Undergraduate Course: Water and Society in Pre-Modern Eurasia (HIST10503)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | What would history look like if it were written from the perspective of water? This course explores this question by comparing the range and depth of human entanglements with water across different periods and regions of the world. |
| Course description |
Water might well be the most ordinary substance, yet its history is nothing short of extraordinary. From health to transportation and from religion to sociability, water flows through every aspect of our lives, past as much as present. This course reconstructs this rich and complex history through a series of weekly seminars designed to address different themes and issues connected to water. These are addressed comparatively using examples from the British Isles, Continental Europe, China and the Near East, and spanning from about 1100 to 1700. Material for consideration will consist of a mix of scholarly essays and primary sources, including visual and material evidence as much as written records in translation.
The course will enable students to think critically and historically about the place of water in our past, present and future, while also gaining familiarity with the larger field of environmental history. They will consider the part played by water in the rise and fall of pre-modern societies, evaluate its role in the construction of meaning and belief, and examine the efforts required to access it, shape it and control it. In addition, students will have the opportunity to practice comparison across a variety of scales and time spans, engage with scholarship at the interface of science and the humanities, and reflect on the role of history in the face of today's challenges.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Students should only be enrolled on this course with approval from the History Honours Programme Administrator. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- know in depth some of the main debates, methods and types of evidence in the study of human-water relations, coupled with an insight into their potential uses and limitations
- apply such knowledge and insight to the study of other themes and issues in environmental history as well as the history of other periods and regions of the world
- reappraise the period before 1750 from an environmental perspective and formulate new research questions about our relationships with the natural world
- to take part productively in exchanges of ideas and information around the theme of water in history, also using different media, registers and forms of communication
- possess a high degree of autonomy and resourcefulness when working alone, as well as an appropriate level of scholarly maturity when working with others
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Reading List
KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory -- a series of brief videos featuring leading experts (see esp. Donald Worster on environmental history at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJfwVXWP6X4 and Astrida Neimanis on thinking with water at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EJ_cjxm82I)
John R. Gillis, 'The Blue Humanities', The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, 34/3 (2013) (available at https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/mayjune/feature/the-blue-humanities) -- a magazine article by a water and ocean history pioneer
Blue Papers -- a 2022 project blog on water, history and cultural heritage (see esp. the posts on a research agenda for Blue History at https://www.portcityfutures.nl/news/blue-paper-12-blue-history-a-research-agenda and a centuries-old celebration of irrigation systems in China at https://www.portcityfutures.nl/news/blue-paper-5-water-as-a-cause-for-celebration)
A Journey in the History of Water -- a 2002 Norwegian documentary in four parts (watch at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCsTjcLEqZErWXnPPZuaDiK8nMeRXOBZ2)
Giulio Boccaletti, Water: A Biography, New York 2021 -- an ambitious historical account by a scientist by training (can also watch him discuss this work in various places on YouTube)
Tarje Tvedt, Water and Society: Changing Perceptions of Societal and Historical Development, London 2015 -- a vast treatment by a geographer turned all-around water specialist
James Smith and Hetta Howes, 'Medieval Water Studies: Past, Present and Promise', Open Library of Humanities, 5/1 (2019) (at https://olh.openlibhums.org/article/id/4572/) -- an agenda for the study of water in the Middle Ages
Medievalists.net -- various digital news and short articles on water in the medieval world (follow the link above or search for 'water' and other relevant terms in the top-left corner of the website)
Martin Knoll and Reinhold Reith (eds.), An Environmental History of the Early Modern Period: Experiments and Perspectives, Berlin 2014 (see esp. part 3: 'Societies and Aquatic Environments') -- two essays on methodology and water histories of the early modern period
Exploring Environmental History -- a podcast by early modernist K. Jan Oosthoek (see esp. the interviews on military inundations in Dutch history at https://www.eh-resources.org/podcast-77/ and the river Tyne as a historical actor at https://www.eh-resources.org/category/podcast2015/)
A History of Water -- a series of nine volumes started in 2001 (see esp. the Introductions at https://terjetvedt.w.uib.no/a-history-of-water/)
Water History -- a specialist journal published since 2009 (see esp. the Editorials at https://link.springer.com/journal/12685/volumes-and-issues) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Discuss critically some of the main concepts, sources and works of scholarship relevant to the fields of water studies and environmental history more broadly.
Process and combine this material with a degree of historical imagination, also while working comparatively across different periods and regions of the world.
Develop an independent project using the sources and approaches encountered during the course and present it both orally and in writing.
Exchange ideas and various forms of information about water and its history in a sustained, coherent and efficient fashion.
Interact effectively with peers and work collaboratively with a range of tools and resources for the study of pre-modern history. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Luca Zenobi
Tel: (01316) 506693
Email: lzenobi@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Ksenia Gorlatova
Tel: (0131 6)50 8349
Email: Ksenia.Gorlatova@ed.ac.uk |
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