Studying at York
Evidence & Methods - HIS00088C
Module summary
This course introduces students to the way that academic historians use, interpret, and debate the value of historical evidence. It is a vital step in the transition between school- and university-level history, enabling students to understand evidence as the most fundamental building block of historical argument. Students will learn how potential historical “sources” – from shopping lists to state papers, novels to Netflix – can become historical evidence; they will learn to weigh the significance of a piece of evidence and assess how to deploy it to construct an argument; and they will come to be familiar with some of the key concepts through which historians understand evidence. The course not only provides a foundation for historical understanding, it also gives students the tools to enable critical thinking. By the end of this course, students will have acquired skills and knowledge that will remain vital throughout their degree and beyond.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Spring Term 2021-22 |
Module aims
The aims of this module are:
- To teach students the relevance and significance of evidence in historical argument
- To familiarize students with historical methodologies relating to evidence
- To introduce students to historiographical debates about the nature of historical evidence
- To show students how to interpret a range of sources and deploy them as evidence
Module learning outcomes
Students who complete this module successfully will:
- understand and explain the difference between sources and evidence
- show the relevance and significance of evidence within historical arguments
- be able to recognize and critique the ways that historians deploy evidence
- have practised interpreting sources as evidence and deploying evidence as part of an argument
Module content
Teaching Programme:
Teaching will take place in 9x 1hour Lectures and 9x 2hour discussion-seminars in Weeks 2-10 of Spring Term.
The provisional outline for the module is as follows:
Week 2. Evidence
Week 3. Interpretation
Week 4. Narrative
Week 5. Archives
Week 6. Ego-Documents
Week 7. Voices
Week 8. Images
Week 9. Numbers
Week 10. Silences
Assessment
| Task | Length | % of module mark |
|---|---|---|
| Essay/coursework Essay 2000 words |
N/A | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
Formative work:
- A short (1000-word) essay, making a short critique of a single piece of historical writing (chosen from the seminar readings). It will analyse and evaluate the way that the historian has used evidence in their arguments. To be submitted in week 6.
Summative work:
- A 2000-word essay in response to a question submitted in Week 1 of Summer Term. The essay will:
a) broadly characterize a particular methodological approach (e.g. the use of visual sources)
b) evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this approach (e.g., what does studying images allow us to do, what does it leave out)
c) appraise the success of historical arguments which deploy it (e.g., focus on one or two case studies and make an argument about how well they work)
Reassessment
| Task | Length | % of module mark |
|---|---|---|
| Essay/coursework Essay 2000 words |
N/A | 100 |
Module feedback
Tutors will mark the formative essay and provide a written summary to each student within 10 working days. 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 on Assessment.
Indicative reading
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
- Ludmilla Jordanova, History in Practice (2000).
- Natalie Zemon Davis, Fiction in the Archives (1987).
- David Armitage and Jo Guldi, The History Manifesto (2014).