- UCAS course code
- VT17
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Course unit details:
Colonial Encounters: Race, Violence, and the Making of the Modern World
Unit code | HIST21121 |
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Credit rating | 20 |
Unit level | Level 2 |
Teaching period(s) | Semester 1 |
Available as a free choice unit? | No |
Overview
This course introduces students to the history of colonialism from the late eighteenth century. It explores how colonies were fundamentally reshaped by changing ideologies of empire and power politics; how constructions of race, religion and gender were contested from above and below; how projects to control colonial spaces and bodies were transformed over time; and the role of violence in colonialism and its impact on post-colonial societies. Students will be introduced to a range of textual, visual and oral primary sources, historiographical debates drawn from Africa and South Asia.
Lectures will offer case-studies and coverage of key historiographical debates. The seminars will support learning from the readings and lectures; each will also focus on the analysis of a primary source related to the topics of the week. The course will focus in particular on the following topics: slavery and abolition; ideologies of empire; gender and sexuality; fantasies of race and space; contesting empires: violence, anti-colonial nationalism and decolonisation; post-colonial legacies.
Pre/co-requisites
Aims
Acquire a broad knowledge and understanding of the impact of colonialism in the modern period using both theory and specific case-studies.
Critically reflect on how histories of colonialism have been constructed in a range of global regions, and to make connections and comparisons between these different historiographies.
Engage creatively and effectively with primary sources, including online learning resources for world history.
Teaching and learning methods
2 x 1 hour lectures and 1 weekly seminar.
All the support materials for the module will be on Blackboard, and the coursework will be submitted and returned via Tii and Grademark.
Lecturers and seminar tutors will offer office hours to support the course assessments and they will offer detailed feed-forward feedback on assessments.
Knowledge and understanding
Understand the general trajectories of European colonialism in South Asia and Africa
Appreciate the ways colonial encounters created modern political, economic, and cultural institutions
Understand the multiple legacies of European colonialism in the contemporary world
Increase knowledge about South Asian and African societies, history, and geography
Intellectual skills
Ability to analyse a variety of primary source materials
Sensitivity to non-western cultures
Ability to compare historical phenomena in radically different societies
Practical skills
Ability to read critically about unfamiliar societies and histories
Independent analysis of primary source material
Enhanced ability to do secondary research on non-western societies
Essay writing and analytic skills, as applied to non-western contexts
Transferable skills and personal qualities
Increased knowledge about increasingly important areas of world
Written and oral communication skills
Increased ability to navigate across cultural difference
Employability skills
- Other
- In addition to the practical and transferable skills outlined above, this module will provide students with exposure to non-western histories and cultures, providing useful skills for a variety of international business and NGO roles. The module's emphasis on how colonialism has been integral to forming the modern world will provide students skills of great use in adapting to multicultural workplaces.
Assessment methods
Quiz | 10% |
Source analysis presentation slides | 40% |
Essay | 50% |
Feedback methods
Feedback method | Formative or Summative |
Written feedback on submitted assessments, given through Blackboard/TurnItIn
| Summative |
oral feedback on assessed work and class participation in office hours | Formative |
Recommended reading
Phillipa Levine, The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset (Harlow: Longman, 2007)
Christopher Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004).
Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture and Political Economy (London: Routledge, 1998).
Frederick Cooper, Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005)
Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler, eds., Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World (Berkeley, University of California Press 1997)
Richard Reid: A History of Modern Africa (New York: Wiley, 2008)
Study hours
Scheduled activity hours | |
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Lectures | 22 |
Seminars | 11 |
Independent study hours | |
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Independent study | 167 |
Teaching staff
Staff member | Role |
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Jesus Chairez-Garza | Unit coordinator |
Gerardo Serra | Unit coordinator |
Steven Pierce | Unit coordinator |