Public History

Module overview

In this core module, students engage with public history as it is currently practised across the heritage and education sectors. The module considers the roles of museums and other heritage sites within society, and the challenges associated with producing and practising public history. Within sessions, students learn how to effectively communicate history outside of the academy and take part in workshops where they develop relevant practical skills, such as lesson planning, podcast production, and exhibition design.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

a wide variety of primary sources relating to public history.
a wide variety of secondary source material relating to public history, including theoretical frameworks used in the field.
Public history, in particular the way in which historians communicate history to the public through various approaches.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

use to good effect textual, visual and material culture sources, synthesising this material to develop cogent and persuasive arguments.
research complex historical questions and communicate your findings convincingly and concisely in a range of media.
utilise and develop your time-management skills.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

undertake a thorough critical analysis and assessment of a variety of textual, visual and material culture sources.
engage with historiography and theoretical frameworks, contributing to the debates relating to public history.
apply your practical skills, structuring your ideas and research findings into a well-ordered portfolio.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include seminars and workshops. Learning methods include skills-based workshops and discussion of key themes and ideas.

Study time
Type	Hours
Completion of assessment task	100
Workshops	24
Wider reading or practice	64
Preparation for scheduled sessions	100
Seminar	12
Total study time	300

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Gardner, James B., And Paula Hamilton (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Public History. Oxford: OUP.

Wi?niewska, Dorota, And Joanna Wojdon (eds.) (2022). Public in Public History. Abingdon: Routledge.

Fowler, Corinne (2020). Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England’s Colonial Connections. Leeds: Peepal Tree Press.

Dean, David (Ed.) (2018). A Companion to Public History. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Woods, Hannah Rose (2022). Rule, Nostalgia: A Backwards History of Britain. London: Penguin.

Assessment

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Portfolio	100%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Resubmit assessments	100%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Portfolio	100%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External