- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: I
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
This module explores the experience of living in England in two centuries of dramatic demographic and industrial change. What was it like to live in a village? What challenges did a migrant to London face? To what communities did individuals feel they belonged? Who could read and what did they read? How did people organise their time? What did they eat and drink? We will explore these sorts of questions by studying three broad topics: urban and rural communities; the cultural, social and economic connections between people; and, as far as possible, what everyday life was like. Particular attention will be paid to the variation in experience and identity across gender, rank, region, race and age, as well as between the rural and the urban.
This module places deliberate emphasis on a wider range of materials than you may have been exposed to before. We will discuss recent scholarship and study primary materials such as maps, paintings, diaries, letters, travel accounts, published guidebooks, institutional and legal records. Through various different approaches - for example, particular case studies and the crossing of conventional time periods - we will challenge the various ways that historians ‘cut up' the past, and the implications this has for our understanding of the history of English life in this period.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
The aims of this module are:
Students who complete this module successfully will:
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:
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
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.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
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.
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: