research into medieval war and society.

Structure

10 x 2 hour seminars

Assessment

Continuous assessment 100% (3,000 word essay 60%; 1,000 word book review 20%; 1,000 word primary source evaluation 20%)

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Prof. Robert Frost

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 5

Co-requisites

HI 5053

Notes

Overview

This course will examine a social group long condemned as declining and decaying in the modern age but which recent research has increasingly revealed as a dynamic force in Europe throughout the early modern period and long after the French Revolution. The landed elites of Europe faced new challenges in the early modern period, from above in the shape of the state, and from below in the shape of challenges from new and larger urban elites, and from an increasingly diversified rural society. Yet across the continent, nobilities and nobles adjusted with some success to the challenges of the period, and the eighteenth century was something of a golden age. This course will examine concepts of nobility and the social position of the British and European landowning elites of the early modern period, beginning with the refinement of the nature of nobility in the Renaissance, and ending with the fundamental changes unleashed by the Enlightenment and French Revolution. It looks at an order which, across the continent, differed widely in composition and juridical position, and is conceived as thematic and comparative. It will explore the great diversity of the landed and noble elites of Europe, looking at their economic base, their corporate identity and self-image, their ideology and political activity, their cultural life and their interaction with other social groups.

Structure

10 x 2-hour classes

Assessment

Continuous assessment 100% (one 5,000-word essay – 100%)

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr Michael Brown

Pre-requisites

none

Co-requisites

HI5053 Introduction to Historical Research

Notes

Overview

This course examines the origins of Irish nationalism, culminating in the Young Irelanders of the 1840s. It uncovers how the Enlightenment relates to the age of ideologies, and how nationalist movements emerged in the 19th century. It provides a case study of emergent European nationalist ideologies and interrogates the validity of theoretical models for nationalism. It invites students to think critically about historiographical debates and concepts. Seminar topics include 'Colonial nationalism', Jonathan Swift, the antiquarian movement and the 1798 Rebellion. Underpinning these are current theoretical debates conducted by Benedict Anderson, Ernst Gellner, Adrian Hastings and Anthony D. Smith, among others.

Structure

10 x 2-hour seminars

Assessment

1 x 5,000-word essay (100%)

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Prof David Dumville

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

HI5053 Introduction to Historical Research

Notes

Overview

This course focuses on the changing nature (in genre and approach) of historiography over time and the culturally specific nature of the activity. It looks at the very different kinds of evidence presented by historical writing, and the different types of qustions asked in historical writing.

Structure

20 x 1-hour seminars (2 per week for 10 weeks)

Assessment

1 x 5000-word essay (100%)

Credit Points

10

Course Coordinator

Prof. Stefan Brink

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 5

Co-requisites

None

Notes

Overview

The Germanic languages have an obvious common background, which can be seen by the runic inscription in the Germanic (Old) Futhark. The course will discuss the development and the splitting up of the Proto-Germanic language into the West-, East- and North Germanic dialects. The comparative method will be discussed, and also the role of etymology, for our understanding and reconstruction of an earlier past.

Structure

Five 2-hour classes

Assessment

Continuous assessment 100% (two language exercises)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr Tarrin Wills / Professor Stefan Brink

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 5

Co-requisites

None

Notes

Overview

This course provides students with a basic knowledge of two sources that are very important for early Scandinavia, namely the runes and the place names. They are important because we more or less lack written sources. Students will gain a basic insight into runology and toponymy, and will be presented with the latest positions in research in these fields.

Structure

10 x 1.5-hour classes

Assessment

Database and source exercise (25%); 3000 word essay or edition of an inscription/study of a place name - 2000 words (75%).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

TBC.

