History - Honours in History

Please advise the History Office when you have chosen your seminar/s

Seminar choices - Semester 1, 2009

_{The Word: Religion, Print and Literacy in the European Reformations}
_{Dr Lesley O'Brien
Protestantism is often described as a religion ‘of the word’ and
arguably the sixteenth-century Reformation could not have occurred
without the invention of the printing press. Nevertheless, in spite of
the prohibition on access to the Bible for the laity before the
Reformation, and the perception that this period was characterised by
widespread illiteracy, late medieval Catholicism was supported by a
large body of devotional literature, much of it aimed at a lay
audience. In this seminar series, we will examine the relationship
between religion and the written word, across the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, in both manuscript and print culture. We will
consider such themes as medieval and early modern literacy, information
control, religious propaganda and polemic and we will investigate the
part print played in driving the Protestant reformations in Europe, the
evolution of authorial strategies and reader responses, and the power
of the new medium as a force for social and religious change.}

_{Politics and popular culture in Australia
Associate Professor Charlie Fox
This course will examine the history of popular culture in Australia and its relationship with Australian politics, where politics is defined in both broad and narrow senses: social processes and social structures, the government of public affairs by the state and the more intimate relationships between people. It will begin with debates about what popular culture is and the best ways to approach, analyse and understand it. Popular culture is a huge topic so we will have to be selective in what we do, but topics could include: cultural nationalism and the Australian film industry; the impact of rational recreation and respectability on popular culture; the regulation of popular culture by government; the development of state cultural policy; sport, nationalism and social structure; popular music and youth culture; the politics of everyday life; consumption and suburbia; advertising and imagery; the impact of radio and television; tourism and national identity, gender, sexuality and popular magazines and the cultural meanings of the beach. We might finish with the question, is there an Australian popular culture? No matter what we ultimately decide to do, you will be given plenty of opportunity to explore topics that interest you.}

_{Totalitarian War: The German-Soviet Front, 1941-1945
Dr Mark Edele}_{This unit explores both classical and recent writings on what the Germans called the Eastern Front and the Soviets the Great Patriotic War. Avoiding, by and large, battle histories, our focus will be on attempting to understand why and how this theatre of war became the most deadly and the most brutal of all Second World Wars. In an attempt to bring together two still largely separate historiographies -- one on the German, the other on the Soviet side -- our attention will focus on social, cultural, ideological and psychological factors in this encounter of two regimes often dubbed "totalitarian".}

_{Texts and Approaches: Reading the Pre-Modern World
A/Prof Andrew Lynch
In this seminar, we approach three major texts, in differing pre-modern genres, from several perspectives; textual, editorial, generic, contextual. What decisions do editors of pre-modern texts make, and how do they affect our readings of the works? What did early European writers and readers expect from different genresâ€”romance manuscripts, pamphlets, court records, legal writing? How did social and cultural contexts affect the production of writing? How did textual and interpretative practices establish social and cultural understandings: of power, heroism, illicit conduct, criminality? The 2009 modules are: Early English Romance: Text, Culture, Ideology (Assoc. Prof. Andrew Lynch); English Witchcraft Pamphlets and Court Records (Dr Jacqueline Van Gent). Legal Readings and Criminal Records (Dr David Barrie).}

_{Canals, Canvas and Cheese: The Low Countries in history, art and heritage tourism - IS NO LONGER ON OFFER DUE TO STAFF UNAVAILABILITY}

Seminar choices - Semester 2, 2009

_{History and Environment}_{Dr Susie Protschky and Dr Jeremy Martens}_{There is a long tradition of historical thought about the environment. Well before the advent of environmentalism, and the subsequent birth of the sub-discipline of "environmental history", historians had begun to think and write about how the environment shaped human action and how human action in turn shaped the natural world. This unit combines a public lecture series with an honours seminar. It re-evaluates both classical and cutting edge approaches to history and the environment, and the complex interrelations between the two. The lectures and seminars will be held by group of specialists, giving students the unique possibility to encounter and query the work of a wide variety of historians.}

^{Pleasure and Pain: A Social History of Leisure and Recreation in Britain, c.1700-1900
Dr David Barrie}^{This seminar series examines long-term trends in leisure and recreation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Students will explore how the upper, middle and lower classes spent their ï¿½free timeï¿½ in pre-industrial society, the impact of industrial expansion on leisure and recreational pastimes, and the relationship between popular activities and economic, social and intellectual developments. Attention will be given to understanding the social construction of leisure and its consequences, initiatives aimed at controlling and regulating popular pastimes, and barriers to leisure and how these were overcome. Key topics include: plebeian culture and popular celebrations; coffee-house/dinning-room culture in Enlightenment society; the contrasting experiences of Georgian and Victorian women; capital punishment and violence as a form of entertainment; the birth of consumer society and the commercialization of leisure; the development of sporting activities; the Victorian underworld; Victorian values and rational recreation; and tourism and the development of seaside towns. The main focus will be on Britain, but international comparisons will be drawn throughout, especially with Australia.}

^{Thinking Space: Theory and method of region and race in the American West}
^{Dr Ethan Blue}
^{Where is the American West? It seems an easy question (i.e., west of the Mississippi River; the place where John Wayne smoked Marlboros, etc), but on second glance, gets more complicated. It requires asking at least two questions: 'when?' and 'from whose perspective?' American history commonly reads as a travel narrative from East to West, but for Asian Americans crossing the Pacific, the 'West' was very much 'East'. For Mexican Americans, it was el norte, and for native peoples, it was simply home, besieged by European illegal aliens. With questions like these in mind, this seminar interrogates how historians, geographers, and everyday people draw spatial boundaries, how those spaces are bound within history, and how they relate to social identities and power relations. Though the American West serves as its laboratory, the unit's questions, methods and readings are applicable to issues of space and power more broadly, from ancient cityscapes to cyberspace and beyond.}

^{World War I: perspectives on a European catastrophe
Dr Giuseppe Finaldi}^{This unit will examine historiography and issues relating to World War I in the European context. Through an engagement with what has been written on the Great War (history, narrative, cinema etc.) it will get to grips with the way this conflict transformed Europe and set the pace for change in what has been called the European Catastrophe of the 20th Century.}

^{Themes and Connections: Interpreting the Pre-Modern World
Dr Jacqueline Van Gent
This seminar analyses three key themes of the pre-modern world in order to provide a deeper understanding of this era. Each theme will draw on a diverse range of evidence, from the literary and historical to the artistic, and will be examined from differing analytical perspectives. Themes covered in 2009 will include: Religion, Gender, and the Body (Dr Jacqueline Van Gent); The City, Commerce, Art and Society: The Republic of Venice (Associate Professor John Melville-Jones); and Literature and Cartography: Putting Early Europe on the Map (Emeritus Professor Chris Wortham).}

Dissertation Prospectus

Students commencing their dissertation in first semester are required to submit a brief statement, accompanied by a working bibliography, of what you intend to do. This will be done in consultation with your dissertation supervisor. The submission deadline for the dissertation prospectus is FRIDAY 6 MARCH 2009. The Dissertation Guidelines will provide further information and the prospectus cover sheet.

_{_{Useful Links}}

_{_{History Honours Information Pack 2009}}

_{_{Faculty Honours policy}}

_{_{List of History Honours dissertations and how to access them}}