Admission requirements
This course is part of the (Res)MA History Programme. It is not accessible for BA students.
Description
This course will look at different cases in which (young) people decide to join the fight for a better society, at least from their own perspective, elsewhere. We will try to find out what their motives and social background were, how they were mobilized and how the decision to join actions influenced their life course. We will concentrate on people voluntarily joined armed battles abroad, ranging from Catholic ‘Zouaves’ from various European countries who fought for the Pope in the 1860s, volunteers during the The Paris Commune (1870-71), those who joined the army of the South-African Boers around 1900, communists and anarchists who became involved in the Spanish Civil War, men who joined the ranks of the Waffen-SS to fight Bolsjevism, and more recently IS fighters from Europe, Northerern Africa and Asia who hoped to build a Caliphate in the Middle East.
For this course we will use the vast archives of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam and part of the classes will taught there.
For an introduction to the course the students are advised to read: Arielli, N. (2017). From Byron to bin Laden. A History of Foreign War Volunteers. Cambridge Mass., Harvard University Press.
Course objectives
General learning objectives
The student has acquired:
1) The ability to independently identify and select literature, using traditional and modern techniques;
2) The ability to independently identify and select sources, using traditional and modern techniques;
3) The ability to analyse and evaluate a corpus of sources with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
4) The ability to analyse and evaluate literature with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
5) 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;
6) The ability to independently set up and carry out an original research project that can make a contribution to existing scholarly debates;
7) 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;
8) The ability to participate in current debates in the specialisation;
9) The ability to provide constructive feedback to and formulate criticism of the work of others and the ability to evaluate the value of such criticism and feedback on one’s own work and incorporate it;
10) (ResMA only:) The ability to participate in a discussion of the theoretical foundations of the discipline.
Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation
11) 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);
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;
Timetable
The timetable is available on the MA History website
Mode of instruction
- Seminar (compulsory attendance)
This means that students have to attend every session of the course. If a student is not able to attend, he is required to notify the teacher beforehand. The teacher will determine if and how the missed session can be compensated by an additional assignment. If specific restrictions apply to a particular course, the teacher will notify the students at the beginning of the semester. If a student does not comply with the aforementioned requirements, he will be excluded from the seminar.
Course Load
Total course load 10 EC x 28 hours = 280 hours
Total course load 10 EC x 28 hours = 280 hours
Lectures: (12 x2) 24
Practical work: 140
Study of compulsory literature: 16
Exam(s): (endpaper) : 100
Assessment method
Assessment
- Written paper (6500-7500 words, based on research in primary sources, excluding title page, table of contents, footnotes and bibliography)
Weighing
Written paper: 80 %
Oral presentation: 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..
Deadlines
15 December 2018
Resit
Should the overall mark be unsatisfactory, the paper is to be revised after consultation with the instructor.
Exam review
How and when a review of the written paper will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the results, a review of the written paper will have to be organised.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used for:
publication course outline
communication of deadlines
Reading list
Arielli, N. (2017). From Byron to bin Laden. A History of Foreign War Volunteers. Cambridge Mass., Harvard University Press.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available.
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable