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Private Lives, Public Roles: Sex, Society and Identity in History

  • Module code: HS4004
  • Year: 2018/9
  • Level: 4
  • Credits: 30
  • Pre-requisites: None
  • Co-requisites: None

Summary

This module will stimulate students to think about ways in which gender and sexuality have played, and continue to play, an important role in the construction of personal and group identities.  It is only relatively recently that gender historians broke the boundaries of traditional forms of history to highlight how individual identities, private lives and public roles of men and women throughout history have been largely determined by gendered sexual, racial, ethnic, religious and class differences.  Even more recently historians have also begun to consider age and the life-cycle as an important factor affecting the lives of ordinary people in the past.  The experiences of men and boys and women and girls have been recorded and understood according to historically and culturally specific definitions of normal gender roles within the family, wider society, religious institutions and medical science. Such definitions have frequently been contested but they contribute to understandings of subjects as diverse as parenting and the rise of youth gang culture; marriage and divorce; medicine and mental health; sexuality, pornography and prostitution; the creation of Empire and post-colonial societies; the role of combatants from the Crusades to the Iraq war; crime and punishment; work, the impact of capitalism and the institution of slavery; political power and citizenship; and the uses of space in homes and cities. This course will introduce students to the ways that gender, sexuality and other categories of difference have impacted on the lives of individuals and diverse social groups. Sexuality and gender are central to any historical understanding of human motivation, and gender differences have defined social, personal, political and power relations across the world. Gender historians utilise cutting edge theories and research to understand a broad range of historical processes and events from the medieval period to the modern.  This module will therefore provide a good introduction to many themes and ideas that students will encounter throughout their study of history at Kingston, including courses on slavery and race, British politics, nationalism and empire and women's lives in modern Britain and America.

Aims

  • To  introduce students to the theories and methods of gender history
  • To enable students to understand how gender, combined with other sexual, racial, ethnic, religious and class differences, has formed the basis for a broad range of personal, social, political and power relations and the construction of individual identities
  • To enable students to draw informed comparisons between topics that bridge different historical periods and geographical locations
  • To introduce students to a wide range of historical issues that still inform and impact upon personal, family, and professional lives today.
  • To develop students' skills in researching and presenting historical knowledge in written and oral form as individuals and in a group

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate how an understanding of the theories and methods of gender history can inform a broad range of historical enquiry
  • Show how gender combined with other categories of difference can form a major component of personal, political, social and power relationships
  • Develop a global perspective and the ability to draw broad historical comparisons across different periods of time and space
  • Understand how gendered and sexual identities are historically constituted in combination with other categories of difference that still have ramifications today
  • Clearly communicate the results of their studies, verbally and in writing, as individuals and as members of a group

Curriculum content

  • Nature v Culture: Understandings of the body in history
  • Childhood and adolescence
  • Family roles & responsibilities
  • Marriage and divorce
  • Laws, ideals and norms
  • Crime and Punishment
  • Work, economy and slavery
  • Medicine and Mental Health
  • Sexuality and the creation of sexual knowledge
  • Prostitution: policing desire and disease
  • Conquest and Conflict
  • Politics and Religion

Teaching and learning strategy

This module is designed to teach students how to work effectively as individuals and as members of a group to present their work through social media as well as in the form of an academic essay.  It will be delivered through a series of lectures, seminars and workshops and the provision of primary source material online and in printed form.  Lectures will introduce students to broad topics that will then be analysed and discussed comparatively across different periods and countries or environments.  Workshops will be used to enable students to analyse primary documents and to work on their assignments, while seminars will enable deeper discussion of the set literature. Students will be encouraged to work in set groups from the outset.  They will each be offered a printed or online dedicated logbook to be completed each week that will enable them to record and reflect upon their personal and group learning experience. The logbooks will be formatively assessed by peer review conducted by other groups. The group-work and the logbook will provide the foundation for the production of a 3-5 minute podcast by each group on a topic of their choice.  Guidance on planning and presenting  topics and on specific skills needed to make a podcast will be provided by the module leader and invited speakers from within Kingston, and the Historical Association, an organization that makes and supports the production of historical podcasts for educational purposes.  Students will also make group presentations during seminars held in the second semester to practice for their podcasts, which will form part of the summative assessment for this module.  In preparation for the summative essay assessment students will write and present short book or journal article reviews to their groups.  Groups will be invited to discuss their progress on their essays and podcasts with the module leader during specially scheduled office hour sessions.

