Researching the Past

This subject is not offered in 2014.

120 hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This year-long subject, conducted as twelve fortnightly seminars, introduces commencing graduate students to various tools and traditions of reading, writing, researching and thinking about the past. The subject will touch on a range of key methodological approaches in the historiography over the past half century. Its intention is to refocus students' attention towards researching and communicating the past and on discussion of the broader role and claims of historical scholarship and the history profession more generally. To enable either calendar or mid-year commencement, the seminar will be divided into four modules, two per semester: Purpose, Empathy, Poetics, and Archives. Importantly, it provides a forum that will inform the current research and project development of graduate students, assisting in the framing of research questions and the development and articulation of argument and evidence. To this end, student thesis proposals and work in progress will be regularly work shopped. It is also expected that the seminar program will include presentations by guests or visiting academics that will showcase books or ideas that have shaped their own historical journeys.

Successful completion of the Research Workshop will enable students to have an enhanced awareness of the range of contemporary scholarship in the discipline or interdisciplinary area. In the assessment, students will be expected to demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate the contemporary research literature that is relevant to the thesis topic. The Research Workshop will also enable students to formulate and present the research proposal for confirmation.

• one 2,500-word literature review positioning essay. Due at the end of first semester (50%)
• one 2,500-word research essay. Dur during mid-second semester (50%)

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.