HISTORY
ST MARY’S UNIVERSITY TWICKENHAM LONDON
2016/2017 SEMESTER 1/FALL
MODULES FOR STUDY ABROAD STUDENTS
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1. Possible module combinations making up a full course load are:
3 x 20 credit modules = 60 credits in total
4 x 20 credit modules = 80 credits in total
Note that a UK student normally takes 3 x 20 credit modules in a semester)
We recommend that you check what the practice at your home institution is of
converting UK credits into US credits.
2. A timetable in order to ensure that clashes are avoided will be available in due
course.
3. The list provided here may be subject to change or availability. The information
and detailed course descriptions included in this document were extracted from
the most recently updated validation documents. However, minor changes may
be operated by the module convenors, which do not justify a full revalidation.
Approaches to History
Code: HST4001
Level: 4
Topics to be covered will include: What is history?; narrative history, comparative history, non-Eurocentric
history, public history, writing history, cultural history, popular history, and re-thinking history. Students will
also visit a major London museum (for example, the V&A) to think about how such sites help to produce,
organise and circulate historical knowledge.
This module has two main aims. First, it enables students to begin to think more closely about the
kind of work that historians do – why they write history in the ways that they do; why they ask
particular types of questions; what assumptions they bring to their work; what historians think
about other people’s ways of producing accounts about the past, the role of historical knowledge in
contemporary culture, how some traditional assumptions about historical practices have been
challenged in recent decades. Second, it helps students to understand some of the main
requirements of studying history at degree level – and how these differ from working at school or
college. This module therefore provides opportunities for students to practise the core studying and
academic writing skills that they will use throughout their History degree. It will also help them to
prepare for the Level 5 core module Doing History.
The Atlantic World
Code: HST4003
Level: 4
The module will explore cross-continental connections in the Atlantic sphere, from the first
European settlements in the Americas until the end of the 19th century. The module is not designed
to be a catch-all survey: examining a range of themes, we will study these connections with a view to
establishing how Europe and Africa affected the development of the Americas, and how they, in
turn, were shaped by the changes wrought in the New World. We will also pay specific attention to
the ways in which colonization and empire affected indigenous peoples.
We will begin the module by examining the ways that historians write about Atlantic connections.
This will give students a frame of reference for the kinds of themes they will encounter in the rest of
the module. The themes of the module will normally include: settlement, politics, economy and
trade, expansion and empire, transmission of ideas and beliefs, migration, liberation, technology and
slavery. By the end of the module, students will be asked to reflect on the ways in which our
present-day socio-political landscape is still coloured by these historical developments.
War and Society
Code: HST4006
Level: 4
War has shpaen, and continues to shape, the course of human history. Wars are fought for a variety
of reasons – for territory and resources, in the name of ideologies, on humanitarian grounds to
prevent human suffering and for simple hatred. The changing nature of warfare has profoundly
affected the development of societies and shaped human experience. This module will explore the
transformative impact of warfare on society, politics, economics and technology through a series of
case studies, starting with the rise of “Modern” warfare during the 17th century, through to the
“barbarization” of war during the Holocaust and the impact of nuclear weapons during and after
WWII.
Art and Power
Code: HST5002
Level: 5
The module will begin by considering the themes and concepts relevant to the subject: art, power,
patronage, iconography, propaganda, subversion and satire. Then it will consider a number of broad
case studies: the architecture of the states of classical Greece and Rome and the influence of classic
forms on the iconography of power; medieval religious imagery and the power of the Church; the
Renaissance state portrait; anti-clerical prints in the Reformation of the sixteenth century; Islamic
arts and architecture, particularly the role religious and secular architecture had in discourses of
dynastic and religious legitimisation; Islamic festivals and processions; miniature paintings and the
arts of the book; and the importance of patronage as a tool of propaganda.
