Newcastle University

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

The aims of this module are two-fold:

1. To introduce and immerse the students in critical reflection around the social, cultural, economic and political aspects of how land issues drove and impacted on Britain, the USA and Ireland, with a heavy emphasis on linking these three case studies to the emerging field of environmental humanities. There is an extensive literature on these themes, and material from cognate disciplines (geography; sociology; landscape studies/fiction/poetry) will be included.

2. To support the students to better identify then develop their skills, including those traditionally associated with History teaching (independent research and study; critical and reflective thinking; information literacy; written expression), and broader skills associated with employability (oral and personal presentation; team work; managing different audiences; entrepreneurialism).

Both aims are addressed in the teaching content and methods and in the assessment types. The module also aims to support the wider progression of the students and what is expected from them at Stage 2, building on their foundational Stage 1 year and preparing them for Stage 3.

Outline Of Syllabus

This module examines issues of land ownership, management and reform transnationally, with a focus on three case studies: the USA, Scotland and Ireland. In each of these places, land reform has played a major political, economic and cultural role in the modern period. A list of topics that may be included are:

Introducing the topic and frameworks; the transnational turn in history; comparative approaches; the sources; modern Irish, Scottish and US context.

Case study 1 - the USA. Coverage from the 1840s to the 1920s including the Homestead Act, the Civil War and Reconstruction and all aspects of land reform - political, social, cultural and economic.

Case study 2 – Ireland. The Irish case study will consider the impact of protest on land reform and also what ideology or vision these movements had for Irish society in terms of land use. Overall, the Irish case may well have similarities with the USA and Scotland but it also may have strong differences particularly given the colonial or quasi colonial way in which Ireland was governed under the act of union (1801-1922).

Case study 3 - Scotland. In 2019 Scotland has the most concentrated land ownership patterns in Europe. This case study looks at why this is the case historically and the efforts that have been made between the 1880s and the present day to break down these patterns and how they compare and influenced land reform in other places as diverse as colonial India, Australia and Canada. Like in the USA and Ireland, land reform has been a major political issue in the modern period and was also related to issues around poor living and housing standards, military and imperial priorities, electoral reform and language politics.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding:

1. That students should be able to use multiple types of sources and media to understand the complexities of approach used by the environmental humanities in relation to British, American and Irish society’s interaction with land issues in the modern period including government records, fiction and poetry, art, business records, newspapers, film and TV.

2. That students should be able to critically understand and address the work of historians, sociologists, geographers and environmentalists, and other related disciplines that engage with land issues, and the key secondary debates in the field.

3. That students should be able to understand the key patterns of social, economic, cultural and political aspects of land issues in Britain, America and Ireland. That students should be able to think critically about the contemporary issues and legacies presented by land reform, reconstruction and the climate crisis.

Intended Skill Outcomes

Overall this module aims to ensure a defined progression for students from Stage 1 to Stage 2 and to prepare them for Stage 3. This is driven primarily to defined work on key skills (outlined below), as well as the content and approaches taken in the teaching and independent study elements of the module described above.

Practical skills

•       to use and critically evaluate primary sources
•       to identify and retrieve information from a wide variety of sources
•       to construct a reasoned defence of an interpretation of an event or aspect of society in the past
•       to work in small teams to produce assessed work, written and verbal/presentational

Key skills

•       to achieve effective oral and written communication
•       to show initiative, self-discipline and self-direction in learning
•       to improve performance through reflection, self-assessment and using feedback from the tutor effectively
•       to respond flexibly to a wide range of challenges

Cognitive (thinking) skills

•       To critically evaluate, analyse and discuss a wide range of source materials.
•       To construct extended written and oral arguments supported by relevant historical evidence.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

As a Stage 2 module, aside from an in-depth understanding of the content of the module, the teaching methods, which focus on small group work, presentational and oral skills, team work, lecture delivery and independent research and writing, relate to the core learning outcomes of supporting students in developing sophisticated research skills across a wide range of sources, being able to synthesise the information they collect and form convincing and coherent arguments.

Independent learning is essential to this module: students are expected to develop skills of source evaluation, critical reading and note-taking in an independent and effective manner. Seminar teaching complements these skills by allowing students the opportunity to share and debate information gathered independently. In addition, students will be required to work in small teams to deliver a poster and oral presentation, enhancing their team-working experience and skills. Oral skills of argument and presentation will be developed. Moreover, a significant part of seminar teaching will test the development of primary source analysis and problem solving.

SEMINARS encourage independent study and promote improvements in oral presentation, interpersonal communication, problem-solving skills, research skills and adaptability.

LECTURES enable students to gain a wider sense of historical argument and debate and how such debates operate, which also allows them to develop comparisons between different historiographical debates.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

This module (1) supports and assesses student progression at Stage 2 and (2) endeavours to support their skills development, including academic and employability.

1. Work submitted during the delivery of the module forms a means of determining the student’s progress.

A formative exercise of a research proposal will be set for this module. It will be un-assessed, but will be discussed in the seminars, will support students develop their ideas for the research essay and their research design skills generally and will feed into the assessed work.


Presentation: Students will be allocated into groups of 3 at the beginning of the module and will be required to select a topic around which they will research, design and produce (via PowerPoint slide) a poster, which they will them collectively present in seminar.

The group work element requires students to work as part of a team, set their own deadlines and goals, allocate work together and then present it. Organisational and time management skills are to the fore here. The research essay emphasises independent thinking and learning (supported by the Module Team), research literacy and finding skills, writing and structuring skills and working to deadlines.

Work submitted during the delivery of the module (i.e. the group presentation and poster) forms a means of determining student progress. Submitted work tests intended knowledge and skills outcomes, develops key skills in research, reading and writing.

Research essay: this prepares students for longer and more in-depth research practices in History in stage 3 including: developing research questions and methodologies; sourcing data and writing / constructing an argument. The essay will be comparative in approach, ensuring students engage with the transnational and comparative methodologies explored during the module.


Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. Where an exam is present, an alternative form of assessment will be set and where coursework is present, an alternative deadline will be set. Details of the alternative assessment will be provided by the module leader.

General Notes

N/A