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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2013/2014
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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of History, Classics and Archaeology : Postgraduate (History, Classics and Archaeology)

Postgraduate Course: Historical Research: Skills and Sources (PGHC11334)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of History, Classics and Archaeology CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Course typeStandard AvailabilityAvailable to all students
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) Credits20
Home subject areaPostgraduate (History, Classics and Archaeology) Other subject areaNone
Course website None Taught in Gaelic?No
Course descriptionThis proposal revises the Graduate School's current first-semester training course in historical research for MSc students (both Taught and by Research), in line with the recommendations made by the Graduate History Training Review Group. The Group's draft report (3 Feb 2010) followed consultations with graduate students, supervisory colleagues, and an external assessor, to realise the Graduate School's avowed commitment to provide intellectual, practical, and source-based research training to meet and exceed guidelines set by the Funding Councils.

Since its selection of primary and secondary sources will be evaluated regularly (see Assessment, below), and its contributing instructors may rotate as required (see Contributions, below) this flexible yet rigorous course aims to provide the key skills-training required to produce graduate-level historical scholarship of the expected standard.

All MSc students in History are normally expected to complete this course before taking Historical Methodology during their second semester.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus?No
Course Delivery Information
Delivery period: 2013/14 Semester 1, Available to all students (SV1) Learn enabled:  Yes Quota:  None
Web Timetable Web Timetable
Course Start Date 16/09/2013
Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 174 )
Additional Notes
Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
No Exam Information
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes
This course aims to provide first-year graduate students with the key research skills that professional historians require. These include:
* The knowledge to define the primary and secondary materials appropriate to their fields of research;
* The practical skills to access these materials, on-site and/or online;
* The interpretive abilities to evaluate historical evidence and to engage critically with existing research.

Secondarily, this course will develop those transferable skills essential to conducting research and for disseminating research findings, including:
* Designing a research project at the MSc level;
* Experience with generating and presenting oral and written arguments in a range of professional academic settings (e.g. in seminars, conferences, online discussion with peers, submission of written work for assessment);
* "Hands-on" training in locating, describing, and making meaningful analytical use of primary historical documents;
* Effective use of interactive electronic materials and related technology, including bibliographical software and databases.

Upon the successful completion of this course, students will have developed a meaningful familiarity with the essential documentary resources and local and virtual repositories that enable historical research at the graduate level. These resources and repositories will include:
* The Centre for Research Collections, Main Library
* The National Library of Scotland
* The National Archives (UK) and the National Archives of Scotland
* The British Library
* The Library of Congress (Washington, DC)
* National Union Catalog of Research Collections (Library of Congress)

Students will also have generated the research and interpretive skills to prepare and submit a 3000-word paper based on a rigorous and detailed analysis of primary and secondary materials.
Assessment Information
Assessment
Students will be expected to attend the lectures, MSc Presentation Day, seminars, at least one training session, and the three pathway meetings, in addition to posting weekly contributions to the online discussions of assigned reading (see above). Posting of original research or similar material will not be required and will not be assessed for credit.

The final numerical grade for the course will be determined upon assessment of a 3000-word research paper that provides a critical case-study of the historiography associated with a primary source or research collection chosen by the student, subject to approval by the MSc Programme Director.
Special Arrangements
None
Additional Information
Academic description Not entered
Syllabus 1. Five introductory lectures (Course organiser and School Liaison Librarian)
Weeks 1-2
Attendance will be required of MSc student and recommended for all PhD-1 candidates in History new to the School.

These lectures will introduce the School's research culture and expertise, its scholarly expectations, and direction on how to locate the generic and specialist research materials requires to produce graduate-level research in History - online and on-site.
The lectures may be titled as follows:
* Edinburgh's Research Culture: independent research in a scholarly community
* Catalogues, Databases, and Reference Works: accessing primary sources in open-and closed-stack libraries [MF]
* Building a Bibliography: assessing online materials and periodicals [AB/MF]
* Scholarly Presentation: referencing techniques and styles of presentation
* What is a Historian? Setting research goals and managing the degree requirements

