Unit information: Approaching the Past in 2013/14

Unit name	Approaching the Past
Unit code	HIST13015
Credit points	20
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Jones
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

In this unit we will be introducing you to some key skills that will carry through your degree, and in some cases into the world of work. But perhaps the most important aim of the unit is to encourage you to read, write and think as an historian or art historian and to introduce you to the challenges and the excitement of actually exploring the past yourself. This unit will be constructed by a series of lectures and workshops. Everyone attends the lectures, which amount to 18 in total, and are held twice a week from Week 1 to Week 8. You are then divided into smaller groups, and will attend a total of 6 workshops, held every fortnight from Week 1 to Week 12. By the end of the unit you should understand what is distinctive about the study of history and art history, understand the difference between the study at undergraduate level and at A-level, and understand why historians and art historians study the past in the ways they do. You should also be able to reflect upon the complex relationship between evidence and interpretation, and to think about the nature of academic debate.

Aims:

This unit is designed to prepare students for degree-level study in history and art history by equipping them with the skills they will need. It focuses upon fostering the practical skills required by those studying both history and art history, and upon developing students' sense of what being a historian or art historian involves. It thus aims to introduce students to the challenges and the excitement of researching the past.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit students should be equipped to:

• distil information and ideas presented verbally into notes

• extract key material from written sources

• comprehend the purpose and practices of referencing

• understand what constitutes plagiarism

• plan their reading and writing

• identify the debates that underpin essay /exam questions

• work together in a group on a short project

• provide a basic presentation to a group of students and assessors

• understand the difference between narrative and argument

• distinguish between description and explanation

• structure effectively an historical argument

• use effectively library catalogues and electronic resources (eg, RHS bibliography, ARTstor)

• use basic word-processing and spreadsheet software

• reflect upon the differences between various kinds of sources

• evaluate critically the worth of different kinds of sources

• deploy critically evidence to support historical argument

• evaluate and use critically simple quantitative data

• comprehend the relationship between questions and sources

• analyse how and why historians disagree

• understand differences in source usage between historians and art historians

• reflect critically upon the practices and politics of representing history and art history.

They will also have begun to develop their ability to:

• understand the relationship between theory and practice in the writing of history and art history

• apply higher-order technical skills of source criticism

• deploy intermediate quantitative techniques

• consider critically the nature of explanation in history and art history

• consider critically how historical fields develop (eg to address issues of periodisation)

• consider critically how historians choose the spatial units and periods about which they write (e.g. nation-state, the renaissance).

Teaching Information

• 16 1-hour lectures

• 6 x fortnightly workshops (1 hour)

• IT Skills assessment followed by at least one IT Training Course offered via COBS

• Access to tutorial consultation with unit tutor(s)

Assessment Information

Formative:

• Completion of online IT skills assessment (students are required to take this in order to complete the unit)

• Online library skills test (students are required to take this in order to complete the unit)

• Plagiarism test (students are required to pass this in order to complete the unit)

Summative:

• 1 x 1000-word exercise / essay (60%)

• 1 x group-project presentation (30%)

• 1 x short computing-skills course provided by Computing Services (10%).

Reading and References

J. Arnold, History: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2000)

L. Jordanova, History in Practice [2nd edn.] (Hodder Arnold, 2006).

A. Munslow, The Routledge Companion to Historical Studies (Routledge, 2006).

J. Tosh, Historians on History (Pearson Longman, 2000).

J. Tosh, The Pursuit of History [4th edn.] (Pearson Longman, 2002).