Glossary of Terms

Year 1 (90 Credits)

RequiredHI6104: Making History: evidence and interpretation

HI6104: Making History: evidence and interpretation

Semester 1 | Credits: 15

This module is designed to develop the student as a historian. Students will explore how the discipline of history has evolved from a traditional emphasis on politics and war to include new fields of enquiry such as the history of everyday life, gender and sexuality, and the environment. They will study the challenges of particular kinds of sources like letters and diaries, oral interviews, and digital resources. In addition to honing their skills in textual analysis, they will consider new approaches such as network analysis and AI. Students will observe historians in action at the regular research seminar. With their thesis ultimately in mind, students will identify a field of particular interest, a research question within it, and a methodology to answer it. Assessment includes regular participation in class discussion, oral presentations and a thesis proposal.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes

1. to prepare a written proposal for an academic thesis
2. to give an oral presentation describing a research question and relevant historical methodology
3. to critically engage with presentations by historians at research seminar
4. to introduce and lead discussions of scholarly articles

Assessments

• Continuous Assessment (100%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  HELENA CONDON 🖂
  
•  JOHN CUNNINGHAM 🖂
  
•  RÓISÍN HEALY 🖂
  

Reading List

1. "The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of History" by John Tosh
   Publisher: Routledge
2. "Comparison and History" by Deborah Cohen and Maureen O'Connor
   ISBN: 0415944422.
   Publisher: Routledge
3. "History in Practice" by Ludmilla Jordanova
   ISBN: 97817809333.
   Publisher: Bloomsbury
4. "The Oral History Reader" by R.Perks & A.Thomson
   Publisher: Taylor & Francis
5. "Customs in Common: Studies in Traditional Culture" by Edward Palmer Thompson
   Publisher: New Press

RequiredHI503: Historical Debates & Controversies: Studies in Historiography

HI503: Historical Debates & Controversies: Studies in Historiography

Semester 1 | Credits: 15

This team-taught module examines perceptions of History as a discipline and methodological approaches to different periods and themes. It looks at perceptions of the groups, issues, events and periods considered worthwhile subjects for historical investigation and explores the role of ideology in framing historical questions. Each year the module addresses a number of specific historical fields and some of the major debates animating their history-writing to demonstrate the dynamic nature of history as a discipline. The particular field covered may vary in individual years owing to availability of staff members to teach their specialisms. Perennial questions will include: why do historians disagree? Is “value-free History” possible? Why do certain historical topics and come into and go out of fashion?
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes

1. show awareness of the dynamic and evolving nature of historical scholarship over time
2. identify methodological approaches relating to different historical periods
3. demonstrate knowledge of the different views about how and to what extent we can gain knowledge about the past
4. understand the interplay between ideology and wider cultural perceptions in the framing of historical questions, now and in the past
5. write essays showing how such debates are reflected in the history-writing of specific events, movements or issues from the past

Assessments

• Continuous Assessment (100%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  GEARÓID BARRY 🖂
  
•  CAITRIONA CLEAR 🖂
  
•  HELENA CONDON 🖂
  
•  JOHN CUNNINGHAM 🖂
  
•  ENRICO DAL LAGO 🖂
  
•  KEVIN O'SULLIVAN 🖂
  
•  MARY CLANCY 🖂
  

Reading List

1. "History: Why It Matters" by Lynn Hunt
   Publisher: Polity
2. "Why History Matters" by John Tosh
   Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
3. "Historiography: An Introduction" by Eileen Ka-May Cheng
   Publisher: Continuum

RequiredHI509: Dissertation

HI509: Dissertation

15 months long | Credits: 30

All students carry out original research and produce a dissertation of 15,000-20,000 words. Students may research an area of their choice as long as the project they envisage allows them demonstrate the competencies being tested and an appropriate supervisor in the area is available.

