Unit information: Global History in 2020/21

Unit name	Global History
Unit code	HIST20112
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Rob Skinner
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit offers an introduction to the central topics and debates in the vibrant field of global history. Starting from the medieval era and coming up to the contemporary age, this unit traces the various ways in which the world was, and continues, to be connected, and how historians have engaged with these developments. This emergent field of history considers the possibilities, tensions, and limits of a global perspective on the past. It engages with key concepts such as networks, globalisation, colonialism, migration, and collaboration, and with social, political, economic, and environmental themes - from nationalism, internationalism, and humanitarianism to port-cities, frontiers, and borderlands.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate the ability to understand and apply effectively key historical concepts in global history;
2. Evaluate the development of globalisation as a concept;
3. Analyse how historians have approached the writing and research of global history;
4. Select pertinent evidence/data in order to illustrate/demonstrate more general historical; points appropriate to level I/5;
5. Identify a particular academic interpretation, evaluate it critically and form an individual viewpoint.

Teaching Information

Classes will involve a combination of long- and short-form lectures, class discussion, investigative activities, and practical activities. Students will be expected to engage with readings and participate on a weekly basis. This will be further supported with drop-in sessions and self-directed exercises with tutor and peer feedback.

Assessment Information

1 x Timed Assessment (100%) [ILOs 1-5]; 1 x Formative Timed Assessment [ILOs 1-5]

Reading and References

Maxine Berg (ed.), Writing the History of the Global: Challenges for the Twenty-First Century (Oxford University Press, 2013)

Antoinette Burton and Tony Ballantyne (eds), World History From Below: disruption and dissent, 1750 to the present (Bloomsbury, 2016)

A.G. Hopkins (ed.), Global History: Interactions between the universal and the local (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

Bruce Mazlish and Akira Iriye (eds), The Global History Reader (Routledge, 2005)