HIST308 - Making History

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

(HIST208 Fascism OR HIST209 Revolutionary Europe 1789-1917 OR HIST214 Immigrants and Refugees in Australian History OR HIST215 Europe Divided and United 1945-Present OR HIST218 Oral History: Australian Womens Voices OR HIST222 Greek City States OR HIST225 Us Foreign Policy Since 1945 OR HIST229 Rebels and Revolutions in Latin America OR HIST230 Life and Death in Pompeii OR HIST251 Human Rights in History OR HIST253 Underbelly Australia: Crime and Social History OR HIST254 History, Myth and Legend OR HIST255 The Ancient Near East OR HIST256 War and Peace OR HIST257 To Protect or Punish? Childhood and Youth in History OR HIST260 Keep Calm and Carry on British History Since 1901 OR HIST261 The Rise of Asia in the Modern World OR HIST262 Money and Power in the Western World OR HIST263 The Making of Modern America, 1865 to 1945 OR HIST264 From Truman to Trump the Us Since 1945 OR HIST265 Ancient Rome: Kingdom, Republic and Empire OR HUMA250 Ancient Greek History and Drama OR HUMA252 Art, Politics and Society in Renaissance and Baroque Rome OR HUMA317 History and Geography of Rome OR HUMA332 Arts and Humanities Special Project OR HIST327 Settler Colonies in Indigenous Lands OR ARCH200 Archaeological Evidence and Practice OR ARCH201 Canaanites, Philistines, Judahites and the Rise of the Davidic Monarchy OR ARCH202 Roman Judea: Occupation and Conflict OR ARCH204 Archaeological Excavation in Israel ) AND (HIST208 Fascism OR HIST209 Revolutionary Europe 1789-1917 OR HIST260 Keep Calm and Carry on British History Since 1901 OR HIST261 The Rise of Asia in the Modern World OR HIST262 Money and Power in the Western World OR HIST214 Immigrants and Refugees in Australian History OR HIST215 Europe Divided and United 1945-Present OR HIST216 Europe in the Middle Ages and Beyond OR HIST218 Oral History: Australian Womens Voices OR HIST222 Greek City States OR HIST225 Us Foreign Policy Since 1945 OR HIST229 Rebels and Revolutions in Latin America OR HIST230 Life and Death in Pompeii OR HIST251 Human Rights in History OR HIST253 Underbelly Australia: Crime and Social History OR HIST254 History, Myth and Legend OR HIST255 The Ancient Near East OR HIST256 War and Peace OR HIST257 To Protect or Punish? Childhood and Youth in History OR HIST327 Settler Colonies in Indigenous Lands OR ARCH200 Archaeological Evidence and Practice OR ARCH201 Canaanites, Philistines, Judahites and the Rise of the Davidic Monarchy OR ARCH202 Roman Judea: Occupation and Conflict OR ARCH204 Archaeological Excavation in Israel OR HIST240 Ancient Israel: Empires and Exile OR HIST241 Persians, Greeks and Romans: Cyrus to the Caesars OR ARCH300 Near Eastern Art, Text and Literature OR HUMA319 Rome Field School: Landscapes Past and Present )

Unit rationale, description and aim

This capstone unit examines key conceptual and practical tools that historians use to create and debate history, and provides history graduates with an overarching understanding of the profession. The unit introduces students to key historical techniques and conceptual approaches to writing history, demonstrates how these can be applied to specific case studies, and explores the ways in which historical skills can be applied to a range of social debates. It then leads students through the process of applying this knowledge to their own independent original piece of historiographical work which will engage with at least one of the key theories or methodologies of the unit through community engagement or other active research approaches, and may be presented in written, oral or multi-media formats. By allowing students to apply what they have learned about the past to significant contemporary conversations about history, this unit aims to equip history graduates with the skills to critically examine assumptions about the nature of history and to understand the role of the historian in real world applications and across a range of professional contexts.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Content

Melbourne and Brisbane

1. Topics will include the following historiographical topics:  

• What is history? (explored through at least 3 of the following): 
• Understandings of the nature of history in ancient, medieval and early modern societies 
• The development of modern history as a discipline 
• Empiricism and its critics: fact, opinion and interpretation 
• Community and national identities – history’s role 

2. Testing the boundaries of history (explored through at least 3 of the following): 

• Marxism and its legacies: history from below, social history and cultural history 
• The erasure of certainty: Postmodernism and post structuralism 
• Post colonialism and subsequent theories of people, power, place and race 
• Gender and history 
• History and power: owning and telling the past in society and communities 

