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Violence and Conflict: Histories, Memories, Legacies

Module description

How and why should we approach the study of violence and conflict in past societies? From the proliferation of new forms of conflict within and between societies, to growing awareness of the diversity of ‘everyday violence’, scholars are exploring fundamental questions about what constitutes violence, how it is organised, and how it reverberates through communities and lives. This module will introduce you to a range of historical approaches to studying violence and conflict across disciplines, geographies, and chronologies, and equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to pursue research in this field. You will learn about the various methods used to reconstruct histories of violence and conflict, from forensic archaeology to historical documentation and quantitative data, and develop a deeper understanding of key themes aligned with our research expertise at Exeter.  

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module is designed to enhance your understanding of the main themes and approaches in the historical study of violence and conflict. You will be introduced to major themes in the study of violence and conflict, in line with our expertise across the Centre for Histories of Violence and Conflict, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Holocaust and Genocide Studies, forensic archaeology and anthropology, and beyond. This will range across disciplines, geographies, and time periods depending on the expertise of the teaching team and the interests of the students, but it may include key themes such as wars, civil wars, revolutions, insurgencies, and ‘everyday violence’, and take in approaches including forensic archaeology, memory studies, and quantitative analysis. By introducing you to the major debates in these areas alongside critical concepts, discourse and debates, the module will prepare you for further study and research in this area.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Understand and evaluate key themes and approaches in the historical study of violence and conflict
• 2. Develop detailed knowledge of central debates in the historical study of violence and conflict

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 3. Analyse and synthesise different types of historical evidence and scholarship
• 4. Acquire a critical understanding of key concepts and debates within and across disciplines

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 5. Demonstrate capacity for independent critical research, study, and thought, including the ability to construct and defend a sustained argument
• 6. Work as an individual and with a tutor and peers in an independent, constructive, and responsive way

Syllabus plan

This will be a team-taught module and the syllabus will vary according to the composition of the module team. Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Civil wars
• Gendered and sexual violence
• Genocide studies
• Terrorism, insurgency, political violence: transnational and transhistorical approaches
• Forensic archaeology of conflict sites
• Colonial violence
• Memories of violence and conflict commemoration
• Violence and histories of emotions

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

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

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

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Nelly Bekus, ‘Protecting Culture through international law in the Postwar World’, in Raluca Grosescu and Ned Richardson-Little, eds Socialism and International Law: The Cold War and its Legacies (Oxford University Press, 2024), 163-184.
• Emily Bridger and Erin Hazan, ‘Surfeit and Silence: Sexual Violence in the Apartheid Archive’, African Studies 81 (2022), 283-305.
• Gemma Clark, Everyday Violence in the Irish Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
• Oliver Creighton, Laura Evis, Mandy Kingdom, Catriona McKenzie, Iain Watt, and Alan Outram, ‘The Face of Battle? Debating Arrow Trauma on Medieval Human Remains from Princesshay, Exeter’, The Antiquaries Journal 100 (2020), 165-89.
• Stacey Hynd, ‘Trauma, Violence, and Memory in African Child Soldier Memoirs’, Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 45 (2021), 74-96.
• Ben Phillips, ‘Revolutionary, Terrorist, and Muse: Mariia Alekseevna Prokof’eva, 1883–1913’, Revolutionary Russia 36 (2023), 210-33.
• Martin Robson, A History of the Royal Navy: The Seven Years War (I.B. Tauris, 2015).
• Gajendra Singh, Ashley Jackson, and Yasmin Khan, eds An Imperial World at War: Aspects of the British Empire’s War Experience, 1939-1945 (Routledge, 2016).
• Martin Thomas and Gareth Curless, eds The Oxford Handbook of Late Colonial Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies (Oxford University Press, 2023).
• David Tollerton, Holocaust Memory and Britain’s Religious-Secular Landscape: Politics, Sacrality, and Diversity (Routledge, 2020).

Key words search

Violence; conflict; war; revolution; insurgency; terrorism; everyday violence; gender; colonialism; history; forensics; genocide studies.