Pre-requisites

HI5053 Introduction to Historical Research

Co-requisites

None

Notes

Overview

This module explores the theoretical and methodological implications of varying historical approaches to studying the people of the past. It introduces students to the changing fortunes of the historical actor within the historical project, and to key historiographical debates, such as the value of a materialist or a discursive approach to historical enquiry. It examines the consequences of a growing emphasis on subjectivity, identities, and the psyche, and questions whether there is a danger that the actual men and women of history become sidelined in the shift towards discourse and mentalities. Social, cultural, quantitative and psycho-historical approaches to history will be amongst those assessed, with the strengths, limitations and implications of each being explored. Questions will include: what makes each approach distinctive? What are its sources? How might this influence the framing of research questions? How does an emphasis on representation or experience change or challenge interpretation? Can or should these approaches be combined in a more holistic fashion? Seminar topics will include: the position of historical actors in research, the rise of social history, the place of quantitative history, the challenge of cultural history, the emergence of identity-based histories of race, class and gender, the development of psychohistory and the possibilities of holistic history. The course invites students to critically engage with historiographical debates and to consider how differing approaches might shape the way that they approach primary sources, the questions they ask, and the kind of historians they become.

Structure

10 x 2-hour classes

Assessment

Continuous assessment 100% (4,000-word essay – 80%; plus two 500-word book reviews – 20%)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr A.J. Heywood

Pre-requisites

Programme Year 5 or above

Overview

This course will provide students will an introduction to, overview of, and engagement with, the key skills necessary to conduct historical research at a graduate level. In particular the course will focus on certain specific issues especially relevant for writing generally and dissertation preparation specifically: core expectations for a level 5 dissertation; formulation of the research question; assessments of the relevant literature and methodological issues; planning of the dissertation research and writing.

Structure

6 x 2-hour seminars, plus 4 individual 1-hour meetings with the respective dissertation supervisor

Assessment

Continuous Assessment (100 %):
1x dissertation review 600 words (15%)
1 x initial topic proposal 600 words (15%)
1 x literature and methodological review 1500 words (40%)
1 x final outline of proposed dissertation 1000 words (30%)

Credit Points

60

Course Coordinator

Dr K Friedrich

Pre-requisites

Either, for historical studies: HI5001 Introduction to Historical Research; HI55xx Research Preparation in Historical Studies
Or, for language and linguistic studies: EL5053 Methods of Language Research I; EL5556 Methods of Language Research II
Or, for literary studies: EL5572 Investigating Literature.

Co-requisites

HI5579 Scandinavian Studies I: Sources and Source Criticism

Overview

The course consists of one-to-one supervision with a member of staff. Students will be expected to produce a dissertation of 15,000 words.

Structure

4 X 1 hour supervision sessions in total.

Assessment

Continuous Assessment - 100%: dissertation (100%)

Credit Points

60

Course Coordinator

Dr Ben Marsden

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 5 or above.

Overview

The course consists of one-to-one supervision with a member of staff. Students will be expected to produce a dissertation of 15,000 words.

Structure

Four 1-hour supervisions.

Assessment

Continuous assessment (100%) - 15,000 word dissertation.

Credit Points

60

Course Coordinator

Dr K Friedrich

Pre-requisites

Either, for historical studies: HI5594 Research Preparation in Historical Studies
Or, for literary studies: EL5572 Investigating Literature
Or, for art historical studies: HA5001 Research Skills for Art Historians; HA5902 History of Art Dissertation I: Sources and source criticism

Overview

The course consists of one-to-one supervision with a member of staff. Students will be expected to produce a dissertation of 15,000 words.

Structure

4 X 1 hour supervision sessions in total.

Assessment

Continuous Assessment - dissertation (100%)

Credit Points

60

Course Coordinator

Dr K Friedrich

Pre-requisites

Either, for historical studies: HI5001 Introduction to Historical Research; HI55xx Research Preparation in Historical Studies
Or, for literary studies: EL5572 Investigating Literature
Or, for art historical studies: HA5001 Research Skills for Art Historians; HA5902 History of Art Dissertation I: Sources and source criticism.

Co-requisites

HI5567 Researching in the Early Modern

Overview

The course consists of one-to-one supervision with a member of staff. Students will be expected to produce a dissertation of 15,000 words.

Structure

4 x 1 hour supervision sessions in total

Assessment

Continuous assessment (100%) -dissertation

Credit Points

60

Course Coordinator

Dr K Friedrich

Pre-requisites

HI5001 Introduction to Historical Research
HI55xx Research Preparation in Historical Studies

Co-requisites

HI5568 Researching in Modern History

Overview

The course consists of one to one supervision with a member of staff. Students will be expected to produce a dissertation of 15,000 words.

Structure

Assessment

Continuous assessment 100%(Dissertation - 100%)