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Definitive UNISTATS Category Indicative Description Hours
Scheduled learning and teaching 21 x Lecture (2 hr) 42
Scheduled learning and teaching 21 x (1hr) seminars 21
Scheduled learning and teaching 2 x group assignment sessions 2
Guided independent study Guided independent study 235
Total (number of credits x 10) 300

Assessment strategy

1.     Group work: Portfolio 50%

The aim is for each group to record a podcast on a topic chosen from those covered in TB1. The portfolio would consist of:

a)     An individual 300 word critical summary of an article or book chapter on the topic the group choose to research and record 20%

b)     Group Podcast 5-6 mins 30%  supported by documentation to record process and prove participation by each member of the group:

  • Ground rules, including the role or plan of work assigned to each member designed and agreed to by all the group.
  • A draft script
  • A checklist of individual tasks agreed and signed off by them when completed by each member.
  • A Group Attendance Record of all meetings held in seminars.

 2.     Individual Work: 1,800 Essay 50%

Each student must submit an essay chosen from a list of questions set by the module leader on topics covered in TB2.

 

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Learning Outcome Assessment Strategy
1) Demonstrate how an understanding of the theories and methods of gender history can inform a broad range of historical enquiry Formatively assessed through seminar discussion and literature reviews Summatively assessed by the essay
2) Show how gender combined with other categories of difference form a major component of personal, political, social and power relationships Formatively assessed by seminar presentations, writing a script for the podcast and a practice essay. Summatively assessed through the essay and podcast
3) Develop a global perspective and the ability to draw broad historical comparisons across different periods of time and space Formatively assessed though seminar activities and a practice essay Summatively assessed through the essay and podcast
4) Understand how gendered and sexual identities are historically constituted in combination with other categories of difference that still have ramifications today Formatively assessed through seminar activities and writing a script for the podcast. Summatively assessed by the podcast
5) Clearly communicate the results of their studies, verbally and in writing, both as individuals and as members of a group Formatively assessed by group presentations and script writing for the podcast Summatively assessed by the podcast and the essay

Elements of Assessment

Description of Assessment Definitive UNISTATS Categories Percentage
CWK Portfolio 50
CWK 1,800 word essay 50
Total (to equal 100%) 100%

Achieving a pass

It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module

Bibliography core texts

Cocks, HG and Holbrook, M (2006). The Modern History of Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan.

Karras, RM (2012). Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others. Routledge. 

Kent, SK (1999). Gender and Power in Britain, 1640-1990. Routledge.

Rose, SO (2010)  What is Gender History? Polity.

Meade, TA and Wiesner-Hanks, ME (eds) (2003). A Companion to Gender History. Wiley-Blackwell.

Weisner-Hanks, ME (2011). Gender in History: Global Perspectives. Wiley-Blackwell.

Bibliography recommended reading

Ben-Amos, IA (1994).  Adolescence and Youth in Early Modern England. Yale University Press.

Coster, W (2001). Family and Kinship in England, 1450-1800. Longman.

Cowman, K (2010). Women in Politics, 1669-1978. Palgrave Macmillan.

Cox, P and Shore, H (eds.) (2002). Becoming Delinquent: British and European Youth, 1650-1950. Ashgate.

d'Cruze, S and Jackson, LA (2009). Women, Crime and Justice in England since 1660. Palgrave Macmillan.

Downs, LL (2010). Writing Gender History. Bloomsbury. 

Dudink, S, Hagemann, K, and Tosh, J (eds.) (2004). Masculinities in Politics and War: Gendering Modern History. Manchester University Press.

Fletcher, A (1995). Gender, Sex and Subordination in England 1500-1800. Yale University Press.

Fletcher, A (2008). Growing Up in England: The Experience of Childhood, 1600-1914. Yale University Press. 

Foster, WH (2010). Gender, Mastery and Slavery: From European to Atlantic World Frontiers. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Karras, RM (2003). From Boys to Men: formations of masculinity in late medieval Europe. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Laqueur, T (1990). Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Harvard University Press. 

Lewis, KJ (2007). Men and Women in Later Medieval England. Routledge. 

Orme, N (2003). Medieval Children. Yale University Press. 

Porter, R and Hall, L (1995). The Facts of Life: The Creation of Sexual Knowledge in Britain, 1650-1950. Yale University Press. 

Shepard, A (2002). Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern England. Oxford University Press.

Shepard, A and Walker, G (eds.) (2009). Gender and Change: agency, chronology and periodisation. Wiley-Blackwell.

Simonton, D (1998). A History of European Women's Work, 1700 to the Present. Routledge.

Shoemaker, R (1998). Gender in English Society, 1650-1850. Longman. 

Tosh, J (2004). Manliness and Masculinities in Nineteenth-century Britain: Essays on Gender, Family and Empire. Longman. 

Woollacott, A (2006) Gender and Empire. Palgrave Macmillian. 

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