- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: M
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
The core modules for the MA in Public History will provide students with an advanced level examination of many of the key issues that are involved in the production of history in the public domain. The modules are taught by a range of historical practitioners from the University of York and from a number of external organisations. The first core module, Meanings and Values in Public History, examines the diverse ways in which historical knowledge and understanding are generated in public settings, and the contribution of this knowledge and understanding to politics, society and cultural values. It should provide students with a thorough interdisciplinary grounding in the discipline and practice of public history, drawing on theories and concepts from history, heritage studies, memory studies, and media studies.
We will consider key themes such as power and authority, memory and commemoration, identity, community, and commodification. Throughout we will use case studies from public history practice in institutions (such as museums and archives), politics, the media, and within communities and families. We will also think critically about how public history manifests in different local, national and international contexts, considering global case studies. Students are encouraged to consume a broad range of public histories during the module.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Autumn Term 2022-23 |
This module aims to:
Introduce students to a broad range of conceptual and methodological frameworks for understanding the relationship between the past and its manifestations in contemporary society
Explore examples of how the past is represented, constructed, debated and contested in the public sphere
Encourage critical and theoretical evaluations of media strategies and cultural heritage public policy, married with concrete case studies
Allow the student to marry academic knowledge with a rigorous understanding of specific case-study examples of public policy or representation, obtained through reading and discussion of policy documentation and other source materials
Ensure that students are exposed to a broad range of research into media strategy and public heritage.
After completing this module students should have:
Possess an understanding of theoretical models for relating the past and the present
Be able to assess their relationship to particular and specific examples in the arenas of policy or media
Demonstrate an understanding of the relationships between theory and practice in Public History
Teaching Programme:
Students will attend eight weekly two-hour seminars in weeks 2-9.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
The Past in the Present: What is Public History?
Internationalising Public History
Whose Past is It: Power, Politics and the Nation
Personal Pasts: Family, Locality and Identity
As Seen On Screen: History and Visual Media
Performing, Playing and Re-enacting the Past
Difficult Pasts and Commemoration
Place-making and History-telling in York
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
Students will complete a 2,000 word essay for formative assessment, due in week 6, for which they will receive an individual tutorial.
Students taking the module as a core module will submit a 4,000 word assessed essay in week 10 of the autumn term. For those taking the module as an option module, a 4,000 word assessed essay will be due in week 2 of the spring term.
For further details about assessed work, students should refer to the Taught Masters Degrees Statement of Assessment.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Following their formative assessment, students will receive oral feedback at a one-to-one meeting with their tutor and written feedback consisting of comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission. Tutors are also available in their student hours to discuss formative assessment. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the module starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
Cauvin, Thomas. Public History: A Textbook of Practice. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.
De Groot, Jerome. Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture. Abingdon: Routledge, 2009.
Kean, Hilda and Paul Martin (eds.). The Public History Reader. London: Routledge, 2013.