Teaching Case Studies
Explore case study examples of how using Special Collections' rich resources can support your teaching and enhance the student experience.
Dissertation: Digital Exhibition - English Literature, Language & Linguistics (SEL3405)
A series of workshops, delivered by Special Collections staff, gave students the opportunity to develop knowledge on copyright and exhibition display, as well as acquire and practice digital skills to prepare them for their final piece of assessed work: an exhibition using the online publishing platform, Shorthand.
The Anti-Suffrage Anomaly: Gertrude Bell and the Question of Privilege is an example of a student's final assignment submission.
Graduate Seminar in Byzantine Archaeology - History Classics, and Archaeology (ARA8172)
By the end of this session, any perceived barriers to using Special Collections material were broken down, the Reading Room was de-mystified and students understood how to access relevant collection items. The items they consulted informed a lively group discussion.
Research Methods: Exhibitions Masterclass - Museum Gallery and Heritage Studies (MCH8532)
Through a programme of a lecture and seminars, undergraduates focused on a real-life case study to explore, with Special Collections staff, the challenges of exhibiting problematic material in heritage collections. Reference to Special Collections’ past exhibition on Rudyard Kipling provided scope for identifying the lessons learned, and unpicking the issues of engaging with controversy and sensitive material in collections.
Introduction to Landscape Skills - Architecture Planning and Landscape (APL8015)
Students worked in groups to discuss a selection of specific case study material from the Sir Terry Farrell archive as inspiration to discuss and research narratives around landscape and architecture.
Image reference: Farrell-000270, kindly loaned by the Terry Farrell Foundation.
Dissertation Elective - Architecture Planning and Landscape (ARC2020)
Dissertation research can be enriched by primary source materials, but at the same time, students can be daunted by the process. In this dissertation elective, they received expert support around selecting an item from the Sir Terry Farrell Archive to use as a jumping-off point as a theme for their research.
Image reference: Farrell-000142-6, kindly loaned byt the Terry Farrell Foundation.
Process - English Literature, Language & Linguistics (SEL8641)
Literary archives are one of our collection strengths. After being introduced to our holdings and acquiring practical skills and wider knowledge, students engaged with the Bloodaxe archive. The class discussion informed the students’ own creative practice.
Writing Liberty in the Romantic Era - English Literature, Language & Linguistics (SEL3412)
It is one thing to read and learn about an author, and an entirely different more exciting experience to see and handle original manuscripts and correspondence. In this workshop, students worked in small groups to solve the puzzles of how a manuscript poem by Byron came to be in Newcastle University Library and why it is only a fragment. They practiced palaeography skills deciphering the handwriting of Byron, Coleridge and Mary Shelley. They also handled a number of first and early editions, discovering what a tactile experience it is to hear a binding crack, or to smell a book and feel its paper.
Dissertation by Digital Edition - English Literature, Language & Linguistics (SEL3417)
This module sees traditional knowledge and understanding of rare books unite with innovative digital scholarship. The outcome of this session is that students use TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) to create a digital edition of an early printed book in our Special Collections. They arrive at that point having learned about book production in the hand-press era, the materiality of early printed books, and metadata creation and digitisation.