One supplementary lecture will be offered:
* Designing a Database: an introduction to EndNote-Web and MS Access, followed-up by a practical workshop provided by Information Services or our E-Learning Officer.
[AB/MF/KH]

Access to the following self-assessed online training module will be available:
* History and Numeracy (developed by Prof. Richard Rodger)

2. Three weekly generic skills seminars (Course organiser)
Weeks 3-5
In seminar-groups (max. 20 students), students will meet for three 110-minute weekly sessions to address the following topics:
* Relating historical research to practice: academic and public contexts
* Writing history: combining primary and secondary sources
* Defining "history that matters": approaching historical trends in historical context

Each seminar meeting will take place following three days of online discussion on a specific chapter or section of the assigned readings (each student will post a 250-word thread to the course network).

Students will read widely in preparation for these seminars; readings may include:
L. Jordanova, History in Practice, 2nd edn. (London: Hodder Arnold, 2008).

3. MSc Presentation Day (CO)
Week 6 (Wed 27 Oct)
This full-day event will take place on Wednesday of Week 6, midway through the semester, following a training session titled "How to Prepare, Present, and Respond to a Conference Paper" (offered to all students in the School and included in the Advanced Professional Skills schedule).

Structured in panels of two presenters, with titles circulated in advance, each Research student will give a 10-minute paper on any aspect of his/her research interests; Taught students give written feedback on the presentation and will download a revised copy of the papers on the Thursdays.

All students reconvene on the Friday for Follow-Up discussion between presenters (MScR) and commentators (MScT).

4. Five on-site source-training sessions (CO, Librarians, and Research staff)
Week 7 (25-29 Oct): 5th-floor seminar room, CRC (Main Library)
The course organiser, CRC and research staff, each will give one of five source-training sessions. (Colleagues may choose to lead their session with an upper-year PhD supervisee who will feature sources that are central to their research.)

These will be scheduled to allow students to attend several of their choice. The course organiser will manage enrolment in these training sessions using a simple online booking system (http://www.eventbright.com) that students will access directly through the course network. This system will enable capping for session-sizes and indicate whether particular sessions should be repeated given levels of student demand.

The size of the groups and nature of the materials will depend on student interests and the availability of the colleagues who lead the sessions. The seminar room in CRC holds 30 students. Students must attend at least one of these sessions; it may or may not relate directly to their intended areas of research or Taught programme.

Research materials will include the following sources, and their respective finding-aids:
* Official sources (government records, parliamentary papers and debates; official reports; diplomatic sources and official international documents)
* Manuscript sources (e.g. diaries, correspondence, private papers, clinical notes and reports, and court records) [AB]
* Printed sources (newspapers, periodicals, rare and hand-press books and pamphlets) [JM]
* Sound and first-hand testimonies (e.g. oral interviews, memoirs, speeches, witness accounts, ethnography)
* Visual and material sources (e.g. photography, fine art, architecture, museum collections)

The training sessions will be designed to achieve the following learning outcomes:
* Experience using hand-lists, specialist catalogues and directories;
* Skills required for locating, identifying, handling, and describing materials;
* Skills developed through transcribing, tabulating, and/or collating materials;
* Skills developed through examination of the physical properties of material objects

5. Three source-interpretation Pathway meetings (CO and Staff)
Weeks 8-10
The class will organise into four cohesive Pathways that will meet for three 110-minute meetings, each led by a member of academic staff. Each Pathway will discuss primary sources and expository historical writing covering one of the following historical periods:
* Early-Modern Britain (c.1500-1640)
* Seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (c.1640-1790) [AB]
* The nineteenth century (c.1790 to 1900)
* Twentieth century and onward

Specific topics, primary texts, and historical writing will depend on the availability and interests of colleagues. The course organiser will lead one of these Pathways.

Colleagues leading individual Pathways may wish to make use of the online discussion network (as in 2, above).

6. Final meeting (CO)
Week 11
Returning to the generic-skills seminar groups (see 2, above), the final meeting of each seminar will reflect on the course in relation to the sources and skills expected for preparation of the final assignment (see Assessment, below).

