HIH1420 - Understanding the Modern World
2020/1 Module description
| Staff | Dr Gareth Curless - Convenor Dr Rebecca Williams - |
|---|---|
| Credit Value | 30 |
| ECTS Value | 15 |
| NQF Level | 4 |
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Co-requisites | None |
| Duration of Module | Term 1: 11 weeks; Term 2: 11 weeks; |
Module description
This is a global history module that introduces you to the key processes, ideas, and connections that have worked to make and unmake the ‘modern’ world from the eighteenth century to the present. It covers a wide range of key themes: colonialism and postcolonialism; states, ideologies and nationalism; gender, sexuality and the body; science and technology; race, class, religion, and disability; violence and conflict; and development and humanitarianism. The module traces these themes across multiple countries and regions around the world, highlighting connections and differences between them, and exploring the multiplicity of experiences and ideas that have produced numerous, and at times competing, conceptualisations of ‘modernity’. You will analyse these themes through the study of primary and secondary sources in bi-weekly seminars and study groups, while the broader context and detailed case studies will be provided through lectures or alternative online learning activities.
Module aims
This module explores some of the most important historical developments from around the world from the eighteenth century to the present. It introduces you to the specialties of the History department’s staff and provides a taster of topics you will explore in greater detail in future years of study. The module is global in its scope, not focusing exclusively on Europe and the Western World but also on other regions and nations whose histories have been foundational to the formation of the ‘modern’ world as we know it today. While introducing you to the key features that have led to the development of ‘modern’ states, societies, and cultures, it simultaneously challenges Eurocentric ideas of ‘modernity’, accepted historical chronologies, and dominant historical narratives.
ILO: Module-specific skills
- 1. Identify the main themes in the history of modern Europe and its relations with other cultures
- 2. Interpret the specific themes studied in seminar and coursework within the overall framework of developments in modern world history
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
- 3. Explain large themes over a relatively long span of history
- 4. Evaluate the views of different historians on a topic
- 5. Formulate a historical argument, based on professional standards of evidence use
ILO: Personal and key skills
- 6. Work both independently and in a group, including participating in seminar discussions
- 7. Identify a topic, select, comprehend, and organise primary and secondary materials on that topic with some guidance from the tutor
- 8. Produce to a deadline and in examination conditions a coherent argument
Syllabus plan
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
- General Introduction - what is the modern world?
- Introduction to key themes in modern world history, including: revolutions; slavery; imperialism and colonialism; nations and nationalism; decolonisation and postcolonialism; gender, sexuality and the body; identities and ‘others’; science, technology, and medicine; violence; modernities and development. Aspects of some or all of these themes will be introduced in lectures and explored in more depth in seminars.
- General Conclusion - How do historians view the modern world?
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 68 | 232 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 44 | Lectures |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | 24 | Seminars |
| Guided independent study | 232 | Reading and preparation for seminars, coursework and presentations |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 essay plans | 500 words each | 1-8 | Oral and written feedback |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 70 | 30 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay (term 1) | 35 | 2000 words | 1-8 | Oral and written |
| Essay (term 2) | 35 | 2000 words | 1-8 | Oral and written |
| Examination | 30 | 1500 word take-home | 1-8 | Oral and written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two essays (2000 words each) | Two essays (2000 words each) | 1-8 | Referral/Deferral period |
| Examination | 1500 word take-home | 1-8 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Robert Marks, The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative, 2nd ed. (Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007)
- John Darwin, After Tamerlane: the Rise and Fall of Global Empires 1400-2000 (London: Penguin, 2008)
- Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008)
- Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010)
- Philip T. Hoffman, Why did Europe Conquer the World? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015)
- Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000)
- Andrew Phillips and J.C. Sharman, Outsourcing Empire: How Company-States Made the Modern World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020)
- John M. Hobson, The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
- J. C. Sharman, Empires of the Weak: the Real Story of European Expansion and the Creation of the New World Order (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019)
- Mrinalini Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: the 'Manly Englishman' and the 'Effeminate Bengali' in the late Nineteenth Century (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995)
- Priyamvada Gopal, Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent (London: Verso, 2019)
- Catherine Hall, Civilizing Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination, 1830-1867 (Oxford: Verso, 2002)
- Christopher Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004)
- Ronald Findlay & Kevin O'Rouke, Power and Plenty: Trade, War and the Economy in the Second Millennium (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2009)
- Mark Shaw, War and Genocide: Organised Killing in Modern Society (London: Polity, 2003) (Cambridge: CUP, 2011)
- Gary Thorn, The End of Empires: European Decolonialization 1918-1980 (London: Hodder, 2001)
Module has an active ELE page?
Yes
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
Available as distance learning?
No
Origin date
01/01/2010
Last revision date
09/07/2020
Key words search
Modern history, European history, world history
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