HIS-30111: Water Histories. A Cultural History of Water, I

School of Humanities

HIS-30111

Water Histories. A Cultural History of Water, I

Co-ordinator:

Dr Philip Morgan Room: CBB0.048, Tel:33204

Teaching Team:

Miss Amanda Roberts, Mrs Christine Edge, Miss Jo-Anne Watts

Lecture Time:

See Timetable...

Level:

3

Credits:

15

150

School Office:

Tel: 01782 733147

Programme/Approved Electives for

History Dual Honours (Level 3)
History Major (Level 3)
History Minor (Level 3)

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Barred Combinations

None

None

Description

$ùWater is a common good .. belonging to all. Yet, from privatization in Britain to the displacement of millions through dam-building in the developing world, it has been appropriated as a commodity by the powerful.&© This new special subject will consider the long history which underpins this contemporary observation on a resource more important than oil. We will thus consider changing attitudes to the use of water, fresh rather than salt, from the ancient world to the present day. The approach will be thematic and will include ritual and religious uses in the middle ages, the social contexts of bathing, the sanitation revolution of the nineteenth century, attitudes to water in nature, and modern water wars. The approach will be multi-disciplinary and students will be encouraged to look for connections with their other principal and subsidiary subject areas.

Water provides an appropriate area in which to examine, compare and contrast a range of disparate issues including, for example, baptism and cleansing in religious rituals, the impact of religious reform on water as a healing agent, the range of attitudes to cleanliness and bathing, the medicalisation of water from holy wells to spa resorts to sports medicine, the connection of water and disease, the Romantic appreciation of water in the landscape, disputes over water and modern water law, the manipulation of water as a demonstration of political power.

The module will introduce students to humanity&©s use of, attitudes towards and explanation of water, the essential material resource.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Recognise and explain the changing uses of, attitudes towards and readings of water in European and non-European cultures over the longue durée. will be achieved by assessments: 1,2
Evaluate and critically assess a range of different kinds of primary sources and to use them appropriately in the development of historical analysis. will be achieved by assessments: 1,2
Evaluate and critically assess secondary sources and historiographical debates, and to use them appropriately in the development of historical analysis. will be achieved by assessments: 1,2

150 hours: 10 x two-hour seminars, 50 hours seminar preparation, 30 hours extended document commentary preparation, 50 hours preparation for unseen examination.

Description of Module Assessment

01: Commentary weighted 40%

Extended 1700-word commentary on a choice of gobbets supplied by the tutor.
An extended commentary on ONE gobbet (or document extract) from a choice of EIGHT.

02: Unseen Exam weighted 60%

Unseen essay questions
Students will sit a TWO-HOUR unseen examination and answer TWO questions from a list of EIGHT

Version: (1.06B) Updated: 03/Oct/2013

This document is the definitive current source of information about this module and supersedes any other information.