Learning Outcomes

1. tbc

Assessments

• Research (100%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  HELENA CONDON 🖂
  
•  KEVIN O'SULLIVAN 🖂
  

OptionalPI6110: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

PI6110: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

Semester 1 | Credits: 10

Artifical intelligence technologies have evolved dramatically in recent years, impacting on many areas of human life. Societal responses to these developments have ranged from enthusiastic optimism to deep suspicion. The module will explore prominent ethical issues arising in relation to the design, use and societal impact of Artificial Intelligence. Topics addressed in the module include: embedded values, ethics by design and trustworthiness of AI; Privacy, consent, dark patterns and contextual integrity; Algorithmic fairness, bias and algorithmic governance; Assistance and surveillance; Datafication, surveillance capitalism and monopoly; AI and the workplace; generative AI; relational artificial agents, autonomous artificial agents and responsibility; AI and the environment; AI risk and safety.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify and summarise important ethical concerns related to the design, use and societal impact of Artificial Intelligence.
2. Apply relevant theoretical models from the ethical, legal and social science literature to identified ethical concerns regarding AI.
3. Critically analyse strengths and weaknesses of different positions from the ethical, legal and social science literature on ethical concerns related to the design, use and societal impact of Artifical Intelligence.
4. Demonstrate the ability to communicate core insights from divergent perspectives on ethical concerns coherently and concisely.
5. Conduct an in depth investigation into an ethical concern regarding AI by analysing and integrating extensive up to date relevant research literature.

Assessments

• Continuous Assessment (100%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  HELENA CONDON 🖂
  
•  HEIKE SCHMIDT-FELZMANN 🖂
  
•  MARIA BERNAL-NAVARRO 🖂
  

Reading List

1. "Towards a Code of Ethics for Artificial Intelligence" by Paula Boddington
   Publisher: Springer
2. "The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI" by Markus Dubber, Frank Pasquale, Sunit Das (eds)
   Publisher: OUP
3. "Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor" by Virginia Eubanks
   Publisher: St Martin's Press
4. "Privacy, Big Data, and the Public Good: Frameworks for Engagement" by Julia Lane, Victoria Stodden, Stefan Bender, Helen Nissenbaum (Editors)
   Publisher: Cambridge University Press
5. "Ethics of Artificial Intelligence" by Matthew Liao (ed.)
   Publisher: OUP
6. "Robot Ethics 2.0: From Autonomous Cars to Artificial Intelligence" by Patrick Lin, Keith Abney, Ryan Jenkins (Editors)
   Publisher: Oxford University Press
7. "Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life" by Helen Nissenbaum
   Publisher: Stanford University Press
8. "The Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics" by Carissa Veliz (ed.)
   Publisher: OUP
9. "Privacy as Trust: Information Privacy for an Information Age" by Ari Waldman
   Publisher: Cambridge University Press
10. "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" by Shoshanna Zuboff
    Publisher: Profile Books

OptionalHI6108: Everyday Lives: an Intimate History of 20th Century Women

HI6108: Everyday Lives: an Intimate History of 20th Century Women

Semester 2 | Credits: 10

This module offers an intimate history of the everyday lives of women in the United States, Britain and Ireland. We will explore the lives, roles, experiences and perceptions of 'ordinary' women across the twentieth century. Students will be introduced to an array of sources – including popular and visual culture, objects and digital sources, oral testimony and literature (fiction and memoir) – and to what they reveal about the manner in which women were perceived and represented; how women viewed themselves; and how women of different generations experienced, negotiated and reacted to social change. Fashion, consumerism, courtship, sexuality, and advertising are among the areas considered for what they reveal about women and the world around them. Such themes will be analysed within the context of continuity and change across the twentieth century and three geographical perspectives. The module will conclude by questioning the extent to which women’s movements were representative of 'ordinary' women.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate an understanding of everyday lives in relation to broader women’s history,
2. Demonstrate the ability to address historical problems in the field through the sophisticated use of primary sources,
3. Demonstrate a broad understanding of historiographical approaches to selected themes in the study of ordinary lives,
4. Demonstrate the ability to develop and sustain sophisticated synthetic arguments.

Assessments

• Research (100%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  HELENA CONDON 🖂
  
•  Ciara Meehan 🖂
  

OptionalMIC6100: Resisting through Culture: Conflicts in Europe and Beyond

MIC6100: Resisting through Culture: Conflicts in Europe and Beyond

Semester 2 | Credits: 10

This module explores the transformative power of culture in times of conflict, considering, in particular, the literature that emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century following the post-war division of Europe. Works by Peter Schneider, Ivan Klíma, Václav Havel, Herta Müller and Malala Yousafzai form the focus of analysis. Situating these texts within their socio-political contexts of division and conflict, the module explores how literature and culture can be harnessed to facilitate and express resistance within and against totalitarian systems.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss selected texts by Peter Schneider, Ivan Klíma, Václav Havel, Herta Müller, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon and Édouard Glissant
2. Describe the socio-political contexts in which these texts were composed
3. Analyse how literature and culture can be used to express resistance within and against totalitarian political systems
4. Deliver a presentation based on a close reading of extracts from one of the core texts
5. Write an essay on one or more of the core texts

