Postgraduate Course: A Voice of Her Own: Women in Early Modern Intellectual History (Online) (PGHC11637)
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) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course explores the presence and place of women in early modern European intellectual life (c.1400 - c.1800). It includes some discussion of early feminist (and anti-feminist) thought, but mainly aims to recover the diversity of early modern women's intellectual interests, experiences, and achievements, across a range of knowledge disciplines and writing genres. |
| Course description |
Women have long been, and continue to be, underrepresented in early modern European intellectual history. This course draws on an array of primary sources and recent scholarship to reconsider women's access and contributions to philosophy, science, and other areas of learning. To what extent, and under what conditions, were women able to participate in early modern intellectual life? How did women negotiate the tensions between their intellectual aspirations and the requirements of female modesty and deference? What contributions did women make to the philosophical debates and scientific discoveries of the time? And how does our understanding of early modern intellectual history change once women are put back into the picture?
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, the course organiser has outlined that the following topics may be discussed in this course, whether in class or through required or recommended primary and secondary sources: misogyny; domestic and sexual violence; pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion and childbirth. While this list indicates sensitive topics students are likely to encounter, it is not exhaustive because course organisers cannot entirely predict the directions discussions may take in tutorials or 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 | 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 ** |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
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
80 %,
Practical Exam
20 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework:
4,000-word essay (80%)
Non-Written Skills:
Forum posts (20%) |
| Feedback |
Students will be asked to submit a short essay outline and bibliography, and to discuss this with the Course Organiser well in advance of the deadline (around week 8). They will also present their project to their classmates through an unassessed oral presentation in the final, week 11 seminar.
Students are expected to discuss their coursework with the Course Organiser at least once prior to submission, and are encouraged to do so more often. Meetings can take place with the Course Organiser during their published office hours or by appointment. Students will also receive feedback on their coursework, and will have the opportunity to discuss that feedback further with the Course Organiser. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Reflect critically on the key factors shaping women's access to learning in early modern Europe
- Evaluate the contributions of women to early modern intellectual history across a range of disciplines
- Read, analyze and contextualize a variety of primary source material relating to early modern women's intellectual activities and experiences
- Plan and execute an extended piece of historical writing
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Reading List
Jane Couchman, Allyson M. Poska and Katherine A. McIver (ed.), The Ashgate Companion to Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013).
Lorraine Daston, 'The Naturalized Female Intellect', Science in Context 5/2 (1992), 209-235.
Natalie Zemon Davis, Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Lives (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).
Leonie Hannan, Women of Letters: Gender, Writing and the Life of the Mind in Early Modern England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016).
Carol Pal, Republic of Women: Rethinking the Republic of Letters in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
Londa Schiebinger, The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991).
Hilda L. Smith, 'Women Intellectuals and Intellectual History: Their Paradigmatic Separation', Women's History Review 16/3 (2007), 353-68.
Sophie Smith, 'A Comet That Bodes Mischief', London Review of Books 46/8 (25 April 2024). |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Independent and critical thinking
Fluency of written expression
Ability to gather and deploy evidence
Ability to read widely and critically |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Felicity Green
Tel: (0131 6)51 3856
Email: Felicity.Green@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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