Approaches to Historical Research * Course Code: HI7106 * Module Title: Approaches to

Historical Research * Weighting: 10 ECTS * Co-Ordinator: Dr. Joseph Clarke * Teaching Staff: Team-Taught

Course Overview and Aims: This course introduces students to debates concerning the sources historians encounter in their research, the interpretative problems they may pose and the methods historians use to interpret them. The course is designed to encourage students to reflect critically on the nature of primary sources, to problematise the ways that historians interpret them and to challenge students’ preconceptions concerning the research process. The course is taught by historians from throughout the department in order to introduce students to the variety of sources, methodologies and theoretical approaches currently employed in historical scholarship. Working Methods: The course consists of a series of weekly lectures and seminar discussions where students are encouraged to discuss and develop the themes introduced in that week’s lecture. Students are required to attend all lectures and seminars and submit a research-based essay. Syllabus: Each week, students are introduced to a variety of themes, issues and problems related to the research process. In the current academic year, the weekly programme is as follows: Michaelmas Term

1 Introduction to the Course 2 Academic writing, bibliographies and references 3 Note-taking and organising your research 4 An Introduction to Printed Sources 5 Administrative sources and official papers 6 Legal sources 7 Newspapers, handbills and pamphlets 8 Landscape as a source 9 Private papers, diaries and correspondence

Hilary Term

1 Visual Sources 2 Film and Television 3 Oral History Sources 4 Literary Sources 5 Cartography 6 Economic Records 7 Religious Records 8 Architecture and the Urban Environment as a source 9 Conclusions

Assessment: Students will be assessed on the basis of their participation in seminars and on the completion of a major research-based essay of between 2,500 and 3,000 words in length. Learning Outcomes: Students will:

• encounter researchers working in a wide variety of historical contexts and using a range of sources materials and methods.

• become familiar with the range of source materials historians use in their research and the multiplicity of methods that may employed in their analysis.

• develop a critical awareness of the interpretative problems sources materials pose and acquire insights into the theoretical and methodological challenges facing the historian.

• address issues of inter-disciplinarity in terms of historical method. • become acquainted with some of the methodological issues that have shaped the writing of

history over time.