Postgraduate Course: Historical Methodology (PGHC11335)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This core course is taken by all MSc History (Taught) postgraduate students as an introduction to the key skills and methodologies they need to build a research project, with the ultimate objectives being to enable students to complete both their written coursework, and their Masters dissertation. Through core lectures and a wide-ranging series of pathways with members of academic staff, students will develop a meaningful familiarity with primary source analysis as well as the interpretive strategies and secondary materials that define major approaches in current historical scholarship. Students will choose two four-week pathways, one of which will form the basis for the final course essay. |
| Course description |
This course will consist of three elements:
1. Core lectures, in weeks 1, 10 & 11.
2. Two pathways chosen by the student, running weeks 2-5 and 6-9.
3. Submission of a final research paper (4,000 words), worth 100% of the final course grade.
Students on the MSc in Medieval History MUST take the medieval pathways.
Content note: The study of History inevitably involves the study of difficult topics that we encourage students to approach in a respectful, scholarly, and sensitive manner. Nevertheless, we remain conscious that some students may wish to prepare themselves for the discussion of difficult topics. In particular, we recommend that students enrolled on this course check the pathway descriptions carefully when listing their preferences, where lecturers will outline any sensitive content likely to be discussed on their pathways. These pathway descriptions will be made available on the course Learn site by the beginning of the relevant semester.
While these pathway descriptions indicate sensitive topics students are likely to encounter, they will not be exhaustive because pathway organisers cannot entirely predict the directions discussions may take in seminars, or through the wider reading that students may conduct for the course.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| 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 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
4000 word essay relating to one of the pathways chosen. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback on essay topics will be provided by pathway instructors. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a detailed and critical command of the methodology, the primary sources, and related secondary literature from one of the pathways that they have chosen
- Analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship concerning the specialised methodology of the pathway that they have chosen to do the coursework for, its relevant primary source materials, and conceptual discussions about that methodology
- Understand and apply specialised methodology, its techniques and practices considered in the specialised field of the pathway chosen
- Develop and sustain original scholarly arguments in oral and written form
- Demonstrate originality and independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers; and a considerable degree of autonomy
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Reading List
Gunn, Simon, & Lucy Faire (eds), Research Methods for History (Edinburgh, 2011)
Gunn, Simon (ed.), History and Cultural Theory (Longmans, 2006)
Iggers, G., 'The History and Meaning of the Term "Historicism"', Journal of the History of Ideas 56, 1995, 129-152
Braudel, Fernand, 'History and the Social Sciences: La Longue Durée', tr. Sarah Matthews, On History. Chicago, 1980. 25-54.
Jones, Max, 'What Should Historians Do with Heroes? Reflections on Nineteenth- and Twentieth century Britain', History Compass 5:2 (2007), 439-54
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Terence Ranger, The Invention of Tradition (1983, 2012 edition)
Anderson, Benedict, 'Introduction', Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London, 1991)
Scott, J. W., "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," American Historical Review 91 (Dec 1986): 1053-75.
Houlbrook, Matt, '"Lady Austin's camp boys": constituting the queer subject in 1930s London', Gender & History, 14:1 (2002) 31-61
Burke, Peter What Is Cultural History? (Cambridge, 2008)
Joyce, Patrick, 'What is the Social in Social History?', Past and Present, 206:1 (2010)
Darnton, Robert, 'Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre of the Rue Saint Séverin', in History Today, 34:8 (1984) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | HistMeth Historical Methodology |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hana Sleiman
Tel:
Email: Hana.Sleiman@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Mel Baker
Tel: (0131 6)50 4030
Email: mbaker3@ed.ac.uk |
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