Dr Gareth Davis

• AM-100 An Introduction to American History and Politics

  This module provides students with an interdisciplinary approach to American History and Politics; one that is designed to uncover the rich tapestry of U.S. history, society, and political systems. The module offers an immersive exploration of the key events, ideologies, and forces that transformed what were British colonies into one of the world¿s most influential nations. From the sparks of the American Revolution to the rise of the U.S. as a global superpower, students will critically explore the sweeping political and social revolutions that underpin the story of the United States.

• AM-113 Introduction to American Literature and Culture

  This module offers an interdisciplinary survey of the literature and culture of the United States from the nineteenth century to the present day, examining the construction of US cultural identity in relation to sweeping social, technological and economic changes. It begins by exploring the ¿ often contested ¿ historical development of an ¿American¿ literary tradition; writers such as Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass and Edgar Allan Poe are studied in the context of America¿s desire to break from Europe, the motif of the wilderness, enslavement and freedom, and issues of race, gender, and politics. The module then examines the fate of the American self in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, a self confronted by the anonymity of the city, the fraught history of race relations, and the promises (and perils) of consumerism, mass culture and digital culture. Using examples drawn from fiction, poetry, music, film, and visual culture, the module investigates US cultural expression in a lively and interdisciplinary manner. It pays close attention to the connections between various art forms (such as music and poetry), and the complex relationship between culture and politics during a period when the United States became a world power.

• AM-117 Introduction to American Studies

  This module provides an introduction to the discipline of American Studies, with a particular focus on the interdisciplinary scope of the subject. In addition to encouraging students¿ critical engagement with music, film, literature, visual culture, and history, it establishes a theoretical framework that will form the basis for more specialised study of the United States at levels 5 and 6. The module focuses on significant spaces in U.S. culture and history, from the ship and the plantation to the suburbs and the shopping mall, which are explored using various disciplinary lens and theoretical approaches.

• HI-M39 Managing Historical Research

  During this module you will be guided through the process of formulating a viable, original, and academically sound research proposal in the discipline of History. You develop your own research project idea with the guidance and support of your supervisor. Through a combination of seminars, independent research, and supervisory meetings, you will engage with historiography, methodology, source evaluation, and research ethics. By the end of the module, you will have produced a fully developed research proposal suitable for submission to support an MA dissertation.

• HIH118 The Early Modern World, 1500-1800

  In 1500, European exploration and colonisation of the rest of the world was only in its infancy. America, two continents North and South, had been unknown to Europeans until just eight years previously. Most of it was still unmapped by Europeans, as were large parts of the rest of the world. By 1800, on the other hand, it was possible to construct a recognisable modern version of a world map. Europeans had explored, colonised, and resettled huge swathes of America in the first instances. They had killed or displaced millions of Native Americans in the process, wiping out whole civilisations, and they had enslaved 12 million or more Africans in that same process, inflicting immense damage on African societies. Europeans were in the early stages of colonising large parts of Africa and Asia too by 1800. And yet, advances in science had transformed human understanding of the universe, of the world, and indeed of ourselves. This was connected through the Renaissance in art, culture, and politics as well as science, to enormous changes in the structure of polities and societies. The early modern era perhaps saw the invention not only of modern empires, but of large, centralised modern states. Also, the Renaissance and then Enlightenment changed the way people and states interacted. Arguably, the early modern period represents the transition period between an era of medieval hierarchy and the origins of modern social and political democracy. Essentially, the aim of the module, through your lectures, seminars, and independent reading and thinking, is to give you a sense of the connections between these places and their histories, highlighting that the increasing inter-connection between them is itself a feature of the early modern period. You¿ll also get a broad sense of how the world as a whole changed between 1500 and 1800.

