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Migrants, Criminals and Exiles: Urban Practices and Effects of Mobility, Containment and Exile, 1650-1900

Vak
2015-2016

Admission requirements

Not applicable.

Description

Migration shaped the world in the 18th and 19th century. Varying settlers, soldiers, sailors or people looking for work, migrants remained crucial in the ongoing processes of urbanization, colonization and globalization.
This course will examine how urban authorities dealt with the issue of mobility in practices of law and punishment. Were new groups of migrants targeted by urban laws and legal practices more than regular inhabitants? How were mobile poor, criminal offenders and other groups that were identified as ‘problematic’ dealt with? And what role did mobility play in practices of punishment, for example by forcing convicts out (exile) or confining them (prisons; practices of convict labour).
In this course, relevant literature and debates will be discussed on related literature from migration studies, urban history and recent global (convict) histories. Employing a comparative approach, students will then engage in research on available primary sources for four cities that were crucial in the Republic and in the Dutch colonial expansion – Amsterdam, Leiden, Batavia and Cochin.

Course objectives

General learning objectives
The student has acquired:

    1. The ability to independently identify and select literature, using traditional and modern techniques;
    1. The ability to independently identify and select sources, using traditional and modern techniques;
    1. The ability to analyse and evaluate a corpus of sources with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
    1. The ability to analyse and evaluate literature with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
    1. The ability to independently formulate a clear and well-argued research question, taking into account the theory and method of the field and to reduce this question to accessible and manageable sub-questions;
    1. The ability to independently set up and carry out an original research project that can make a contribution to existing scholarly debates;
    1. The ability to give a clear and well-founded oral and written report on research results in correct English, when required, or Dutch, meeting the criteria of the discipline;
    1. The ability to participate in current debates in the specialisation;
    1. (ResMA only:) The ability to participate in a discussion of the theoretical foundations of the discipline.

Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation

    1. Thorough knowledge and comprehension of one of the specialisations or subspecialisations as well as of the historiography of the specialisation, focusing particularly on the following:
    • in the specialisation Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence: the manner in which migrations (of people, goods and ideas) between and within states have led to shifts (in cohesion, ethnic composition, policies, imaging, culture, and power relations) in the period 1600-2000, with a focus on (urban) networks (within and across borders);
    1. Thorough knowledge and comprehension of the theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects of the specialisation or subspecialisation in question, with a particular focus on the following:
    • in the specialisation Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence: the interdisciplinary approach (application of theories and methods from social sciences), the comparative perspective (diachronic and synchronic) and working with a large variety of primary sources;

Learning objectives, pertaining to this Research Seminar
The student:

    1. Will acquire knowledge (and deal with historical debates) on mechanisms of control and discipline in relation to the historical processes of urbanization, colonization and globalization; for four cities that were crucial in the Republic and in the Dutch colonial expansion – Amsterdam, Leiden, Batavia and Cochin;
    1. Will learn to set up and conduct independent historical research on primary sources as part of the wider research performed by the group participating in the seminar;
    1. Will learn to report on their own archival research and provide feedback on others;
    1. Will learn to implement feedback of fellow students and lecturer to improve the research design and research process.
    1. (ResMA only) ResMA students have developed:
      a. The ability to interpret a potentially complex corpus of sources;
      b. The ability to identify new approaches within existing academic debates;
      c. Knowledge of the interdisciplinary aspects of the specialization.

Timetable

See Timetable and deadlines History

Mode of instruction

  • Seminar

Course Load

Total course load: 10 EC x 28 hrs = 280 hours

  • Meetings: 2 × 12 = 24 hours

  • Preparation for meetings (readings; assignments): 8 × 12 = 96 hours

  • Archival research: 88 hours

  • Written paper: 72 hours

Assessment method

Assessment

  • Written paper (ca. 7500 words, based on research in primary sources, including footnotes and bibliography)
    Measured learning objectives: 1-8, 12-15 (ResMA also: 9 and 16a-c)

  • Oral presentation
    Measured learning objectives: 3-7, 14-15

  • Participation (and feedback)
    Measured learning objectives: 8, 10-11 (ResMA also: 9)

  • Assignments
    Measured learning objectives: 12-15 (ResMA also: 16a-c)

Weighing
Written paper: 60 %
Oral presentation: 10 %
Participation (and feedback): 10 %
Assignments: 20 %

The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average with the additional requirement that the written paper must always be sufficent and students have met the obligation of active participation (and feedback) in the seminar.

Deadlines
Written papers should be handed in within the given deadline.

Resit
Should the overall mark be unsatisfactory, the paper is to be revised after consultation with the instructor.

Blackboard

Blackboard is used in this course for sharing research results.

Reading list

  • To be announced

Registration

Via uSis

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable.

Contact

dhr. Dr. G. Verhoeven

Remarks

None