St Jerome writing

Making Histories

Convenor: Helen Cowie

Module code: HIS00001C

Term: Autumn

This module is designed to introduce students to the skills required for studying history at degree level and the methods and approaches that inform historical practice. The module will help students to develop core skills such as: bibliographical research; note-taking; critical reading and source analysis; essay writing; surveying historical debates (that is, presenting historiographies); and oral, as well as written, presentation skills.

Students will have the opportunity to apply these techniques and to develop their independent research skills by researching, presenting and writing-up a York-related historical case study which they will select from a series of suggested topics.  The themes and locations of the different topics will also be explored during a guided walking tour. The case studies will introduce students to the variety of sources used by historians – material, visual and textual – and encourage them to make connections between the specific case studies and broader historical questions, perspectives and themes.

The module will be taught through nine lectures and nine two-hour seminars in weeks 2-10 of the autumn term.

Lecture topics may include:

  • Studying history
  • Historians at York
  • Historical Evidence
  • Scholarship
  • Historical Fields
  • Presenting History
  • Writing History I
  • Writing History II

 

To find out more

You might like to look at the following:

  • Arnold, John. A Very Short Introduction to History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Bentley, Michael. A Companion to Historiography. London: Routledge, 1997.
  • Cooper, Geoffrey. The Intelligent Student's Guide to Learning at University. Altona, Victoria: Common Ground Publishing, 2003.

 

For more detailed information on the module, please visit the module catalogue.