Modules
Accredited modules include: Revolutionary Ireland, 1789-1803; The American Irish, 1850-1920; Irish Communities in Early Modern Europe; Science and Enlightenment in Early Modern Europe; Race, gender and ethnicity in the United States in historical perspective; The evolution of popular culture 1750-1950; Oral History: Theory and Practice; Image-based research in History; Popular Protest in Pre-Famine Ireland; The Town in 19th Century Ireland; The Irish Protestant Tradition 1536-1869; Families and Communities in Early Modern Ireland and Britain; Ireland and the Two World Wars; Visualising Ireland; The Churches, Society and the Irish State after 1922; and Research methods in History.
Six modules only will be offered in any one year. The modules being taught in the current academic year are:
The Irish Revolution 1912-1927
This module offers an in-depth political, social and cultural analysis of the period 1912 to 1927, which shaped modern Ireland and led to the end of the Union with Great Britain and the creation of two new states. It begins with the Home Rule crisis in 1912 and ends with the entry of Fianna Fail into the Free State Dail in 1927.
Oral History: Theory and Practice
This module trains students in how to conduct research through creating and analyzing interviews, and developing fieldwork projects to address historical and contemporary issues.
Irish Communities in Early Modern Europe
This module considers a crucial feature of early modern Ireland: the history of Irish migration to continental Europe; the causes and geography of Irish migration, the development of Irish migration in the sixteenth century, the history of Irish regiments, Irish Colleges and Irish merchant houses on continental Europe, political-diplomatic alliances, military migration, religious and educational migration, economic migration, trade, poverty, gender, family migration, assimilation, integration, cultural exchange, identity formation, the impact of the French Revolution.
Image-based Research in History
This course will introduce students to scholarly theories of photography, representation and visual discourse. It will examine and analyse images such as photographs and political cartoons as primary source documents and will consider methods and methodologies of representing non-textual research findings.
Research methods in History
This course comprises two distinct sections. In the first section students will gain a critical understanding of different schools of history, of historic methods (text analysis, case studies
) and approaches to studying history (oral, economic, ethnographic, etc.). It will address key intellectual questions across the historical discipline and focus on theories and theorists relevant to historians. The second section of the course will provide students with a forum in which to address research skills appropriate to their particular field - literature review; library and archive sources; electronic databases and resources - and will attend to framing and refining research problems and questions. The organisational and presentation skills necessary for writing a research proposal and dissertation will be a key component of the second section of this course.
Families and Communities in Ireland and Britain, 1500-1750
This module will explore the family, marriage, relationships, and interactions between different categories of kin in early modern Ireland and Britain. The ideology underpinning patriarchal authority will be considered. Other themes include: courtship and the making of marriage; domestic violence; separation and divorce; ideas about the roles of individual members of the family within the domestic economy; the birth and rearing of children; the social place of single people and widows; and representations of homosexuality and other illicit sexual acts. Students will be introduced to a variety of sources and to debates on gender history.
Dissertation
Working under the close supervision of a faculty supervisor, each student will engage with scholarly works and primary source material in his/her chosen historical field and complete a written dissertation.