Popular Culture Aesthetics and History
Code: HST5004
Level: 5
In an attempt to impose a coherent shape on its content, this module will focus on the ways in which popular
cultural/aesthetic forms have been oriented temporally – an issue of particular relevance for historians. It
will therefore be organised around five main themes: modernism (more specifically that dimension of
modernist practices that is future oriented), activism (focused on immediate social and political concerns),
historicism (consciously invoking a tradition), memory (directed towards pedagogy, commemoration,
consolation and identity formation) and nostalgia (expressing a longing for things past). Specific examples
used to illustrate and elaborate these themes might include: post-punk music, be-bop jazz, pop art, French
new wave film (modernism); Flea Kati’s Nigerian Afro beat music, hip-hop (activism); folk revival music, blues
music, exilic and diasporas Hong Kong cinema (historicism); Algerian film, mythic Westerns (memory);
German Nostalgia, revivalist aesthetics and pop culture’s ‘retro mania’ (nostalgia). The range of potential
examples is wide indeed, and an attempt will be made to provide a trans-continental perspective – subject to
the availability of resources.
The Hundred Years War
Code: HST5007
Level: 5
This module examines one of the longest running conflicts in European history; the war fought in the
14th and 15th centuries between England and France. It looks at why the war started, what it was
about and why it went on for so long. It looks at the main personalities involved on both sides and
the famous battles of Crécy and Agincourt. The module reviews the impact the war had on life in
France and in England and how it came to an end. Finally the module considers to what extent the
intense Anglo-French rivalry of the last five centuries is a legacy of the Hundred Years’ War.
Sentiment, Suffrage and Sex: Women in America
Code: HST5009
Level: 5
This module invites students to explore the experiences of women in the USA and particularly to
examine how American women promoted and participated in modern movements for social change
in the United States. Beginning with the abolitionist movement and the great conflict that was to
become the Civil War, we will explore how women of colour and white women contributed to the
rise and demise of slavery. We will then analyse how women of all classes and cultural backgrounds
re-shaped American industry, politics, religion, progressive reforms, sex roles, race relations, war,
sexuality, and the movement for Civil Rights. We will use women's experiences to add complexity
and richness to the standard themes in U.S. history. At the same time, we will explore how women's
history compels a re-reading of that basic narrative. This module on American women will lay bare
some of the basic contradictions of a society that espoused 'equality' in theory, but denied it to
women in practice.
Civil Rights in the USA
Code: HST6006
Level: 6
This module encourages students to explore the development of the modern Civil Rights movement
in the USA. While black Americans had been struggling for freedom since the founding period of the
nation, the post-war language of freedom and racial equality seemed to signal a new era for those
struggling under Jim Crow segregation. Grass roots activism on a national scale challenged the old
order of ‘separate but equal’ and forced the Federal government to deliver on the commitments
promised by the 14th and 15th amendments. However, the Civil Rights movement was not just about
prominent leaders, Supreme Court decisions and federal legislation: it was a movement sustained by
the coordinated activism of ordinary black Americans whose frustration prompted them to put their
lives on the line to achieve full equality as American citizens. Through selected primary documents
and secondary sources, students will study the stories of these people whose commitment led to the
emergence of a sustained campaign for racial equality from the 1950s onwards.
Liberating Histories
Code: HST6010
Level: 6
The module will explore key philosophical questions concerning the nature of knowledge, truth,
power and ethics in the context of writing history. It will critically engage with various realist,
coherentist and pragmatist approaches to knowledge, truth and meaning. It will focus on questions
such as: what are the necessary and sufficient conditions of knowledge? How do we know if
something is true or false? What is the difference between fact and fiction, literary history and
historical literature? What kind of access to, or engagement with, reality do we have? How can we
assess if a text (historical or otherwise) is factual, objective or accurate? How do questions or
relations of power affect the history that is written? What are the main functions or purposes of
writing history? What role does - or should - ethical considerations play in historical discourse? The
module itself will consist of seminar sessions that will explore different themes through the
discussion of problems related to the subject.
States, Nations, Peoples
Code: HST6012
Level: 6
In this module, students will consider the changing nature of the state from the French Revolution to
the First World War in both political and social perspective. In the first section of the course, we will
examine the changing concepts of state and political legitimacy arising fro the French Revolution, in
particular the concept of popular sovereignty. We will then consider the impact of nationalism on
theories of the state, the emerging distinction between state and society, constructing society as an
object of study and intervention, and finally the role of the state in socialist thought. The second half
of the course will consider the changing role of the state and its relationship with society, examine
the rise of police forces and repression of brigandage, public health initiatives and urban rebuilding
projects, national unifications and efforts to “nationalise” populations, the provision of social
welfare and the growth and development of democratic institutions.
The Reign of Henry VIII
Code: HST6013
Level: 6