2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

HIST1817 Skills and Concepts in International History

20 creditsClass Size: 96

Module manager: Dr Rachel Utley
Email: R.E.Utley@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This module introduces students to the main skills and approaches for studying international history successfully, supporting your transition to University and to undergraduate-level study. Working from a core text, you will explore how international historians work, how to engage analytically with their work, and how to formulate and develop your own interpretations, arguments and analyses of historical themes, periods and concepts.

Objectives

To enable students to acquire and develop the basic skills and familiarise themselves with the core concepts required for the study of international history at undergraduate level.

Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Effectively identify historians’ arguments and examine the foundations of their case
2. Distinguish historians’ methods, and critically assess them
3. Investigate the wider historiographical context and concepts within which a particular body of work is situated
4. Construct your own arguments and analyses in response to particular historical problems
5. Successfully apply fundamental standards and practices of historical study for research, discussion and assessed work, including the importance of inclusive and diverse approaches to the study of international history

Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
6. Build capacity for independent and self-directed study at University, developing good time-management and organisational skills to fulfil module commitments and deliver work on time
7. Engage constructively with the ideas of peers, tutors and published sources, and different cultural contexts
8. Locate and evaluate relevant information and sources in libraries, archives and online environments
9. Employ analytical and problem-solving skills, communicating complex ideas and arguments effectively, in a range of ways
10. Develop proficiency in the use of required presentation and referencing styles

Syllabus

Students will read closely one or more pieces of historical writing in order to investigate the intellectual method and approach of the historian, including the use of evidence; the literacy construction of history; and the purposes and functions of history. Students will learn to read critically, develop good practice in the compilation of bibliographies and footnotes, develop effective approaches to studying and learning, make oral presentations, and design and write essays.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Seminar	10	1.50	15.00
Private study hours			185.00
Total Contact hours			15.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will receive written feedback on a 300-word article review (due in week 4), allowing students to put into practice the historiographical and evaluative skills developed from the start of the semester.
This will comprise formative work for the evaluative bibliographic assessment due in week 7.

The bibliographic assessment will assist in the preparation of the second summative assessment, an essay, due in week 11. It will facilitate the identification and acquisition of an appropriate research base for the essay, allow historiographical and evaluative skills to be further developed, and will encourage students to be organised and manage their time effectively with regard to assessment deadlines.

Contributions to seminar discussion will provide regular opportunities to offer formative feedback on student progress.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Assignment	A bibliographic exercise with additional 1000-word evaluative component	40.00
Essay	A 2000-word assessed essay of the student’s choice, from a range provided by the tutor (with an additional option for students to set their own question)	60.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

The details of the first summative assessment will be available in week 1 of the semester, for submission on Monday of week 7 The titles available for the second summative assessment (as well as the process for students to set their own) will be available in week 1 of the semester, for submission on Friday of week 11

Reading list

There is no reading list for this module

Last updated: 26/02/2024

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