• HIH122W Creu Hanes

  Sut mae haneswyr yn astudio'r gorffennol? Pam bod eu fersiynau o'r gorffennol yn amrywio a pham ydynt yn newid dros amser? Bydd y modiwl hwn yn eich helpu i ddeall y cysyniadau, y dulliau a'r ymagweddau gwahanol y mae haneswyr academaidd yn eu defnyddio wrth ysgrifennu hanes a chreu esboniadau hanesyddol. Erbyn diwedd y modiwl, bydd gennych ddealltwriaeth o sut a pham bod haneswyr proffesiynol yn anghytuno ar lawer o bynciau a bydd modd i chi werthuso dehongliadau cyferbyniol o'r un digwyddiadau a phrosesau o'r gorffennol. Mae'r modiwl hefyd yn eich addysgu am y sgiliau sylfaenol angenrheidiol i astudio hanes fel myfyriwr israddedig ac mae'n rhoi cyfle i chi ddysgu mwy am ddiddordebau ac arbenigedd y staff hanes y byddwch chi'n gweithio gyda nhw yn Abertawe. Bydd yn eich helpu i bontio o bwnc sy'n cael ei addysgu yn yr ysgol neu'r coleg i astudio hanes yn y brifysgol a bydd yn eich cyflwyno i'r mathau gwahanol o hanes y gallwch chi eu harchwilio yn ystod eich cwrs gradd. How do historians study the past? Why do their accounts of the past differ, and why do they change over time? This module will help you to understand the various concepts, methods, and approaches that academic historians use when writing history and generating historical explanations. By the end of it, you will understand how and why professional historians disagree on many topics, and you will be equipped to evaluate competing interpretations of the same past events and processes. The module also trains you in the fundamental skills required to study history as an undergraduate, and gives you an opportunity to learn more about the interests and expertise of the history staff you¿ll be working with at Swansea. It will help you make the transition from being taught history at school or college to studying history at university, and it will introduce you to the many different kinds of history you can explore in the course of your degree.

• HIH283 The Story of America on Film and Television, 1607-1867

  Award-winning on-demand series like Netflix¿s THE CROWN and hit movies such as LITTLE WOMEN and 1917 testify not only to the continuing resonance of history as a popular subject with moviegoers, television and online viewers, but to the importance of visual media as a key access point for our construction and understanding of the past. This course explores how film and television has explained the evolution of North America, and it does so in two ways. Firstly, it examines major events and shifts that took place between the establishment of the first English and French colonies, and the end of the American Civil War and birth of Canada. Secondly, it explores how those changes have been communicated in cinema and on television to mass audiences over the past century. The questions it confronts are: what has been the impact of change upon the American and Canadian experiences? How has that change been interpreted for popular audiences on screen? And how have movies and television serials functioned as historiographic texts? The course embraces the themes of colonialism, imperialism, slavery, gender, liberty, and the rise of democracy through the lens of relationships with indigenous peoples, European conflict in North America, the American Revolution, expansion into the West, the Market Revolution, the rise of Abolitionism, the American Civil War and creation of Canada.

• HIH283W Stori America Ar Ffilm a Theledu, 1607-1867

  Mae cyfresi ar alw fel THE CROWN a ffilmiau poblogaidd fel LITTLE WOMEN a 1917, yn tystio nid yn unig i gyseinedd parhaus hanes fel pwnc sy¿n taro tant gyda gwylwyr yn y sinema, o flaen y teledu neu ar-lein, ond i bwysigrwydd cyfryngau gweledol fel pwynt mynediad allweddol ar gyfer ein hadeiladwaith a¿n dealltwriaeth o¿r gorffenol. Mae¿r cwrs hwn yn archwilio eblygiad Gogledd America ac mae¿n gwneud hynny mewn dwy ffordd. Yn gyntaf, mae¿n dilyn y digwyddiadau a sifftiau mawr yn y stori honno o sefydlu¿r trefedigaethau Seisnig a Ffrengig cyntaf i ddiwedd y Rhyfel Cartref Americanaidd a genedigaeth Canada. Yn ail, mae¿n archwilio sut mae¿r newdidadau hynny wedi cael eu cyfleu mewn sinema ac ar y teledu i gynulleidfaoedd torfol dros y ganrif ddiwethaf. Y cwestiynau y mae¿n eu hwynebu yw: beth fu effaith newid ar brofiad America a Chanada? Sut mae¿r newid hwnnw wedi¿i ddehongli ar gyfer cynulleidfaoedd poblogaidd ar y sgrin? A sut mae ffilmiau a chyfresi teledu wedi gweithredu fel testunau hanesyddol? Mae¿r cwrs yn cynnwys themâu trefedigaethedd, imperialaeth, caethwasiaeth, rhyw, rhyddid, a thwf democratiaeth trwy lens y berthynas a phobloedd brodorol y cyfandir, gwrthdaro Ewropeaidd yng Ngogledd America, y Chwyldro Americanaidd, ehangu i¿r Gorllewin, Chwyldro¿r Farchnad, twf Diddymiad, y Rhyfel Cartref a chreadigaeth Canada.

