‘Real World’ Humanities - IHY00001I

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Module summary

This module considers a common distinction between academic study in the humanities and the so-called ‘real world’. We’ll look at ways that humanities scholars are expected to demonstrate the value of their academic research, skills, and critical thinking outside academia, through various notions of external engagement, knowledge exchange, and wider impact. We will consider innovative approaches to community-based research, practice-based research, and scholar-activism that attempt to bridge a perceived historical divide between the ‘ivory tower’ of academia and the wider public. In practical terms, we will consider how these perceived divisions between the humanities and the ‘real world’ have changed the way scholarship is conducted and disseminated, often in response to challenges around access and diversity.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2026-27

Module aims

This module aims to:

• provide a critical overview of key issues around external engagement and community applications of humanities scholarship;
• promote skills and methods for engaging communities in humanities research;
• build proficiency for developing interdisciplinary research projects that respond to local and global challenges.

Module learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an informed understanding of key ideas and challenges regarding the relationship between humanities scholarship and wider communities.
2. Demonstrate an informed understanding and application of key frameworks and ethical considerations regarding external engagement.
3. Examine critical and creative methods for disseminating humanities research.
4. Develop a distinctive research intervention that responds to the challenges of community engagement.

Module content

This module will be run with input from the university’s Careers & Placement Team and visiting speakers from the local community and various industries. Interactive lecture sessions with tutors and guests will provide example applications for Humanities research, as students use seminar sessions to develop team research projects which employ new strategies for outreach, external engagement, and ethical impact. These projects will provide a practical frame for revisiting debates about the value of humanities scholarship from Year 1 and a basis for individual dissertation projects in the final year of the degree.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Groupwork	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Groupwork	100.0

Module feedback

Students will receive oral and written feedback on formative work throughout the module, and written feedback on the summative assessment.

Indicative reading

• eds. Casey Burkholder, Funké Aladejebi, and Joshua Schwab-Cartas, Facilitating Community Research for Social Change: Case Studies in Qualitative, Arts-Based and Visual Research (Routledge, 2022).
• Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Jennifer C. Franco, Scholar-Activism and Land Struggles (Practical Action Publishing, 2023).
• AHRC Place-Based Research Programme Report, Developing a People-Centred, Place-Led Approach: The Value of the Arts and Humanities (Glasgow University, 2023).
• A University for the Public Good (University of York, 2021).