Studying at York
War as Contact Zone: Prisoners of War in Modern Conflicts - HIS00163I
- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: I
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Module summary
Modern war is commonly viewed as inherently dynamic. Appeals to patriotism, political ideologies and higher values have succeeded in mobilising societies for military conflict to an unprecedented degree in the last two hundred years. But what happens when combatants are captured and condemned to inactivity for sometimes years on end while the fate of their countries is being decided? In this module, we will investigate how prisoners of war have adapted mentally, as well as their treatment in captivity. We will consider the tensions that have existed between the ever-greater protections afforded to captives by international humanitarian conventions and the likewise growing logistical-cum-political challenges of internment, resulting in the establishment of ‘concentration camps’.
To make sense of these developments, the module conceives of captivity as a distinctly transnational laboratory – a contact zone – in which prisoners and captors have to negotiate different cultural norms, ideologies and ideas of what a prisoner is. Although regimes of captivity are premised on an inherently asymmetrical distribution of power, the contact zone enables prisoners to carve out their own spheres of agency. In this context we will not only look at escape attempts but also forms of artistic expression like theatre, the role of prisoners’ families, and the economic value of prisoners as a labour resource. The module focuses primarily on the period from the Napoleonic Wars to the Second World War, yet more recent conflicts will feature, too, in our reflections on how captivity has changed over the longue durée.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
Module aims
The aims of this module are:
- To provide students with the opportunity to study particular historical topics in depth
- To develop students’ ability to examine a topic from a range of perspectives and to strengthen their ability to work critically and reflectively with secondary and primary material
Module learning outcomes
Students who complete this module successfully will:
- Have acquired a deep knowledge of the specific topic studied
- Have developed their ability to use and synthesise a range of primary and secondary sources
- Be able to evaluate the arguments that historians have made about the topic studied
- Have developed their ability to study independently through seminar-based teaching
Module content
Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1. Students will then attend a 1-hour plenary/lecture and a 2-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW) during which there are no seminars. Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour plenaries/lectures and eight 2-hour seminars in all.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
- Modern war and the concept of the contact zone
- Captivity
- The status of prisoners of war in international law and politics
- Prisoners as a labour resource
- The art of captivity
- Encounters with the enemy
- Escape
- Commemorating captivity
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
For formative assessment, students will complete a referenced 1200 to 1500-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This will be submitted in either the Week 5 or Week 9 RAW week (on the day of the weekly seminar).
For summative assessment, students will complete an Assessed Essay (2000 words, footnoted). This will comprise 100% of the overall module mark.
Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their formative work during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 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.
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:
- Sibylle Scheipers (ed.), Prisoners in War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
- Michael Howard, George J. Andreopoulos, and Mark R. Shulman (eds.), The Laws of War: Constraints on Warfare in the Western World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994).
- Anne-Marie Pathé and Fabien Théofilakis (eds.), Wartime Captivity in the Twentieth Century: Archives, Stories, Memories (translated by Helen McPhail, Berghahn: Oxford, 2016).