• HIH3300 History Dissertation

  The History dissertation is a free-standing, 40-credit module that runs across both semesters of Level Three. Candidates conduct research upon a subject of their choice, devised in consultation with a member of staff teaching for the degrees in History, and concerning a topic that falls within staff research and teaching interests.

• HIH3378 The Story of the USA on Film and Television, 1865-2008

  Hit movies such as OPPENHEIMER, and award-winning on-demand series like Netflix¿s THE CROWN and BRIDGERTON testify not only to the continuing resonance of history as a popular subject with moviegoers, television, and online viewers, but to the importance of visual media as a key access point for our construction and understanding of the past. This course explores how film and television has told The American Story, and it does so in two ways. Firstly, it examines major events and shifts in that story between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Secondly, it explores how those changes have been communicated in cinema and on television to mass audiences over the past century. The questions it confronts are: what has been the impact of change upon the American experience? How has that change been interpreted for popular audiences on screen? And how have movies and television serials functioned as historiographic texts? The course explores the themes of freedom, democracy, imperialism, politics, race, class, gender and sexuality, and the Presidency. It examines these through the lens of Reconstruction, the closing of the West and fate of native Americans, Populism and Progressivism, the Depression and 1950s, the Cold War, the battle for Civil Rights, Vietnam, Watergate, and the sexual and gender revolutions of the 1960s onwards.

• HIH3378W Stori yr Unol Daleithiau ar Ffilm a Theledu, 1865-2008

  Mae ffilmiau arobryn fel OPPENHEIMER, a chyfresi ar alw fel THE CROWN a BRIDGERTON ar Netflix yn tystio nid yn unig i gyseinedd parhaus hanes fel pwnc poblogaidd gyda gwylwyr yn y sinema, o flaen y teledu neu ar-lein, ond i bwysigrwydd cyfryngau gweledol fel pwynt mynediad allweddol ar gyfer ein hadeiladwaith a¿n dealltwriaeth o¿r gorffenol. Mae¿r modiwl hwn yn archwilio Stori yr Unol Daleithiau, ac mae¿n gwneud hynny mewn dwy ffordd. Yn gyntaf, mae¿n dilyn y digwyddiadau a sifftiau mawr yn y stori honno o ddiwedd y Rhyfel Cartref yn 1865 i ethol Barack Obama yn 2008. Yn ail, mae¿n archwilio sut mae¿r newdidadau hynny wedi cael eu cyfleu mewn sinema ac ar y teledu i gynulleidfaoedd torfol dros y ganrif ddiwethaf. Y cwestiynau y mae¿n eu hwynebu yw: beth fu effaith newid ar brofiad America? Sut mae¿r newid hwnnw wedi¿i ddehongli ar gyfer cynulleidfaoedd poblogaidd ar y sgrin? A sut mae ffilmiau a chyfresi teledu wedi gweithredu fel testunau hanesyddol? Mae¿r cwrs yn archwilio themâu rhyddid, democratiaeth, imperialaeth, hil, dosbarth, rhywedd a rhywioldeb, a¿r Arlywyddiaeth. Mae¿n gwneud hyn drwy drafod Adluniad, cau¿r Gorllewin a ffawd Americaniaid brodorol, Poblyddiaeth a Blaengariaeth, y Dirwasgiad a¿r 1950au, y Rhyfel Oer, y brwydr dros Hawliau Sifi, Fietnam, Watergate, a¿r chwyldroadau rhywiol a rhywedd o¿r 1960au ymlaen.

Cwblhaodd ei PhD yn 2019 yng Ngholeg Prifysgol Llundain gan archwilio effaith Gogledd America Prydeinig ar esblygiad hunaniaeth genedlaethol America rhwng 1760 a 1871. Ei brif feysydd arbenigedd yw hanes gwleidyddol, cymdeithasol a diwylliannol Gogledd America o'r 17eg ganrif drwodd hyd heddiw gyda ffocws penodol ar y sffêr cyhoeddus, hil, rhyw, imperialaeth a gofod.