Mapping the Past - HIS00109M

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Department: History

Module co-ordinator: Dr. Mark Roodhouse

Credit value: 10 credits

Credit level: M

Academic year of delivery: 2021-22
See module specification for other years: 2022-23

Module summary

This module provides students with an introduction to producing maps for historical purposes. It is both practical, providing technical training in digital map-making, and also theoretical, encouraging students to think about how historians should use these skills in their research. Students will encounter a wide range of different historical maps, produced for the medieval, early modern and modern periods, and will learn how to interpret them. They will gain an appreciation of the different approaches to the reconstruction, representation, and interpretation of spatial information in historical maps. And they will receive practical training in the software application ArcGIS Pro. This will enable students to create their own maps, using pre-existing historical data sources.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Spring Term 2021-22

Module aims

The module aims to:

introduce students to geographic information systems (GIS)
provide a foundation for analytical mapping in historical studies
build an understanding of some of the theoretical issues in mapping
develop familiarity with GIS software applications
facilitate students’ use of mapping methods in their own research

Module learning outcomes

At the end of this module students will be able to:

evaluate the range of ways in which historians have used maps
recognize the techniques used to produce maps
understand and interpret historical maps
use basic mapping techniques to analyse data
produce their own digital maps from pre-existing data

Module content

Teaching Programme:
Students will attend a 2-hour seminar, two 4-hour workshops and a mini-conference in the spring term.

The provisional programme is as follows

Week 1: Briefing (1 hour)

Week 2: Context/theory seminar: The spatial turn and the study of history (2 hours)

Week 3: Practical workshop I: Using maps for history (4 hours)

Week 4: Practical workshop II: Using Geographic Information Systems (4 hours)

Weeks 5-8: Independent project work

Week 8: Project Mini-Conference (3 hours)

Assessment

Task	Length	% of module mark
University - project Project Portfolio	N/A	100

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Students will submit a project portfolio in week 10 of the spring term for summative assessment comprising of a printed map and a 1000-word reflective essay.

Students will produce a map from existing historical data. In format, appearance, and intelligibility, they will be aiming for the standards demanded by maps produced for academic journals. Students will also write a reflective essay explaining briefly how they produced the map and the conceptual considerations that went into its production.

Prior to that in week 8, students will make a short presentation to the group at the mini-conference about their chosen project, the research they have undertaken, and their likely direction for the reflective essay.

Reassessment

Task	Length	% of module mark
University - project Project Portfolio	N/A	100

Module feedback

Following their formative assessment task, students will receive constructive verbal feedback from the module convenor and their peers during the mini-conference, which they can then take forward into the completion of their final project portfolio.

For their summative assessment task, students will receive written feedback within four working weeks of the submission deadline, after which the convenor will be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if necessary. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment for Taught Postgraduate Programmes.

Indicative reading

For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:

Cairo, Alberto. The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication, 263-97. [Berkeley]: New Riders, 2016.

Gregory, Ian N., and Alistair Geddes, eds. Toward Spatial Humanities: Historical GIS and Spatial History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014.

Knowles, Anne Kelly. “Historical Geographic Information Systems and Social Science History.” Social Science History 40, no. 4 (2016): 741–50.

Students may also explore the following datasets and online resources:

The World Historical GIS research guide at WU Libraries:

The Historical GIS Research Network

The Geospatial Historian

The Mapping History Project