Assessments

• Continuous Assessment (100%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  DEIRDRE BYRNES 🖂
  
•  TINA-KAREN PUSSE 🖂
  
•  Natalie Nevin 🖂
  

Reading List

1. "The Wall Jumper" by Peter Schneider
2. "The Spirit of Prague and Other Essays" by Ivan Klíma
3. "The Land of Green Plums" by Herta Mueller
4. "Open Letters: Selected Writings, 1965-1990" by Václav Havel
5. "A Tempest, trans. by Philip Crispin" by Aimé Césaire
   Publisher: Oberon
6. "The Wretched of the Earth, transl. by Richard Philcox" by Frantz Fanon
   Publisher: Grove Press
7. "Poetics of Relation, trans. by Betsy Wing" by Édouard Glissant
   Publisher: University of Michigan Press

OptionalHI6106: Issues in Irish Local History

HI6106: Issues in Irish Local History

Semester 2 | Credits: 10

Drawing on monographs, general studies, and archival sources, this module invites students to consider how different social groups experienced the profound changes that transformed urban and rural communities across Ireland from the mid-eighteenth through the early twentieth century. Although the course traces political developments, it pays equal attention to socioeconomic and cultural issues, including the shift from high fertility to sexual restraint; patterns of emigration, consumption and social unrest; improvements in education and literacy; linguistic change; changing devotional practices and cultural ‘revival’ in the late 1800s
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes

1. will be familiar with the major sources for Irish local history
2. critically analyse major social, cultural and political developments in Ireland, c.1750-1920s
3. engage in a critical fashion with the historiography of the period covered by the module
4. demonstrate an advanced capacity to discuss orally and in writing the key topics in the history of the period
5. have an understanding of the development and application of research methods

Assessments

• Oral, Audio Visual or Practical Assessment (30%)
• Research (70%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  HELENA CONDON 🖂
  
•  JOHN CUNNINGHAM 🖂
  
•  Breandan MacSuibhne 🖂
  

OptionalSP6122: Social and Political Context of Activism and Advocacy

SP6122: Social and Political Context of Activism and Advocacy

Semester 2 | Credits: 10

This course provides an introduction to the social and political context of international advocacy and activism. It links local, national and international contexts for advocacy and activism, drawing upon historical, sociological and political perspectives on the rise of international campaigning for social justice. It explores the relationships between the state, market and civil society,charting the dynamic emergence of new social and political actors in local and transnational public advocacy.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand the key international actors, events and structures driving contemporary processes of global public activism and advocacy, and how these involve the efforts of states, markets and civil society.
2. Discuss and illustrate core knowledge about the historical background and the social, political and economic relevance of international public activism and advocacy
3. Demonstrate familiarity with the international rights, development and environmental frameworks for activism and advocacy, including specific knowledge of key international actors and structures.
4. Exercise research and writing skills and capacities to present a detailed piece of research and analysis on a historical or contemporary example of advocacy and activism
5. Exemplify skills in communicating, collaborating, developing and presenting research with peers in a workshop setting
6. Engage with opportunities to debate the key issues and questions surrounding the economics, politics and ethics of public advocacy and activism

Assessments

• Continuous Assessment (100%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  FIONA BATEMAN 🖂
  
•  HELEN CASEY 🖂
  
•  DEIRDRE HARDIMAN 🖂
  
•  SU-MING KHOO 🖂
  
•  JACQUELINE MURPHY 🖂
  

Reading List

1. "‘Introduction: Twelve men in a Printing Shop’, in Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to End Slavery" by n/a
   ISBN: HOCHSCHILD, A.
2. "‘From Santiago to Seattle: Transnational Advocacy groups Restructuring World Politics Chapter 1 in Khagram et al (eds) Restructuring World Politics." by Khagram et al (eds)
3. "‘Slave sugar boycotts, female activism and the domestic base of the British anti-slavery culture’ Slavery and Abolition" by Midgely, Clare

OptionalHI6110: Race and Reparative Histories

HI6110: Race and Reparative Histories

Semester 2 | Credits: 10

This interdisciplinary module explores the role of cultural memories and histories in relation to questions of reparative justice within the specific contexts of ‘race’, identity, transatlantic enslavement and empire. Drawing on debates concerning the idea of the ‘reparative’, the module analyses and problematizes the ways in which the relationship between the past and the present is negotiated, contested or constructed across various sites around the Atlantic world. Questions of how the legacies of empire and enslavement are being interpreted and represented are addressed in relation to e.g. recent historiographical developments, commemorative practice, museology, archival practice and other cultural forms.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate understanding of how the legacies of enslavement and colonialism are understood and how they inform contemporary cultural politics;
2. Critically analyse key debates and politics underpinning ideas of reparative justice, the roles of cultural memory and history-making within these debates;
3. Research a wide range of relevant sources, critically engage with their ideas, and develop arguments within their fields of scholarly interest.

