This module introduces students to the discipline of history. It gives them an opportunity to explore the 'local' context around them and to link this to wider 'global' themes. It also provides an introduction to the use and interpretation of different kinds of evidence, backed up by use of academic texts on the practice of history.
The lectures will introduce the local/global and personal/professional framework of the module. They will provide an overview of the modern development of the Potteries, including the pottery, coal and steel industries, and the more recent 'post-industrial' strategies of regeneration through heritage museums like the Gladstone Pottery Museum, and leisure attractions such as Alton Towers. The lectures will also consider the use of written, statistical, oral and visual sources as applied to the local context. Where appropriate, speakers from the locality and with expertise relating to different kinds of sources will be invited to contribute, such as from the Staffordshire Archive Service or a local documentary film-maker. Consideration will be given to career and other opportunities that can arise from 'making history' through the project and a history degree. Advice will be given on the project including the selection of a topic and guidelines for presentation.

The lectures will introduce the main themes and framework of the module including use of video extracts and slides. The seminars will provide for follow-up discussion of the module framework; opportunities to practice source evaluation skills; and discussion and guidance for project topic selection and development. Tutorial time will be made available as students carry out their project work (e.g. providing professional contacts, letters of introduction, advice on research methods, further reading). The independent study can involve visits to local museums, libraries and archives, arranging interviews, taking photographs, internet research.

Project-Individual 2300 words [Learning Outcomes 1-4]
Project Proposal length 200 words [Learning Outcome 3]

University computers for access to internet resources.
Recommended library books and journals and videos and www-related material.
Individual visits to local museums, libraries and archives for project work with appropriate reference to study guidelines.
The Blackboard virtual learning environment will be available (where relevant) to support this module. Details will be supplied in the module handbook.

Bell, Judith Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for first-time researchers in education and science, Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 4th Edn. 2005
Bird, Jon et al (ed.) Mapping the Future: Local Cultures, Global Changes, Routledge, London, 1993
Drake, Michael & Finnegan, Ruth Sources and Methods for Family and Community Historians: A Handbook, CUP, Cambridge, 1994
Edensor, Tim (ed.) Reclaiming Stoke-on-Trent: Leisure, Space and Identity in the Potteries, Staffs. Univ. Press, Stoke, 2000
Edwards, Mervyn Potters in Pits, Churnet Valley, Leek, 1998
Harrison, Christopher J. A Bibliography of the History of Staffordshire University of Keele, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 2004.
Johnson, Paul The Vanished Landscape: A Potteries Childhood in the 1930s Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London, 2004
Johnson, Ray The Potteries at War, Video, Staffordshire Film Archive, 1999
Jordanova, Ludmilla History in Practice 2nd Edn, Arnold, London, 2006
Phillips, A.D.M. (ed.) The Potteries: Continuity and Change in a Staffordshire Conurbation, Sutton, Stroud, 1993
Sarsby, Jacqueline Missuses and Mouldrunners: An oral history of women pottery-workers at work and at home, OUP, Oxford, 1988
Taylor, Alan, The Potteries: Events, People and Places Over the Last 100 Years, Sutton, Stroud, 2000
Taylor, Alan Stoke-on-Trent: A History, Phillimore, Chichester, 2003