HI5059 - People’s Histories: Independent Research Project

For this module you are developing and researching your own, individually-designed essay project. Teaching will be through a mixture of lectures, group workshops and individual, one-to-one supervisions with the module tutor.

Lectures will introduce key individuals associated with each of the five themes, giving indicative examples of how different kinds of source material shed light on the way individuals engaged with the themes of environmental change; struggles for racial or gender equality; war and peace; global connections; or media and culture. Lectures also provide background guidance and historiographical context for how you might study individuals in history with critical depth, considering scholarly approaches to historical biography, life-writing, micro-history, and histories involving the historian’s own family.

Workshops will provide training in project management; and the challenges of using different primary source, including online databases, oral history collections, local archives, newspapers, diaries, autobiographies or memoirs. They will further develop the writing skills you need to complete your project successfully. They provide an opportunity to share work-in-progress with your peers, to learn from other students' projects, and to provide each other with feedback.

Your tutor will guide you in your research: tutor-guided independent learning will be carefully structured, taking you step by step through texts that ask how we can study individuals from history with critical maturity. Your own independent learning time will be focused on your own research as you advance your study of your chosen individual

Tutors will comment on your written work in one-to-one sessions.

Your main support will come from the module tutor. They will help you to develop a research proposal, to find research material in relation to your topic, to develop your research, to build a bibliography, and will discuss the development of your writing. You will also have the support network of other students doing history projects. You will receive feedback on your ideas expressed in a presentation and feedback on this will feed forward to help you write your essay.

There is also university support for IT issues, welfare and wellbeing, and study skills.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. You will demonstrate detailed knowledge of your chosen project topic and an awareness of critical developments in the field.
Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
2. You will be able to devise, plan and manage a research project.
3. You will have the ability to identify relevant primary and secondary materials from electronic, print and other relevant sources and to deploy this evidence to support a compelling argument

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
4. You will be able to work independently on a piece of work that reflects your scholarly interests, demonstrating determination through self-motivation.
5. You will embrace self-critical awareness and feedback from others as you monitor your own progress.

5-minute Project Pitch (15%) presented as part of a ‘research conversation’ in week 6. In this presentation you will provide an overview of your central question, its significance, and the research you will undertake to answer it. You will not have done your research at this stage - the project pitch is about setting out clearly what you intend to do, why you have chosen the topic and how you are going to research it. Feedback will be a brief written report. MLO 2-5.


4,500-word Main Project Essay (85%) due in the final assessment period. This is where you will present the results of your research, critical reading and analysis, in response to the specific essay question you have agreed with the module tutor. Written feedback will be given both on the script and as a short report. MLO 1-5.

NOTE: you may not reproduce any work from this research project in your final-year dissertation, and are advised to choose a completely new topic when the time comes to start planning the dissertation.

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‘People’s Histories’ invites you to create your own unique project, focusing on an individual who connects to one of the core themes in our History programme: Environmental Change; Global Connections; Struggles for Race and Gender Equality; War and Conflict; and Media and Culture.

We will introduce you to a range of potential individuals who provide insight into these vital themes, and you will then have the opportunity to choose your own person to study. In collaborative workshops, we will help you frame questions to guide your research, give you confidence in structuring your work, and train you in using sources about individuals in history. You’ll learn about project management and how to pitch your project to an audience. The long essay which is the heart of the project will help you develop your independent research skills and give you space to shape your interests and enthusiasms in depth.