Study information

Landscape History: Power and Protest c. 1500 to c.1800

Module titleLandscape History: Power and Protest c. 1500 to c.1800
Module codeHIC2328
Academic year2019/0
Credits15
Module staff

Dr Nicola Whyte (Convenor)

Duration: Term123
Duration: Weeks

11

Number students taking module (anticipated)

32

Module description

This module offers you an exciting and unique opportunity to investigate historical themes and processes through the study of landscape history and notions of heritage from c.1500 to the present day. It offers an innovative learning experience taking you outside the lecture and seminar room on campus to explore historical issues and questions through place-based research. Through a combination of fieldtrips, lectures and collaborative workshops you will study a number of historical themes including for example: the Reformation landscape and iconoclasm; memory and monuments; agricultural landscapes and politics of enclosure; contested landscapes and popular protest; everyday landscapes and environmental change; estate landscapes; and the landscapes shaped by mining and industry. This module is concerned throughout with the ways historical lines of enquiry have developed over time and how old assumptions are modified in light of new theoretical and interdisciplinary developments, and the particular environmental, cultural and economic concerns of the present-day.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This interdisciplinary module aims to do two things. First, it provides you with an introduction to the study of landscape history and heritage, and how the study of specific localities and material ‘things’ relate to broader historical themes and debates. You will explore how social, economic and cultural relationships have shaped ideas of landscape and heritage over time, and how the deep past continues to influence the present. Second, the module is designed to ensure that you will acquire a firm grasp of academic skills, techniques and concepts in order to develop your skills as an independent researcher and critical thinker through archival research and collaborative field work. The module is structured around a series of focused case studies, each involving consideration of the physical remains of the past together with literary and documentary evidence. Each case study considers the long-view of human activities and natural processes in shaping landscapes and the ways people, past and present, have attached values and meanings to the same landscapes over time. You will have the opportunity to investigate a number of different topics and will gain insight into the multiple and often conflicting ways people in the past thought about and utilized the landscapes around them.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

  • 1. display a core knowledge of a locality linked to key themes and broader contexts
  • 2. demonstrate critical awareness of the historiography relating to each case study, and potential of interdisciplinary approaches
  • 3. bring primary evidence to bear on your interpretations of secondary arguments about landscape, economic and cultural change

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

  • 4. analyse and reflect critically and contextually upon historical texts relating to a specific historical period or theme
  • 5. collate data from a range of sources, both primary and secondary
  • 6. with limited guidance, understand and deploy historical terminology in a comprehensible manner
  • 7. handle different approaches to history in areas of controversy and work with a range of primary sources

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

  • 8. combine independent, autonomous study with the ability to work reflectively and collaboratively
  • 9. present material for group discussion and have respect for others’ reasoned views
  • 10. with limited guidance, gather and deploy material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument

Syllabus plan

The module will be divided into four two-week case studies. Each week will be focused on an organised fieldtrip to sites in Cornwall and Devon, and Kresen Kernow (Cornwall Record Office). The content of the module may include the following topics: the Reformation landscape; monuments and memory; estate landscapes; industrial landscapes; agricultural landscapes; everyday landscapes; contested landscapes.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
401100

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled learning and teaching 8Lectures (8 x 1 hour)
Scheduled learning and teaching 8Workshops (4 x 2 hours)
Scheduled learning and teaching 24Fieldtrips (x 4)
Guided independent study110Private and group study, and course-work preparation

Formative assessment

Form of assessmentSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Project plan500 words2-7Oral feedback in tutorials

Summative assessment (% of credit)

CourseworkWritten examsPractical exams
10000

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment% of creditSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Themed project essay: individual written assignment902000 words1-7, 10Written (coversheet)
Participation and engagement10ThroughoutOral

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessmentForm of re-assessmentILOs re-assessedTimescale for re-assessment
Themed project essay: individual written assignmentThemed project essay: individual written assignment1-7, 10Referral/deferral period
Participation and engagementReflective review (500 words)1, 4, 6, 8Referral/deferral period

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

  • Giles, Kate and Finch, Jonathan (eds.), Estate Landscapes: Design, Improvement and Power in the Post-Medieval Landscape (Boydell and Brewer, 2007)
  • Mcdonagh, Briony and Giffiths, Carl, (eds.), Remembering Protest: Memory, Materiality and Landscape (Palgrave, 2018)
  • Walsham, Alexandra, The Reformation Landscape (OUP, 2012)
  • Williamson, Tom, The Transformation of Rural England (Exeter, 2002)
  • Whyte, Nicola, Inhabiting the Landscape: Place, Custom and Memory c.1500-1800 (Oxford, 2009)
  • Whyte, Nicola, ‘Senses of Place, Senses of Time: Landscape History from a British Perspective’ Landscape Research 40:8 (2015).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

  • ELE page: URL?
  • EEBO
  • JSTOR
  • Project Muse

Key words search

Landscape, reformation, environment, memory, protest, heritage, mining

Credit value15
Module ECTS

7.5

Module pre-requisites

None

Module co-requisites

None

NQF level (module)

5

Available as distance learning?

Yes

Origin date

01/01/2019

Last revision date

12/03/2019