As in 2 and 5 (above), this meeting will take place following three days of online discussion on a specific chapter or section of an assigned reading (each student will post a 250-word thread to the course network).
Transferable skills This course will develop those transferable skills essential to conducting research and for disseminating research findings, including:
* Designing a research project at the MSc level;
* Experience with generating and presenting oral and written arguments in a range of professional academic settings (e.g. in seminars, conferences, online discussion with peers, submission of written work for assessment);
* "Hands-on" training in locating, describing, and making meaningful analytical use of primary historical documents;
* Effective use of interactive electronic materials and related technology, including bibliographical software and databases.
Reading list Sources and Texts

Selected Electronic Sources
American Historical Association, Statement on Professional Conduct (2005) http://tinyurl.com/aha-conduct;
AHA Resources for Historical Researchers
http://www.historians.org/info/research.cfm
Archives Hub (holdings in UK universities)
http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/
Bibliography of British and Irish History (RHS)
http://www.history.ac.uk/partners/bbih
British Library
http://bl.uk
Contemporary and Historical Census Collections
http://hds.essex.ac.uk/history/data/chcc.asp
Copyright Status Information
http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu
Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University
http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/crc/index.html
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk
Internet Sources for History (IHR)
http://www.history.ac.uk/resources/guides-for-historians
Library of Congress (Washington, DC)
http://loc.gov
Manuscript Sources for British History
http://www.history.ac.uk/resources/manuscript-sources
National Archives (UK): Catalogues and Online Records
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/catalogues-and-online-records.htm
National Archives of Scotland
http://www.nas.gov.uk
National Library of Scotland
http://nls.uk
National Union Catalog of Research Collections (Library of Congress)
http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/internet.html
Oral History Online
http://alexanderstreet2.com/oralhist
Scottish Registry of Archives
http://www.nas.gov.uk/nras/researchers.asp
Statistical Account of Scotland
http://edina.ac.uk/stat-acc-scot/
University Library Resources Portal
http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/
Virtual Visual Collections (Insight)
http://www.davidrumsey.com/collections/

Selected Printed Texts (excluding those to be selected by Pathway organisers)
Barber, S. and C. M. Peniston-Bird, eds. History Beyond the Text. London: Routledge, 2009.
Berger, S., ed. Writing National Histories. London: Routledge, 1998.
Carr, D. et al, eds. The Ethics of History. Chicago: Northwestern UP, 2004.
Dobson, M. and B. Ziemann, eds. Reading Primary Sources. London: Routledge, 2008.
Elton, G. R. The Practice of History. London: Fontana, 1964.
Fielding, N. G. et al, eds. The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods. London: SAGE, 2008.
Fines, J. Reading Historical Documents: A Manual for Studies. Oxford: Blackwell, 1988.
Gladwell, M. "Priced to Sell: Is the Free the Future?" New Yorker (6 July 2009). Online. http://tinyurl.com/gladwellrev
Gottschalk, L. Understanding History: A Primer of Historical Method. New York: Knopf, 1950.
Harvey, K. History and Material Culture. London: Routledge, 2009.
Harvey, P. D. A. Editing Historical Records. London: British Library, 2002.
Haskell, F. History and Its Images. New York: Yale UP, 1995.
Heney, C. R., ed. A Handbook of Dates. Revised edn. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004.
Howells, R and R. Matson, Using Visual Evidence. London: Open University Press, 2009.
Jordanova, L. History in Practice, 2nd edn. London: Hodder Arnold, 2008.
Mann, T. The Oxford Guide to Library Research. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005.
Marwick, A. The Nature of History. London: Macmillan, 1970.
Pearson, David. Books as History. London: British Library, 2008.
Plumb, J. H. The Death of the Past. London: Macmillan, 1969.
Prescott, A. English Historical Documents. London: British Library, 1988.
Study Abroad Not entered
Study Pattern Not entered
KeywordsHistorical Research Skills Sources
Contacts
Course organiserDr Anna Groundwater
Tel: 0131 (6)50 2553
Email: Anna.groundwater@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMrs Lindsay Scott
Tel: (0131 6)50 9948
Email: Lindsay.Scott@ed.ac.uk
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