HIS3346 : The Rising Generation: Youth, Age and Protest in Cold War Britain
- Offered for Year: 2024/25
- Module Leader(s): Dr Laura Tisdall
- Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
- Capacity limit: 40 student places
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
This module considers how both conservatives and radicals used the language of age and life-stage to construct visions of the future between 1960 and 1989. How far can protest movements - second-wave feminism, black civil rights, gay liberation and CND - be understood as generational conflicts? And how does employing age, gender, class, race and sexuality as categories of historical analysis change the way that we do history?
This module aims to introduce students to important empirical and methodological questions about age, gender and sexuality, using a case study of Cold War Britain. It will consider the histories of 'muted groups' such as children, women, people of colour and LGBT people, but also demonstrate how the language used about such groups is used to structure power relations in society; for example, how groups and individuals are demeaned by being told 'that's childish' or 'you're acting like a girl'. The module will draw on a wide range of primary sources - for example, periodicals, photographs, maps, oral histories and self-narratives - and will be situated in the relevant historiography on post-war and Cold War Britain.
Particular attention will be paid to the following objectives:
• How to use oral history and self-narrative sources.
• How to use ‘secondary’ historiography when the main histories of a movement are written by contemporaries e.g. the historiography of second-wave feminism.
• How to handle conflicting narratives about race, gender, sexuality and age critically, and how to use historical empathy to assess these sources.
• How to analyse histories of particular phenomena using race, gender, age and sexuality as categories of historical analysis.
Outline Of Syllabus
A suggested list of seminar topics is as follows:
1. Cold War Britain
2. Class, trade unionism and the ‘New Left’
3. Race and immigration
4. Black activism and Black Power
5. ‘Second-wave’ feminism
6. CND and anti-nuclear activism
7. Childhood and the children's rights movement
8. Adolescence and student protest
9. Lesbians and political separatism
10. Gay men and AIDS
11. Trans, bisexual and gender non-conforming identities
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | Lectures |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 56 | 1:00 | 56:00 | N/A |
| Guided Independent Study | Directed research and reading | 55 | 1:00 | 55:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | Seminars. |
| Structured Guided Learning | Structured non-synchronous discussion | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | Asynchronous discussion of either set reading or primary sources on online discussion board, and viewing and discussion of pre-recorded student presentations. Counts towards contact hours. |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 56 | 1:00 | 56:00 | N/A |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
The large % of independent study promotes self-directed learning and the effective use of primary and secondary literature. PIP seminar teaching encourages the close analysis of primary source material and the development of critical thinking and historical empathy. Online asynchronous discussions allow students to participate in class in a different way if they are less confident in PIP seminars. In-person lectures provide scaffolding for student learning while preserving small-group seminars for student discussion and analysis of primary sources and set reading, ensuring all students have a basic understanding of the topic and can participate in discussion. Making student presentations pre-recorded online rather than scheduling them in seminar preserves seminar time, assists students who are anxious about giving presentations and creates valuable resources for other students.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 2 | A | 70 | 2500 word essay. |
| Portfolio | 2 | M | 30 | 1000 word portfolio. |
Formative Assessments
Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.
| Description | Semester | When Set | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oral Presentation | 2 | M | Length: 10 Minutes |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
This source-led course privileges close reading of the source material rather than memorisation for a timed examination. Therefore, the main assessments are coursework-based. This will allow the assessment of the intended knowledge outcomes by testing the students' understanding of the primary and secondary literature, and their ability to examine this literature critically and to situate their own argument within this existing work.
Formative assessment, in the form of pre-recorded oral presentations, will allow students to develop their confidence both in public speaking and in posing questions to other students, skills which are important for the job market as well as for personal development
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- HIS3346's Timetable