3. The historian at work (explored through at least 3 of the following): 

• Archival history 
• Oral history 
• Community engaged history 
• Ethics of historical research 
• Presenting history to popular and scholarly audiences 
• History in museums 

4. Indigenous historiography in Australia and the world. 

Sydney

1.    What is history? (explored through at least 3 of the following Ancient History topics):

• Understandings of the nature of history in ancient, medieval and early modern societies
• The development of Ancient history as a discipline
• Fact, opinion and interpretation: Thucydides and Herodotus
• Methodology of ancient historians, their reliability, literary aspects of their work, portrayal of other cultures, role of the audience, impact of their own intellectual and cultural environments, and the question of 'truth' versus fiction

2.    Testing the boundaries of history (explored through at least 3 of the following Ancient History topics):

• Writing history of the ancient world from below, social history and cultural history
• Writing about people, power, place and race in the Ancient world
• Gender in histories of the Ancient world
• History and power: owning and telling the past in society and communities

3.    The historian at work (explored through at least 3 of the following Modern History topics):

• Archival history
• Material History: archaeology and material objects
• Oral history
• Community engaged history
• Ethics of historical research
• Presenting history to popular and scholarly audiences
• Contested history
• History in museums

4.    Indigenous historiography in Australia and the world (Modern History topic)

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This 10 credit-point unit is delivered as a face to face class in order to immerse students in Active Learning through activities which allow students to practice and refine skills fundamental to the discipline of history and the work of historians in real world settings. This unit engages students in active learning activities, such as reading, writing, debate and discussion, to promote analysis, synthesis and evaluation of class content. Students use archive and digital history workshops to explore key case-studies from Australian and international settings. 

Students in this unit will be encouraged to develop specific skills in reading and understanding how primary sources are recorded, collected and selected and begin to understand the dynamics of historical and historiographical debate and how to assess secondary material when conducting their own research and analysis. This unit introduces students to historical strategies for understanding how to interpret a broad sweep of history. 

This unit has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support your learning such as lectures, tutorials, reading, reflection, discussion, film/video screenings (where relevant), skills workshops, and assignments etc. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

The historical theory and skills based challenge is designed to lead students through the process of mastering key historical techniques and methodologies, drawing on the knowledge and skills developed through the active learning class activities. As the capstone project requires advanced skills in project design and planning, the capstone proposal requires students to scope and plan their individual project and respond to feedback. The capstone project asks students to apply these techniques and methodologies to their own individual historical project on an approved self-devised topic. This project may, as appropriate to the resources available, include a project which engages with a community group or organisation, and will require students to show that they understand the role of the historian in the process of creating, debating and communicating history. In order to provide students with an opportunity to present a nuanced and sustained historical narrative or argument in dynamic and innovative ways, this project may be submitted in written, oral, multi-media or exhibition formats.  

Formative Learning Task(s)

This unit includes formative learning tasks. These tasks or activities are marked on a pass/fail basis and are required to pass the unit but do not contribute to the final grade. The formative learning activities will provide students with an opportunity to explore key information and skills essential to the discipline which will then be applied to the capstone project. 

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Curthoys, A. and Docker, J. Is History Fiction? Sydney: UNSW Press, 2005. 

Clark, Anna, Private Lives, Public History, Carlton Victoria: University of Melbourne Press, 2016 

Dougherty, Jack., Jack Nawrotzki, and Nawrotzki, Kristen. Writing History in the Digital Age. Digital Humanities, Ann Arbor, Michigan University Press. 2013. 

Donelly, M. and Norton, C Doing History London; New York: Routledge, 2011. 

Eley, G. A Crooked Line: from cultural history to the history of society. Ann Arbor, Mich: University of Michigan Press, 2005. 

Elmersjö, Henrik Åström, Anna Clark, and Monika Vinterek. International Perspectives on Teaching Rival Histories Pedagogical Responses to Contested Narratives and the History Wars. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 

Hunt, Lynn. Writing History in the Global Era. New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2015. 

Hughes-Warrington, M.  Fifty Key Thinkers on History. London: Routledge, 2004. 

Potter, C.B. and Romano, R.C. (ed.) Doing Recent History: on privacy, copyright, video games, institutional review boards, activist scholarship, and history that talks back. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2012. 

Southgate, B. History: What & why, London: Routledge, 2001. 

Thompson, W.  Postmodernism and History. London: Palgrave, 2004.