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HIS-30141 - Module Specification
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Business, Law, Humanities & Social Sciences

For academic year: 2026/27 Last Updated: 16 September 2026

HIS-30141 - The contested city: a spatial history of Rome, 1870-1978
Coordinator: Aristotle Kallis Tel: +44 1782 7 34145
Lecture Time:
Level: Level 6
Credits: 15
Study Hours: 150
School Office:

Programme/Approved Electives for 2026/27

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2026/27

In 1870, Rome was a papal city of 250,000, only just beginning to look modern. A century later it had grown tenfold — transformed by unification, fascism, war, the ‘economic miracle’, and bitter social struggle. This module takes you through that turbulent century, exploring how power, faith, class, and memory left their mark on the city's streets, buildings, and people. Working with maps, photographs, and eyewitness accounts, and using digital mapping tools, you will learn to read the city itself as a historical source.

Aims
The module aims to acquaint students with the tumultuous history of Rome during the approximately hundred years between the annexation of the city by the recently unified Italian Kingdom (1870) and the violent political conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s. The module will examine how historical change was inscribed on the landscape and cityscape of the city, drawing on approaches that highlight the role of power, ideology, religion, class, and urban transformation.

Talis Aspire Reading List
Any reading lists will be provided by the start of the course.
http://lists.lib.keele.ac.uk/modules/his-30141/lists

Intended Learning Outcomes

apply relevant concepts and theoretical approaches to the critical analysis of modern urban and spatial history: 1,2
critically analyse and synthesise diverse primary sources (including textual, visual, cartographic and quantitative evidence) and relevant trans-disciplinary historiography: 1,2
analyse and explain how political, social, economic, religious and cultural change transformed Rome’s urban landscape and the lives of its inhabitants between 1870 and the 1970s/1980s.: 1
critically evaluate how urban spaces are produced, contested and remembered through relations of power, ideology, class and religion: 1,2
create a digitally curated, evidence-based historical interpretation for an identified audience, and explain and defend its argument and curatorial decisions in oral discussion: 1

Study hours

20 hrs seminars
4 hrs workshops
48 hrs seminar preparation
58 hrs researching and producing the digital exhibition
10 hrs viva preparation
10 hrs curatorial pitch preparation

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment

1: Project weighted 80%
Individual Digital Exhibition
Students will produce an individual digital exhibition examining an aspect of Rome’s modern urban history. Using three or four locations, objects or primary sources, it will construct a coherent historical interpretation through a curator’s introduction, interpretative labels and appropriate visual, cartographic or textual evidence. The complete written content will not exceed 2,000 words. Following submission, each student will undertake an individual 10-minute oral examination (viva) based on the exhibition. Students will explain its central argument and curatorial rationale and answer questions about their selection, interpretation and organisation of evidence. The oral examination will normally take place online, be recorded for moderation, and be subject to reasonable adjustments and technical-contingency arrangements. The exhibition contributes 60% and the oral examination 20% to the module mark.

2: Poster weighted 20%
Individual curatorial prototype
Students will produce an individual digital poster proposing an exhibition on an aspect of Rome’s modern urban history. The curatorial poster will identify the proposed historical question, argument, conceptual approach and intended audience. It will outline the proposed selection of evidence and use one focal example to demonstrate how a location, object or primary source will be interpreted within the exhibition. The poster will be a digital/multimedia submission of no more than 500 words or equivalent, excluding references and concise captions. Students may revise and develop the proposal when completing the final exhibition.

The University undertakes a continuous review of its teaching and research provision to ensure programmes are of a high quality and changes may be made to modules where it is necessary and reasonable to do so. Please be aware that minor changes to modules, such as a change to an individual assessment, can occur up until enrolment, although we endeavour to give you as much notice as possible of any changes. Details about the circumstance in which changes are made to programmes can be found in the Student Agreement, available at: https://www.keele.ac.uk/legalgovernancecompliance/governance/actcharterstatutesordinancesandregulations/studenttermsconditions/

Last Updated: 16 September 2026