Unit information: Ways Into History: A Pathway to Further Study in 2023/24

Unit name	Ways Into History: A Pathway to Further Study
Unit code	HUMS10013
Credit points	0
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Stone
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one
School/department	School of Humanities
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Unit Information

Ways Into History is a short course designed primarily to help mature students progress to a degree in the History department.

This course will consider the history of slavery, with a particular focus on the role of the city of Bristol in the slave trade. We will compare slavery on the West Indian and American Plantations to other historic slave systems. We will also look at the broader impact of the slave trade, how the slave trade has been remembered and how commemoration has become intertwined with modern day political concerns. Throughout, our aim will be to tackle difficult questions about both the historic realities of slavery and the slave trade, and the ways in which it’s been remembered.

Your learning on this unit

The course will encourage you to develop skills in:

• Reading a range of historical sources. We’ll be looking at lots of different types of sources which help shed light on the history of slavery in Bristol and around the world from merchants’ records of their trade, to the writings of abolitionists and the slaves themselves. We’ll be thinking about how slavery has been presented in the media, in film, and in literature. And we’ll go out into Bristol itself, looking at how traces of the slave trade still remain in the fabric of the city today.
• Discussion: There will be an emphasis on class discussion and debate as well as on critical analysis of the sources. This is a great way to improve confidence and to start thinking about what you are reading. This leads towards…
• Essay writing: We’ll be focusing in the opening weeks of the course on planning and writing essays: so don’t panic if you haven’t written one before or if you are out of practice!

How you will learn

15 meetings, 6-9pm, Wednesday evenings.

How you will be assessed

You will be awarded a mark for the course as a whole, based on the total of the marks for two assessed essays. There are NO EXAMS! You need 40% overall to pass the course.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. HUMS10013).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.