Scottish Coal Miners: From Serfdom to Heritage Industry (P01576)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : HCA-P-P01576

This postgraduate supervised reading course has as its focus the history of coal mining in Scotland from the seventtenth century to the present day. It will focus particularly on the lives of miners and mine workers, and their families. The chronology allows a close study of the position of colliery workers as "serfs" in the early modern period, and will examine the recent revisionist work on this theme. Other topics examined include the position of women in the mining communities, sport and pastimes in mining communities, social housing and welfare societies, the role of mining in immigration to Scotland, the emigration of miners from Scotland to the New World, trade unionism, and twentieth century issues such as nationalisation, strikes [notably the 1984 strike] and the transformation of mining from a pillar of the Scottish economy to a part of the heritage sector.

Visits to the Scottish Mining Museum at Newtongrange, and Summerlee Heritage Park, Coatbridge, will be used to illustrate points made in the reading.

? Keywords : Mining Miners Coal Scotland Scottish Colliers Serfs

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Postgraduate (School of History and Classics), (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : To be arranged/Unknown

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

The principal objective of the course is to provide students with specialist knowledge and understanding of the position of the coal miner and coal mining communities in Scottish society from the early-modern period onwards. Particular aims are to examine recent "revisionist" writing surrounding collier-serfdom, and subject the idea of miners as a "race apart" to critical scrutiny. Students will examine primary material, notably newspapers and parliamentary papers, and examine the image of miners in drama, popular literature and song.

Students will emerge from the course having developed a sufficient degree of expertise in the subject to undertake a Masters dissertation.

Assessment Information

Students will be required to submit one individual essay of no less than 4,000 words and no more than 5,000 words, to be handed in on the last Monday of the semester in which the course is run. The essay mark will count as 100% of the final grade.