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HI-M01
Historical Methods and Approaches
This module provides training in advanced historical research. It is designed to introduce students to methods of historical investigation, writing, and presentation, and to important historical resources (including archives, collections of sources, and museums). Attention will be given to the use of IT in historical work work as well as more traditional paper-based methods.
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HI-M2001
History and Heritage Postgraduate Study Trip
Medieval Poland, Prussia and the Crusading Order of the Teutonic Knights (2024).
Students will visit a variety of medieval and more recent sites of historical significance over the course of a roughly week-long journey around northern Poland. Sites will include the medieval city of Toru¿ (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the home of Nicolaus Copernicus, and Malbork Castle (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), seat of the Grandmaster of the Teutonic order. A series of lectures will precede the trip itself, the trip taking place during the Easter break. During the trip, students will be expected to undertake collaborative interpretive work on site.
This module runs in conjunction with HIH2001 Ancient and Historic Places Study Trip, going to the same location at the same time.
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HIH117
Medieval Europe: An Introduction
The module is a basic introduction to the history of Europe c600-c1450, a period usually described as 'Medieval'. It outlines the political and economic structures of the period, and examines the medieval 'world view' by discussing attitudes to life, death and the afterlife. Its first theme, expansion, charts the growth of Europe as a major world power and includes topics such as the crusades against the Muslims and pagans, political and economic growth, and intellectual development in the foundation of the universities. Its second theme, crisis, focuses on the devastating impact of plague, famine and warfare, and the increasing persecution of heretics, lepers, homosexuals, and Jews.
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HIH2001
Ancient and Historic Places (Study-Trip/Field project: History)
Medieval Poland, Prussia and the Crusading Order of the Teutonic Knights. Students will visit a variety of medieval and more recent sites of historical significance over the course of a roughly week-long journey around northern Poland. Sites will include the medieval city of Toru¿, the home of Nicolaus Copernicus, and Malbork Castle, seat of the Grandmaster of the Teutonic order. A series of lectures will precede the trip itself, during the Easter break. During the trip, students will be expected to undertake collaborative interpretive work on site. Refer to departmental literature for details. This module allows students to visit a particular place or region and to investigate historical
problems in their original topographical context.
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HIH227
Medieval Britain 1250-1461
This module on British history in the later medieval period investigates the relationship between England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and France, raising questions about conquest, nationalism, patriotism and race. It will also look at the social, economic and cultural history of Britain (eg the rise of English as a literary language) as well as the internal problems each country faced as it battled against plague, revolts and civil war.
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HIH237
The Practice of History
The purpose of the module is to encourage you to think more deeply about how historians work and, in particular, about how we as historians can locate and use primary historical sources effectively as a means of interpreting and understanding the past. During the module we will learn about the survival of historical evidence, how it is organised and made accessible to historians to undertake their research, and how to effectively locate and interpret it in your studies. We will consider how the process of doing historical research changes over time, in particular with the impact of recent developments like digitization.
At the core of the module will be the work you undertake with others in your seminar group using a range of primary sources which your seminar tutor will introduce to you. As part of the module assessment you will also undertake your own primary source based research project using items from these collections. The module is designed strengthen your analytical skills and to help prepare you for the more extensive uses of primary evidence which you will encounter in final year special subjects and dissertation.
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HIMM00
Reading Medieval Manuscripts
Medieval manuscript sources are crucial to our understanding of the Middle Ages. Research across the disciplines of medieval studies is grounded in the study and use of medieval books and documentary sources. This module aims to give students the skills, knowledge and confidence to engage with original manuscript sources of various types, from early Anglo-Saxon Gospel books to medieval chronicles, from illustrated books of hours to critical legal documents. Students will engage with these sources via digital and printed images and full-scale printed facsimiles, learning to recognise and transcribe medieval hands from all periods. Students will be given the chance to read original manuscripts during visits to the West Glamorgan Archive Service (Swansea) and the National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth). This module assumes no prior knowledge of medieval manuscripts, nor any prior knowledge of the medieval languages featured in the manuscript samples, including Latin, Old English and Middle English.
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HIMM04
Introduction to Advanced Medieval Studies 2: Themes and Sources
This module aims to apply the skills and approaches learned in the module HIMM01: Introduction to Advanced Medieval Studies 1: Skills and Approaches to a range of important themes in Medieval Studies, including gender, identity, laws and customs, spirituality, heritage. The module is interdisciplinary and draws on historical, literary and visual sources. The content of the module will be arranged in 2-weekly blocks, with the first week in each block dedicated to introducing students to the specific theme and the second week being used as a practical application of this knowledge to a source or text.
