Gender is enjoying a new prominence in public discourse today; it is a cornerstone of the contemporary zeitgeist. The epistemological value of gender is being stretched and, in response, contracted with equal zeal. A key way to learn more about this pivotal, topical and profoundly political concept is to look at it historically: what has it meant to be a woman, or a man, in the modern era? Have men's and women's experiences changed or differed over time? Has being a woman or a man always meant the same thing, and what were the alternatives to this familiar binary choice? This module uses cutting-edge historiography to interrogate these questions.

Research paper (25%) requires students to select a topic from a selection relevant to the module and research, reflect, plan, write, drafting and referencing precis on this topic. Achievement is assessed in Learning Outcomes Knowledge and Understanding and Enquiry through the demonstration of knowledge and the application of these skills.

Essay (75%) requires students to select a topic from a selection relevant to the module and research, critically reflect, design an argument before planning, writing, drafting and referencing their essay length response to the question. Learning Outcomes: Knowledge and Understanding, Reflection, Analysis, Enquiry.

Key Information Set Data:
100% Coursework

Lectures will be organised chronologically and each one will introduce students to a theme in the practice of gender history. Each seminar will be built around discussion of this theme and will also introduce the application of historiographical models to primary source materials, as a means to assess the heuristic value of that model. Independent study hours will be spent reading in preparation for the seminars and also working on the assessments.

1. Demonstrate an understanding of changing attitudes towards gender in the modern era.

Knowledge and Understanding

2. Reflect on and begin to deconstruct some commonly-held assumptions about gender and sex from a historical perspective.

Reflection

3. Learn some of the prominent trends and predilections in the historiography of gender history and apply them independently to new material.

Analysis

4. Learn to independently interrogate historical evidence to learn about gender from a historical perspective.
Enquiry

Library access and Blackboard VLE, teaching space with digital projection.

Barbara Caine, 2000. Gendering European History 1780-1920, Leicester University Press.

Kathleen Canning, 2006. Gender History in Practice: Historical Perspectives on Bodies, Class & Citizenship, Cornell University Press.

Laura Lee Downs, 2009. Writing Gender History, Bloomsbury.

Stefan Dudink, Karen Hagemann and John Tosh (eds), 2004. Masculinities in Politics and War: Gendering Modern History, Manchester University Press.

Sonya O Rose, 2010. What is Gender History?, Wiley.