Module Code - Title:
HI6131
-
CONCEPTS AND METHODS
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
This modules aims to introduce students to core theoretical issues such as objectivity, relativism and narrative that confront all historical researchers. It will also introduce students to the varied, changing and developing approaches to the study of history/history of family/history of art and architecture, and the historiographical debates generated by these different approaches and practices. The course also sets out to equip students with the requisite intellectual and practical skills needed to conduct research, in particular: choosing a research topic, appropriate archival practice, copyright and freedom of information, bibliographies, archives, electronic sources and computing. Students will be taught to be critical in their evaluation of recent research, to address the complexity of the research process and to seek appropriate connections between their discipline and others, particularly those in the humanities and the social sciences
Syllabus:
Introduction: What's in a name? History and History of Family; Lineages of history; Evidence & Theories; Life Cycles and History; Counting: Quantitative approaches; Gendered histories: herstory; Interiority: History and Emotion; Visual Histories; Historical Memory/Memory as History; Oral histories/family histories; Anthropology, History and Family; Techniques - Electronic research skills, archives/bibliographies; Choosing a Dissertation topic; Workshop: Reflections of what we have learned
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On completion of the programme it is expected that the student will have acquired the knowledge and skills
•to identify and distinguish between the salient developments in the conceptual basis of the discipline/sub-discipline
•to collate, synthesise and interpret data from secondary and primary sources
•to detect and assess different historiographical approaches, perspectives and biases
•to formulate and present historical arguments in a variety of forms
•to demonstrate a capacity to think and work independently and in a group context
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On completion of the programme it is expected that the student will be able to
•discuss the attitudes and values inherent in the construction of historical knowledge
•demonstrate how their own attitudes and values as historians can inform their scholarship and understanding of contemporary events
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
This module will be taught as a seminar, with all students expected to engage actively in every meeting, whether the discussion is a debate of theoretical issues, a collaborative close reading of a text or primary source, or a combination of both of these activities. Students will participate in rigorous discussion of ideas in the field. The written requirements will be diary entries, book reviews, a research paper, which will enable students to compose extended arguments on complex topics, managing the needs of documented, evidence-based research and writing.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Michael Anderson (1980)
Approaches to the history of the western family
, Cambridge: CUP
D. Cannadine (2002)
What is history now
, London, New York: Palgrave
Ralph Cohen, Michael S. Roth (eds.), (1995)
History and ... Histories within the Human Sciences
, Charlottesville, London: University Press of Virginia
Ludmilla Jordanova (2006)
The Practice of History,
, London: Hodder Arnold
Mary S Hartman (2004)
), The Household and the Making of History: A Subversive View of the Western Past
, Cambridge, New York: CUP
George G. Iggers, Q. Edward Wang, ()
A Global History of Modern Historiography
, London, New York: Pearson Longman
David I. Kertzer, Mario Barbagli (eds.), (2003)
The History of the European Family Vol. 3: Family Life in the Twentieth Century
, New Haven and London: Yale
Richard Wall, Jean Robin et al, (2008)
Family forms in historic Europe
, Cambridge: CUP
Eric Fernie (ed.), (1995)
Art History and Its Methods
, London: Phaidon Press
Charles Harrison, Paul Wood and Jason Gaiger (eds) (1998)
Art in Theory, 1815-1900: An Anthology of Changing Ideas
, Oxford: oxford University Press
Heydenreich, L. and Lotz, W (1996)
Architecture in Italy, 1400-1600
, London: Harmondsworth
Other Relevant Texts:
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
MAHISTTFA - HISTORY
MAHIFATFA - HISTORY OF THE FAMILY
MAHAARTFA - HISTORY OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Autumn
Module Leader:
aaron.donaghy@ul.ie