Assessments

• Continuous Assessment (100%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  Anita Rupprecht 🖂
  

Reading List

1. "A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook" by Astrid Erill et al. (eds.)
   ISBN: 978-311022998.
   Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
2. "History and Memory" by Geoffrey Cubitt
   ISBN: 978-071906078.
   Publisher: Manchester University Press
3. "The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators" by Michael Rothberg
   ISBN: 978-150360959.
   Publisher: Stanford University Press
4. "Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Transnational and Comparative History" by Ana Lucia Araujo
   ISBN: 978-135001059.
   Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
5. "Museums and Atlantic Slavery" by Ana Lucia Araujo
   ISBN: 978-036753008.
   Publisher: Routledge
6. "In the Wake: On Blackness and Being" by Christina Sharpe
   Publisher: Duke University Press

OptionalFM6119: Film, Politics, and Colonialism

FM6119: Film, Politics, and Colonialism

Semester 2 | Credits: 10

This module considers the significance of film as a mode of cultural production, the politics of representation, and the role of ‘national’ cinema. The films viewed and analysed address subjects including colonial history, marginal groups, conflict, resistance, gender, and postcolonial realities. Students will consider aspects of those films including genre, theme, and narrative structure. The political and historical circumstances of their production will also be discussed and analyzed.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand the language of film and be able to deconstruct and read a film critically.
2. Analyse the politics of representation, with reference to the historical and social context of films under discussion, including the effects of colonialism and postcolonialism.
3. Explore ideas about film and politics which provide theoretical and analytical tools that can be deployed in the specific media practices involved in advocacy, for example the application of postcolonial theory to film texts.
4. Demonstrate understanding of the relationship between film and politics, and the difference between propaganda and entertainment.

Assessments

• Department-based Assessment (100%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  FIONA BATEMAN 🖂
  
•  DEIRDRE QUINN 🖂
  

Reading List

1. "Questions of Third Cinema" by Jim Pines
2. "Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television" by Michael Anderegg
   Publisher: Temple UP
3. "Irish Film: The Emergence of a Contemporary Cinema" by Martin McLoone
   Publisher: BFI

OptionalHI580: Irish Contacts with Europe, 1770-1973

HI580: Irish Contacts with Europe, 1770-1973

Semester 2 | Credits: 10

This module addresses a neglected aspect of Ireland’s transnational past – its engagement with continental Europe after the extensive emigration that followed the early modern conquest of Ireland and before Ireland’s entry into the EEC in 1973. Students will evaluate the small, but growing, body of scholarship on Irish links with the continent and identify avenues for future research by means of analysis of primary sources, such as newspapers, travel accounts, diplomatic documents and memoirs. Key questions will include the movement of people to and from different parts of the continent, domestic responses to nationalist movements abroad, involvement in continental wars and diplomatic relations after independence.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes

1. Locate and analyse primary sources relating to Irish contacts with the continent
2. Evaluate secondary literature on the topic
3. Present their findings orally in class
4. Complete a substantial piece of scholarly work on the topic

Assessments

• Continuous Assessment (100%)

Teachers & Administrators

Click a name to search for their researcher profile. Note: Only teachers publish research profiles.

•  HELENA CONDON 🖂
  
•  RÓISÍN HEALY 🖂
  
•  KAREN M WALSH 🖂
  

Reading List

1. "Irish Communities in early modern Europe" by Marian Lyons and Thomas O’Connor
2. "Ireland and Europe, 1919-1948" by Dermot Keogh
3. "Ireland and Europe in the Nineteenth Century" by Colin Graham and Leon Litvack
4. "Ireland and the French Enlightenment, 1700-1800" by Graham Gargett and Geraldine Sheridan
5. "Das Deutschlandbild der Iren, 1890-1939" by Joachim Fischer