Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE HST1019

 
TITLE The Craft of History

 
UM LEVEL 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 2

 
DEPARTMENT History

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit will guide students through the process of acquiring the knowledge, skills and methods necessary in the study of History. It seeks to help foster an appreciation of how History can be approached, and 'crafted' from a variety of angles and using multiple sources. In this way, a proper appreciation of space and time will be developed through which developments can be appropriately studied. There will be a strong emphasis on developing a critical approach to secondary sources and the deployment of effective writing strategies.

Study-Unit Aims:

- To defend the value of History as a discipline;
- To introduce students to the department’s guidelines for academic writing;
- To outline developments in historiographical studies;
- To alert students to the challenges of effective research and writing in a digitally-saturated era;
- To make students aware of debates within history, and historical-related fields, about the nature of the subject.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- synthesise a set of data that is presented to them in a logical and easily-retrievable manner;
- describe some of the basic questions in classic and contemporary historiography;
- apply the points learnt in this study-unit to other modules;
- distinguish between academic and non-academic sources;
- write in a more structured manner.

2. Skills:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- review material in order to draw out relevant points and questions;
- question established paradigms of historical thinking and writing;
- navigate through a number of theories relevant to writing History;
- compare and contrast different secondary sources;
- discuss the value of a historical approach in contemporary issues.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main Texts:

- Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft (New York, 1953).
- Edward H. Carr, What is history? (Vintage Books, 1961).
- John H. Arnold, History: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2000).
- Suzannah Lipcomb and Helen Carr (eds.), What is History, now? (London, 2021).
- Ann Williams and Roger Vella Bonavita (eds.), Maltese History: What Future? (Msida, 1971).
- Emanuel Buttigieg and Simone Azzopardi, ‘Outlines of Maltese History and Ġrajjet Malta: An Analysis of Representations of Colonialism in Maltese History Textbooks’, Melita Historica, 17:1, (2017).

Supplementary Readings:

- Fernand Braudel, 'History and the Social Sciences: La Longue Durée', tr. Sarah Matthews, On History, (Chicago, 1980).
- Joan W. Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," American Historical Review, 91 (Dec 1986).
- Keith Jenkins (ed), The Postmodern History Reader, (Routledge, 1997).
- William Lamont (ed), Historical Controversies and Historians, (University College London Press, 1998).

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment SEM2 Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Charlie Abela
Simone Azzopardi
Emanuel Buttigieg (Co-ord.)
Dennis Mizzi

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit