Admission requirements
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Description
Since 1989, with the end of the Cold War, the decade following the Second World War has become particularly interesting to historians. They have been concerned with the question how Europe could rebuild itself so successfully after having experienced two world wars on her own soil. European reconstruction agendas and policies are of primary concern to this course. Questions surrounding the reconstruction of material life, as well as aspects of the political, economic, social and psychological reconfiguration of European states, and the idea of Europe itself are on the agenda of this course. The students are required to write a paper, give a presentation of their individual research project, and will be asked to provide a short contextualization of the films that we will watch in the third part of this seminar. Depending upon the number of attendees this may become a group assignment.
This course consists of three parts:
extensive debate based upon the literature on post-war Europe;
discussing a serie of case studies, covering both Western and Eastern Europe, considering national post-war experiences in their different Cold War dynamics
viewing early post-war films and analyzing those films together
Students will gain a broad understanding of Europe’s and European countries’ post-war history.Their individual projects will be based upon primary source materials in which they will trace the way in which the post-war reconstruction was conceptualized. Were those conceptualizations embedded in international or national discourse? What kind of symbols and perceptions dominated in those conceptualizations? Did post-war reconstruction fit into the re-emergence of strong international or national identities?
Course objectives
The student will gain insight and knowledge into:
The social, cultural and political history of the early post-war era in Europe
The historicity of the concept ‘reconstruction’
The international context of the ‘reconstruction’ processes in both Eastern and Western European countries
The relationship between national identity, transitional justice and ‘reconstruction’ as conceptualized in public debates and contemporary film
Knowledge and comprehension of discourse analysis
The ability to independently identify and select sources
The ability to independently formulate a clear and well-argued research question
The ability to analyze and evaluate literature and sources for the purpose of producing an original scholarly argument
The ability to interpret a corpus of sources
Knowledge and comprehension of Political Culture and National Identities specialization and its historiography: symbols and perceptions, nationalism, and national identities in a cultural and societal context from 1945 until 1955;
Knowledge and comprehension of the theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects of the specialisation, Political Culture and National Identities : international comparison and transfer; a cultural-historical approach of politics and a political-historical approach of culture; interdisciplinary analysis of political argumentation and rhetoric.
Extra course objectives for Res Master Students:
The ability to interpret a potentially complex corpus of sources
The ability to identify new approaches within existing academic debates
Knowledge of the interdisciplinary aspects of the specialisation
Timetable
View Timetable History
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Course Load
A total of 280 hours :
28 hours for class attendance.
62 hours for reading assignments.
5 hours preparing presentation
5 hours preparing contextualization of film
180 hours for writing a paper.
Assessment method
- A paper demonstrating the following skills:
- The ability to independently identify and select literature
- The ability to give a clear written report on the research results in English or Dutch
- The ability to engage with constructive academic feedback
- The ability to independently set up a primary source-driven research
- for ResMa students: the ability to analyze a relevant body of literature and identify the blank spots, taking those blank spots (in terms of types of sources used and types of questions gone unnoticed) for the research strategy, directed at contributing to the academic debate on post-war European history
These skills will be assessed by intermittent assignments (research outline; processing feedback on research outline; bibliographical assignment; archival assignment).
- A presentation and participiation in class discussions, demonstrating the following skills:
- the ability to give a clear oral report on the research results in English or Dutch
- the ability to provide constructive academic feedback
- for ResMa students: a meta-analysis of the class discussions
These skills will be assessed on the spot, during the seminars.
60%: paper
20%: presentation, abstract
10%: participation
10%: film contextualization assignment
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average. Papers need to be at least 5,5 in order for students to pass this course.
Blackboard
Blackboard is used for this course:
Announcements
Sharing data
Discussing research progress
Reading list
Tony Judt, Postwar: a History of Europe Since 1945 (Heinemann, 2005)
Other literature distributed through BlackBoard
Registration
via uSis
Contact
Mw. Dr. A.C.M. (Anna) Tijsseling
Remarks
Office hours: schedule an appointment