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FY-018
History, Memory and the Creation of Identity
In most human societies, history and memory are important in the creation of identity. For example, consider how recent political debates often involve debates about the relevance of particular strands of history (such as `empire¿) to modern society. This module explores these relationships from the ancient societies of Egypt, Greece, and Rome to the modern world. It is designed to provide Foundation Year students intending to pursue degrees in Classical Studies, Ancient History, Ancient History & Egyptology, American Studies, Medieval Studies, or History with an opportunity to reflect critically on what the past means and how we go about studying it.
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HHC100
Fieldtrip module: The Past in its Place
People understand the past and its significance through a range of mediums, including historic documents, objects, artefacts, buildings, structures and monuments. This module will give the students a comprehensive introduction to how we professionally approach and engage with historic visitor attractions. Incorporating some of the major visitor attractions and museums of South Wales, a range of themes and periods will be addressed. Students will be encouraged to explore digital resources in the exploration of each site, will engage in an innovative portfolio of assignments, and will be encouraged to think critically about how the past is presented in site-specific contexts. Creative responses to the module brief will be encouraged. This module is designed around active, participatory, and experiential learning. It designed to have a strong social element where students will be interacting for longer periods (beyond the traditional seminar allocation) and, as such, developing key social and networking skills. Digital proficiency around the use of on-line digital data resources, applications for reprographic presentation and creative responses to the assignments will form part of the skills and employability remit.
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HI-M90
Enmity and Entanglement: the Jews of Medieval England, 1066-1290
This module explores the lives, activities and experiences of England¿s Jewish population between their arrival in England, at some point during the reign of William the Conqueror, and the year of their final expulsion from England by Edward I (1290). It focuses not simply on the Jews¿ economic activities and prominent individual money-lenders, on which much of our historiography centres, but also on the everyday lives of ordinary Jews, the shared and contested spaces they inhabited among the majority Christian population, their litigation (a much neglected subject), the role of gender, and much more. It will span as much of their lives as possible: marriage, sex and divorce; work; religious beliefs and practice; their experience and use of the law; and how they were depicted in English sources (from chronicle references to caricatures sketched the margins of English governmental documents). It will not assume that Jews lived miserable lives characterised by Christian hostility and persecution, however. Drawing on a range of primary sources, we will consider variables across lifecycle, social status, gender, as well as changes over time, as royal attitudes and policy evolved and the Jewish communities ebbed and flowed.
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HIH117
Medieval Europe: An Introduction
The module is a basic introduction to the history of Europe c600-c1450, a period usually described as 'Medieval'. It outlines the political and economic structures of the period, and examines the medieval 'world view' by discussing attitudes to life, death and the afterlife. Its first theme, expansion, charts the growth of Europe as a major world power and includes topics such as the crusades against the Muslims and pagans, political and economic growth, and intellectual development in the foundation of the universities. Its second theme, crisis, focuses on the devastating impact of plague, famine and warfare, and the increasing persecution of heretics, lepers, homosexuals, and Jews.
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HIH237
The Practice of History
The purpose of the module is to encourage you to think more deeply about how historians work and, in particular, about how we as historians can locate and use primary historical sources effectively as a means of interpreting and understanding the past. During the module we will learn about the survival of historical evidence, how it is organised and made accessible to historians to undertake their research, and how to effectively locate and interpret it in your studies. We will consider how the process of doing historical research changes over time, in particular with the impact of recent developments like digitization.
At the core of the module will be the work you undertake with others in your seminar group using a range of primary sources which your seminar tutor will introduce to you. As part of the module assessment you will also undertake your own primary source based research project using items from these collections. The module is designed strengthen your analytical skills and to help prepare you for the more extensive uses of primary evidence which you will encounter in final year special subjects and dissertation.
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HIH287
The Anglo-Norman World, 1066-1225
The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 transformed the politics, society, and culture of the British Isles and Northern France. This module examines the impact of the Norman Conquest and the cross-Channel connections that it established. It considers the political framework in the 150 years after the Conquest, notably the evolution of the Anglo-Norman realm under William the Conqueror and his sons William Rufus and Henry I; the `Anarchy¿ of King Stephen¿s reign; and the rise and fall of the Angevin or Plantagenet `empire¿ under Henry II and his sons Richard the Lionheart and King John. The module also investigates the relationships between the Anglo-Norman elites and their neighbours in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, and in France. Cultural developments examined in the module include the place of women within Anglo-Norman society; the role of the Church and monasticism; the evolution of identities; and the ways in which authors represented their times and values through historical writing and literature such as the Arthurian `Matter of Britain¿. The module also reflects upon the impact of Anglo-Norman culture upon the landscape, including through visits to historical sites.
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HIH3300
History Dissertation
The History dissertation is a free-standing, 40-credit module that runs across both semesters of Level Three. Candidates conduct research upon a subject of their choice, devised in consultation with a member of staff teaching for the degrees in History, and concerning a topic that falls within staff research and teaching interests.
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HIMD00
Medieval Studies Dissertation
A dissertation of 15,000 - 20,000 words written on a topic decided by the student in consultation with the dissertation supervisor. This represents Part Two of the MA programme in Medieval Studies.
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HIMM02
Research Folder
A course designed to help students to identify their dissertation subject, to prepare for it bibliographically, and to plan its research and writing.
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HIMM04
Introduction to Advanced Medieval Studies 2: Themes and Sources
This module aims to apply the skills and approaches learned in the module HIMM01: Introduction to Advanced Medieval Studies 1: Skills and Approaches to a range of important themes in Medieval Studies, including gender, identity, laws and customs, spirituality, heritage. The module is interdisciplinary and draws on historical, literary and visual sources. The content of the module will be arranged in 2-weekly blocks, with the first week in each block dedicated to introducing students to the specific theme and the second week being used as a practical application of this knowledge to a source or text.
