Admission requirements
Participation in the seminar is only permitted if the propaedeutic phase has been passed (60 EC).
Description
‘History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.’ Whether we can attribute this quote to Mark Twain or not, it summarises the idea behind this course succinctly. On the one hand, we should be cautious not to oversimplify what can be ‘learned’ from history. On the other hand, history does and can definitely play a role in political debates and decision making.
The aim of this seminar is to provide the students with strategies that will help them to think with history and time. Examples of questions that we will explore during this seminar are: How is history used and misused in political debates? What evidence can history contribute to decision making? How can we make history relevant to contemporary societal debates? We will predominantly look into historical developments and events that took place during the twentieth and early twenty-first century.
This course does not focus on a predetermined set of historical developments or events. Students will have a lot of freedom to select events or developments related to international relations and organisations to work on for their assignments. More important than the topics as such is that they promise to be relevant to a contemporary issue. This relevance can be established in different ways, of which the analogical reasoning and the construction of histories that explain how a contemporary situation emerged are the ones most widely applied. For the final assignment, the students adopt a practice-oriented perspective and write a decision memo.
Course objectives
After completing this course, students can:
distinguish between history as ‘the past’ and history as ‘an approach’
recognise and critique the ways in which history is invoked in political debates and decision making
work with primary and secondary sources to develop an analysis of past developments or events
think historically
develop analogies and issue histories to connect past and present
develop well-argued recommendations or reflections rooted in history related to current debates and present them in a way suitable for a non-academic audience
Mode of instruction
Seminars will take twice a week.
Attendance at the seminars is expected as a participation grade is part of the course.
Assessment method
The final grade for this course is composed as follows:
Assignment 1: Going to the sources (individual paper): 15%
Assignment 2: Book review (individual paper): 20%
Assignment 3: History for the present (group paper): 30%
Assignment 4: Decision memo (individual paper): 25%
Participation: 10%
If the final grade is below 5,5, a student will be offered an individual retake consisting of the submission of an extensive 5,000 word paper that combines aspects of all four written assignments.
Reading list
We will use a combination of journal articles and (chapters from) books, but you do not need to buy a book for this course. A detailed reading list, including instructions on how to acquire the texts, will be included in the syllabus.
Registration
See 'Practical Information'
Timetable
See 'MyTimetable'.
Contact
Please feel free to contact the lecturer if you have any questions about this course at:
a.a.h.e.van.reuler@fsw.leidenuniv.nl