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Module

HIS1104 : Introduction to Public History

  • Offered for Year: 2024/25
  • Module Leader(s): Dr Jack Hepworth
  • Lecturer: Dr Jen Kain, Dr Lauren Darwin, Professor Matt Perry
  • Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 2 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0
European Credit Transfer System

Aims

This module will introduce students to ideas and practices of public history, and critically engage with some approaches. Students will begin to develop some of the key skills of public historians, especially in regards to communication and collaboration.

Outline Of Syllabus

Topics may include the following:
•Introduction: What is public history? An international overview
•Publics and counter-publics and why they matter
•The past in the present: historical justice
•Approaches to Public History

      -History for the public: delivery and reception
      -History with the public: history from below and memory activism
      -History in public: heritage, memorialisation and commemoration

Case Studies working across the inter-connected themes of race, war, environment, gender and class.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion621:0062:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture111:0011:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyDirected research and reading451:0045:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesSmall group teaching112:0022:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study601:0060:00N/A
Total200:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

LECTURES: enable students to gain a wider sense of historical argument and debate.


SEMINARS: weekly 2 hour seminars are an opportunity for students to consolidate their learning. They encourage independent study and promote improvements in oral presentation, interpersonal communication, problem-solving skills, research skills and adaptability. They will also be used to scaffold and allow preparation for assessments.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Essay2A602500 word essay
Oral Presentation2M405-minute recorded, individual presentation
Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.

Description Semester When Set Comment
Written exercise2MPlanning exercise for the oral examination/recorded presentation in the form of a written plan, picture-board or outline of ideas. 600 words.
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Summative assessment will be by (1) an individual presentation on an aspect of public history and (2) a final essay problematising public history and its central questions.

The recorded presentation is designed to assess students' skills in presenting personal reflections on a piece of public history. The more traditional essay style format will assess critical thinking, academic reasoning and execution.

The formative assessment will give students the chance to prepare and design their presentations, and to be given feedback.

Submitted work tests intended knowledge and skills outcomes, develops key skills in research, reading and writing.

Reading Lists

Timetable