Research Skills for Historians

• Credit value: 0 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Dr Carmen Mangion
• Assessment: a 500-word dissertation proposal (100%)

This module is designed to give you the necessary research and bibliographic skills to undertake and complete the MA dissertation.

You will be taught how to compile a bibliography, define your research area, use sources (archival or non-archival, published and/or online) relevant to your research area and craft a proposal for a viable dissertation topic.

Indicative syllabus

• Planning your dissertation
• Selecting a dissertation topic
• Digital history
• Practices of note-taking, reading, researching
• Introduction to archives
• Accessible primary texts
• Visual and material culture
• Research methods
• Oral history
• Discussion of dissertation proposals

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• extend your analytical, evaluative, critical and reflective capacities by identifying, evaluating and critiquing existing scholarship in the field
• demonstrate a general understanding of the appropriate methodologies and techniques for study in your field
• demonstrate a broad and systematic knowledge for planning your dissertation.